Leeks can you eat the green part

With leeks, the general trend is to use the white part and throw away the green. This green part contains a lot of vitamin C and it can be used in many recipes. You only have to remove a few centimeters of the usually woody upper part from the leaves.

Boiled leaves can be used for sauces, soups or casseroles. Or simply seasoned with oil and spices for a side dish. The taste is strong but the fiber contained within is an excellent remedy to help out your intestinal tract. Among the most delicious possibilities are making strips of the leek leaves and frying them in boiling oil for crispy fries.

Have you seen roulades with ribbon leek? These will often be more tender and you may not have the problem with the green tops being too fibrous.

During the season, try your local farmer's market to look for small or baby leeks. Don't have enough green tops? Get a plastic resealable bag and place the leeks inside until you are ready to cut them.

This is a great idea for stock making. The texture of the leeks doesn't matter anyway, so freezing does no harm. As leeks start going bad the tops are the first to turn bad. Usually starting at the top the leaves may start to brown or dry out. At this point I use as much of the leek that is still looking good and toss the rest.

How to Tell if Asparagus is Bad? How to Tell if Potatoes are Bad? Mostly just the white and light green parts are eaten, though the darker green parts have plenty of flavor and can either be cooked longer to tenderize them, or used when making homemade soup stock.

The challenge when cooking with leeks is that they are almost always dirty. When leeks are grown, soil is piled up around them, so that more of the leek is hidden from the sun, and therefore lighter in color and more tender.

What produces a beautiful leek, a long pale body, also results in sand and dirt being lodged deep inside the leek. There are basically two ways to clean leeks, the method you use depends upon how you are going to use the leeks in cooking.

The easiest way is to prepare them chopped for use in soup. A little more challenging is preparing a leek for use in a recipe that requires whole leeks. Both methods are detailed here. Choose leeks that are about an inch thick, and have a long white to pale green shaft.

The pale parts are the most useable. Before getting started with either method, rinse the leeks under water to remove visible dirt or sand. Decide how much of the leek greens you want to use. They are tougher and can be stronger tasting, but soften with long cooking. The last couple of inches of the dark green ends should probably be discarded or saved for making stock.

I put mine in a plastic bag and drop it in the freezer. Make crosswise cuts along the parts of the leek that you intend to use. Place the chopped leeks into a bowl and fill with cold water. If the leeks are especially dirty, rinse them first in a colander, before covering with water. Use your hands to agitate the leeks and dislodge any dirt or sand that may be clinging to them.

Roughly chop the rest of the leek and put it in a medium saucepan with the onion, potato and stock, season and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Add the milk, then blend the soup until smooth and season to taste. To make the crisp green leek tops, heat a small saucepan with a good glug of oil over a medium-high heat.