Leeks with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette
Break out of the green-beans-as-default-side-dish rut with this quickly prepared, impressive French dish.
Servings 2 to 3 (can be expanded—see Kitchen Notes)
Ingredients
- 3 leeks
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (or vegetable stock—see Kitchen Notes)
- 1/2 cup water
- 1-1/2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Prepare leeks. Trim roots if overly long, but leave enough to keep bases intact. Slice off most of the green tops. Slice leeks in half lengthwise. Rinse under running water, gently fanning layers to wash out any trapped grit. Leeks like to grow in sandy soil, so you need to clean them carefully.
- Heat a sauté or frying pan large enough to hold leeks in a single layer over a medium flame. Add oil and butter and swirl together. Arrange leeks in pan, cut side down, and sauté, turning occasionally with tongs and spatula, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Handle leeks gently when turning to keep as intact as possible.
- Add stock, water and 1 tablespoon parsley to pan. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat and cover pan, cooking leeks until tender, about 10 minutes. Arrange leeks on a serving platter, cut side up.
- Make the vinaigrette, adding lemon juice and mustard to pan, whisking to combine. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper [use a light hand with the salt and taste before seasoning—your stock will provide some salt]. Pour vinaigrette over leeks and sprinkle with remaining parsley. Serve immediately.
Kitchen Notes
Increasing servings. Two leek halves is a decent serving as a side. You can easily add a fourth leek to this recipe to serve four without upping the other ingredients, as long as they’ll all fit in one pan. If you get beyond the capacity of a single pan, you’ll obviously need to increase other ingredients accordingly.
Stock answers. First, the original recipe called for no water, just chicken stock. I feared it would taste like chicken leek soup, so I thinned the stock by mixing equal parts stock and water. If you want to make a vegetarian version of this, substitute a vegetable stock you’re happy with for the chicken stock.
And finally, this is a knife and fork dish. While delicate in flavor, leeks take more than the side of a fork to cut into bites and eat gracefully.