The Best Meal You Can Make With Leeks

Expert comment provided by Stuart Gillies, chef-owner for Number Eight, Sevenoaks and Bank House, Chislehurst, and Zoe Gill, development chef at Brakes Foodservices.

The other day, while I was eating okonimiyaki, I thought, “This is probably the best meal you can make with a head of cabbage”.

Which made me wonder – what about other ingredients?

So, this week, we asked chefs Stuart Gillies, chef-owner for Number Eight, Sevenoaks and Bank House, Chislehurst, and Zoe Gill, development chef at Brakes Foodservices, for the best meal they can think of with this week’s pick: leeks.

Leeks are in season this month, so to enjoy them at the peak of their flavour, Gillies doesn’t mess around too much with the ingredient.

″’At home we love a French family classic; poached leeks, wrapped in thin smoked cooked ham slices, laid in a gratin dish and topped with cheese sauce, grated cheddar and baked in the oven,” he explained.

Sometimes called poireaux au gratin, the recipe is a favourite of chef Anthony Bar, too.

As Gillies explained, it’s “Super easy for anyone to make and incredibly satisfying.”

“Leeks are a brilliant ingredient for a risotto because they can melt easily into the arborio rice, offering a delicate, subtle flavour that doesn’t overpower the dish,” the chef told HuffPost UK.

Those who’ve tried the combination seem to agree: a BBC Good Food recipe has earned nothing but five-star reviews.

And because it complements “the likes of peas, asparagus, as well as courgette, red pepper and aubergine,” the cook loveds to make it in a “Mediterranean-vegetable risotto, topped with a light fish, such as monkfish.”

She added, “The meaty texture holds up against the creaminess of rice and offers a great source of protein”.