Party In My Tummy: Cleaning Leeks

I didn’t buy leeks to show you firsthand how I clean them, so these pictures are not my own, since there are leek cleaning tutorials all over the interwebs.  Why didn’t I buy leeks?  Because with a pound of scallions and more garlic scapes than I know what to do with, it didn’t feel right to buy more veggies when I should be using the ones I have at home!

 

On to the tutorial.

Everyone says you should only use the white and light green parts of the leek.  I’ll give you a tip on that later. For now, cut off the white and light green parts of the leek, cut off the root, then cut the segment in half lengthwise.  A tip here.  When you look at the segment, you’ll see the rings are not exactly round; they are oblong in shape.  You want to cut down the long side of the oblong ring.  This will make it easier to rifle through the layers to clean them out.

 

via Maureen Abood

 

Then just rinse each half under running water to get the grit out from between the layers.

 

via The Kitchn

That’s it!  You now have a segment of leek that you can chop up for stock, or keep it whole for a bouquet garni.

But what about the rest of the leek?  Just compost it?  Leek is good stuff, and fairly expensive at the supermarket.  It seems a bit wasteful to spend $4 or $5 on a bunch of leeks, only to use the last 4 inches or so.

What I do is to cut the outer dark green layers off to get to the tender layers inside.  I make a light cut to take off one dark green layer at a time, slowly moving up the leek, to create a sort of tiered look, as you can see in the far right of this photo below.

 

via Clean and Delicious

 

By the time you get to the top of the leek, you’re using only the very center of the leek, but this way, you get way more out of the leek than if you just threw out the entire top.

 

Happy cooking!  Remember, we have a link party next week to show off anything you’ve made, as well as general summer-y crafts and recipes and activities you want to share.  I’ve teamed up with some awesome bloggers and we’ll all be partying together, so I hope you join us!  There will be a giveaway too!