This is an introduction post to the produce pick of the week! Throughout the week there will be posts on how to prep it, cook it and give overall opinions.
I’ve gone from greens to these gigantic dinosaur sized green onions. I always just thought of them as just overgrown green onions but apparently you only use a little bit of the leek. “Little bit” may be a poor choice of words because they are massive. They come in bundles of two or three and are currently taking up an entire shelf in my fridge.
The part in between the dark green leaves and the squiggly root ends is the only good part to use apparently. The dark green leaves can be used to make broth though but I don’t believe I am resourceful enough to really utilize that.
I have essentially agreed to eating these huge onions this week but will still be following the same plan of attack as I did for kale. First attempt with them will be in something tasty. Second attempt will be them alone but with seasonings and then I’ll try a bite raw. I don’t believe I will eat an entire one by itself but I could throw it in a salad or something.
I can’t remember a single recipe where it specifically called for leeks instead of any other onion. I absolutely love green onion so I’m hoping this will be a pleasant replacement experience. We tried a different fancy grocery store and I lost the receipt but with tax we spent $12.47 on two bundles. Again, this was the fancy grocery store and they only had organic variety. Leeks at the ordinary store will run a little more than $1.50.
They do give off an onion-y smell and we bought them last night and refrigerated them. When I took them out of their plastic bag there was a definite puddle of dirty water at the bottom of the bag. I imagine cleaning them will be an experience. I’ve heard you have to split them in half and rinse them to get all the grit out from under the tight leaves.
I know leeks aren’t as popular a vegetable as kale. Nobody is putting leeks in their smoothies (to my knowledge) or making fancy chips or even boasting how many leeks they try to fit into their diet. We shall see after this week if leeks can be just as tasty, versatile, and popular as kale. We may, however, need some breath mints.
Try 52 