There are several ways to cook leeks, including baking and boiling, but they often taste best once sautéed or lightly fried. Here’s how to do it:
1. Clean Your Leeks: Begin by preparing your leeks by washing off any mud that may still be attached. Although the outside of leeks may look clean, dirt can get trapped in between the leaves that make up the stem. Run the leeks under the tap and allow them to dry out, or soak your leeks in clean water for a few minutes and pat them down with a kitchen towel so you can move on to the next stage without them being too slippery.
2. Chop Your Leeks: When you know how to cut a leek properly, you will realise you can either slice them lengthways or form circles by cutting at regular intervals along their length. As long as you remove the bottom section where the roots form, either way is fine. Note that leeks are less dense toward their upper end, so they can fall apart after chopping the greener sections. This is quite normal, so increase the width of your cuts as you work from the bottom to the top so that each section of leek is about the same size.
3. Heat Some Oil in a Pan: To boil leeks, add them to a simmering pan for ten minutes, but to sautee them instead, add some oil or butter to a frying pan and allow it to heat up. Next, carefully add the leeks. If they’re still wet, you may get some sizzling, so place them in gently using tongs. Reduce the heat and move the leeks around in the pan so that they fry on all sides.
4. Sautee Your Leeks: Your leeks will smell sweeter and turn slightly golden after a few minutes. Keep moving them in the pan for about five minutes until they’re cooked through.
5. Serve Your Leeks: You can now take your leeks out of the pan and place them directly onto plates for serving or, alternatively, put them into a serving dish to place at your table. If you’ve been preparing leeks for another recipe that uses them, such as leek and potato soup, for example, you can allow your leeks to cool and store them in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 24 hours.
