Everyone has their own cutting techniques for vegetables, but not all of them are done in a professional way especially when you prepare them for making any recipes. Undoubtedly, the leek is an excellent and tasty vegetable. Many of us love to cook leeks recipes but struggles to cut and clean leeks. If you are looking for the easiest and professional step by step guide to how to clean and cut a leek, this article will give you an in-depth idea of this.
The method I am going to describe here is easy, simple, and useful.
Why Is Cleaning Leek Challenging?
When someone is thinking of making leek recipes, One of the main things that people do wrong after cutting the leek is doing the cleaning in the wrong way. Leek has dirt in its root, especially when it harvests from the field. Most of the dirt gets caught between the layers of leaves and the base. So, make sure you washed it appropriately.
6 Easy Steps To Cut A Leek: How To Clean And Cut A Leek
The cutting hacks I will discuss how to clean and cut a leek here, which will solve the issue regarding leek preparation. All we need is just a sharp knife and a cutting board.
1. Initial Wash:
The first thing we need to do is take fresh leeks for cooking cause fresh leeks to ensure maximum nutrition. To get rid of visible dirt it needs cleaning with cool water.
2. Cat Off The Root And Top Greens:
After the initial washing, cut the root and top leaf part. Place the entire leek lengthwise on your cutting surface and hold it in the center area so that it does not move. Now take a sharp knife and cut off the root and the green leaves opposite of the stalk. Now, all we have is the white stalk where you can see a yellow layer inside that.
Most of the time the leek leaves are sliced off because that is the least used part of it and the leaves are tough. so if you have no plan to make any dish with that, then discard it.
3. Cutting Stalks In Half Lengthwise:
Cut the stalk lengthwise in half so you will finally get 2 usually divided leeks or halves cut side.
4. Slice Both Leek Halves In Half:
Take the leek halves and lay them on their flat side. now use your sharp knife to divide them lengthwise so now you get 4 slices. if your dish requires half moons then you can ignore this step. For half-moons cut each leek halve across the width into 1/8 inch or even smaller based on your need.
5. Copping The Quarters Into Tiny Prices:
It’s now time to chop the 4 slices and at the end, you will get tiny chopped leek pieces.
6. Final Cleaning And Rinse:
Now separate all the small chopped pieces with your finger and wash them in the cool running water or sink them in a bowl of clean water for 15 minutes. After soaking rinse the water and dry it up by wrapping them with a paper towel. It’s now all ready to use for your favorite dish.
Cutting Leeks For Soup
It would be best to have small pieces when you prep leek for making soups or stews. Basically, the cutting depends on what your recipe calls. If you followed the previous three steps successfully, then you finally got two halves. Please take one of them, cut those leeks into rings. Now, do the same for the second one. In the end, you will get one bucket of chopped leeks. Please give it a final wash before you use it in your dish to remove any remaining mud particles from there.
How To Store Leek?
Freezing leeks are more or less the same as other vegetables. I will highly recommend storing fresh leek in the crisper drawer in your refrigerator at an average temperature. You can also wrap them inside a plastic bag; it will help them to keep the moisture level. If you follow the mentioned process, you can store it up to 1-week max. I will not suggest storing leek after all, cutting and processing because it will lose its moisture and taste. I also found that storing processed or chopped leek starts getting black spots after 2-3 days of freezing and makes it super dry.
Leek Nutrition
Depending on the level of freshness, It is A good source of nutrients. It contains vitamin A, B6, C, E, and you will also get fat, carbohydrate, fiber, and sugar.
Cooking With Leek
Anyone who loves this vegetable already knows how versatile it is. There are so many ways to cook leeks, one of them is Potato-leek soup. Also, Cutting it into small pieces and frying them within a tiny amount of oil makes it crisps, and one can use it with fish, pasta, or soups where a little sweet flavor and crunch are needed.
Or if you are thinking of using whole leek halves, use it with chicken broth with some olive oil and cook until tender. You can use this as a perfect side dish.
What To Do With Leek Leaves?
As leek belongs to the allium family (onion family) so it has so many similarities with other members of this family like green onions, garlic, etc. Also, it got a mild flavor. A leek has mainly 3 sections like the tough green part, the bottom root, and finally the middle white stalk. When you are cutting the leeks, you remove the green leaf. Now you might be thinking about what to do with that. You can use the green color dark top for making stocks.
Final Note
No matter it’s about cooking or any other task, techniques make that more comfortable and save a lot of time. The methods I mentioned above are super simple, and anyone can follow that. Additionally, all the other leek cooking hacks I described throughout the article will surely help you to clean and cut leeks and give you cooking ideas. I believe you will try this and let me know how your experience was with leeks processing.
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