Cooking With Leeks

A note on cooking with leeks, inspired by a NYT Well post with a list of related Recipes for Health:

I use leeks all the time, as my neighbors are probably too aware. I use leeks sautéed in olive oil as filler, mixed with an egg and flour for a tart, or to season simple pasta, or to flavor and dec­orate roasted potatoes.

How I prepare leeks is this:

First I cut off the base and ragged tips of 3–4 stems, slice the mainly dark-​​green stems lengthwise, and then cut the stalks into 1 — 3 inch sec­tions, depending on what they’ll be used for. Because there’s often dirt from the ground deep in the lower, paler sec­tions of the leeks, I man­ually expose and sep­arate each rounded layer, and then wash every­thing  under briskly-​​running water, thor­oughly rinsing at least three times.

You don’t have to dry the cut, washed leeks. What I do is heat a heavy, wide pan on the stove, add a thin layer of olive oil, and then throw on the damp (or dry) leek pieces. With the flame set low, I toss on about a half tea­spoon of salt for a volume of 3–4 large stalks. Some­times I add fresh ginger, cut into tiny pieces, into the mix.

And then I work on other things in the kitchen – often while lis­tening to NPR or talking to my mom on the phone — while the leeks wilt. If I’m running late, I’ll put a lid on the pan, which makes the leeks soften faster, but that’s not ideal. Every few minutes I stir them around a bit with a wooden spoon or spatula, until they’re soft and, typ­i­cally, shiny with varied shades of green.

You can store cooked leeks in the refrig­erator for a few days, if they’re in a sealed con­tainer. So you might, as I have, use a small amount with pasta on a Monday, and then use the remainder for a goat cheese and leek tart later in the week. There are many vari­a­tions, and I’ve only started using this veg­etable in the past four years or so.

This summer I intend to try making a potato-​​leek soup.

According to Martha Rose Shulman, writing for the Times, leeks are milder than onions but contain sulfur com­pounds present in onions and green garlic that some people find hard to digest. Leeks are a good source of nutrients like lutein and zeax­anthin, carotenoids – thought to be important in vision, calcium, iron, mag­nesium, phos­phorus, potassium and vitamin K. Leeks are fiber-​​rich, I might add.

I should learn more about each of these ele­ments; how they’re best cooked and absorbed. Unfor­tu­nately I’m still searching for the nutrition textbook they never assigned in med school.

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