Serious Eats
- Sweet Potato Leek Soup
- Polenta with a Leek and Mushroom Ragu
- Leek Fritters (because we love fritters!)

Closet Cooking
- Mushroom and Leek Wild Rice Salad
- Wild Leek Pesto Pasta
- Fiddlehead and Leek Tart covered in melted Gruyere (mmmh)

Our Kitchen
- Leeks Vinaigrette and Roasted Potatoes with Herb Oil

Dana Treat
- Pizza with Silky Leeks, Smoked Mozzarella and Eggs

Delicious Days
- Risotto with Leeks and Winter Squash

Smitten Kitchen
- Leek and Mushroom Quiche
- Leek Bread Pudding

Food 52
- Leek, Lemon and Feta Quiche 
- Leek Tart with Ricotta and Pea Purree 
- Layered Mushroom and Leek Paté

You might have guessed it from the heading and the photo: this post will be about leeks. In fact the whole week probably will be, because I just did the glorious thing and bought 3 KILOS of Leeks!

You’re probably wondering why I would do such a thing, it’s not exactly something that you’d buy in bulk because neither is it something that is in everything anyway nor does it keep well.

But, there is a reason. I’m in France. They love leeks. They put it on offer in the supermarket. So when I saw it today, I figured, why not take the Leek Challenge: Buy the full 3kg and use all of it in an as many different ways as possible. I’m not sure how it’ll work out, because it’s so much leek, I can’t even fit it into the fridge, and I’m yet to figure out how to store it.

So far I’ve had four ideas, which I’ll make and see if they’re actually nice, if they are, I’ll post the recipes during the next week, if they’re not, I’ll probably tell you about my sad, disappointing dinners anyway, just without any depressing photos.

Do you have any nice recipes for leeks?

SAVOURY

1. I’ve recently discovered my unconditional love for sweet potatos, so: Sweet Potato Gratin

2. I’m also a big fan of butternut squash: Butternut Squash Stew (should probably make the most of winter vegetables)

3. Peas. Of course we can’t not talk peas, when we’re talking about vegetables that I like. Here’s an amazing sounding recipe for Green Pea Pesto Ravioli (they’re sooo pretty too!)

4. This one reminds me a tiny bit of these Huevos Rancheros of closetcooking. The only thing in common being salsa and egg, but surely kidney beans and avocado could only make these waffles even better? Savoury Cornmeal and Chives Waffles with Salsa and Eggs 

Yo. It’s monday (have you noticed?). So I thought you might feel like something indulgent (I’m still working on posting healthier things, promise). This won’t come as much of a surprise, but something Joy(theBaker) made, made me think of this. It’s quite similar, but still a little bit different, so here it is:

RECIPE: Chocolate-Chip and Baileys Pancakes with Raspberry Creaminess

1) To make the pancake batter, mix 1 cup of flour, 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and a tiny bit of salt
2) In a separate bowl, whisk together 1/2 a cup of buttermilk (or milk, whatever’s in your fridge, yoghurt would probably work too), 1/2 a cup of Baileys and 1 egg. Also add some vanilla extract, if you fancy it.
3) Combine dry and wet ingredients
4) Mix in some milk chocolate chips/chopped milk chocolate
5) I’m guessing you know how to make pancakes, so get your frying pan out, melt some butter and start making pancakes.
6) For the dip: Mix chopped frozen raspberries, some yoghurt (or „curd cheese creme“), sugar and some honey
EAT

As for upcoming posts, you might not believe me (I don’t blame you) but there are some that are not just recreating/making something fairly similar to whatever Joy makes, it’s just hard not to, because everything she posts looks so delicious, and then they actually taste too good to not share them. But just so you believe me: There’ll be a nice recipe for a vegetable thai green curry soon. Promise. 

2. I believe this is a German kind of cake, it’s absolutely delicious and you should all try it: Baumkuchen

SAVOURY

1. These Quinoa Cakes look a lot crispier, than the ones, I made a while ago: Quinoa Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper

2. This definitely looks interesting: Wild Mushroom Vodka Soup 

3. This looks so delightful, and elegant, and mysterious and mmmmmh: Black Sesame Tart with Mushrooms and Feta 

4. As we established last week, I LOVE a fritter, so this is definitely a recipe to be tried: Aubergine, Buffalo Mozzarella and Mint Fritters 

5. And last but not least: because Haloumi can be so delicious: Haloumi, Rocket and Pomegranate Salad

Blueberry-Stracciatella Cheesecake with Cashew Nuts

1) Use a food processor or pestle and mortar to grind a generous handful of cashew nuts and about 1 package of chocolate covered digestives
2) Mix this with a couple of tablespoons of melted butter
3) Grease a springform tin and then use your fingers to push the mixture onto the bottom of the tin. Put the tin in the freezer, whilst you get on with the rest.
4) Mix together 3 packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese, some sugar (depending on how sweet you like it), some melted dark chocolate,  a handful of crushed up blueberries and vanilla extract.
5) Fold in about 250-300ml of whipped cream
6) Pour over the cooled base, decorate with some grated chocolate and/or berries and let it set in the fridge. 

2) Mix in 1 tin of sweetcorn into the egg yolks along with some salt, approximately 3 tablespoons of flour,  a sip of milk, chopped coriander, chopped chili and some pepper.

3) Fold in the frothy egg whites

4) Heat up some vegetable/sunflower oil and when hot, fry spoonfuls of the sweetcorn mix.

2. Always up for a cheeky cheesecake. Again especially when it involves caramel: Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars

3. Fleur de Sel can be more than interesting as well! Dark Chocolate Shortbread with Fleur de Sel

SAVOURY

1. Since it’s the new year, and we’re all trying to shift that weight we gained from the christmas holidays… Why not do it in such a delicious way: All Green Grilled Zucchini Tacos

2. Staying on the healthy track: Spinach, Feta and Blood Orange Salad

3. Pretty standard: Black Bean and Quinoa Burger

4. I love the idea of having little salsas and dips around to make every dish this little bit more interesting. This shall be one of them in the near future: Spicy Lemon Date Spread

5. Not so healthy but HELLOOOOO! Olive and Goat Cheese Turnovers (I’d probably replace goat cheese with feta cheese though)

6. These just look too pretty and delightful to be a thing. But I think they might be. Bite-sized baked brie

But since I already got talking about quorn and it’s other meatless friends, I thought I could also share my favourite products (in the UK that is… I really struggle to find any in Germany and/or especially in France). As I said before, I don’t really use them to replace meat in what I cook, but I think it’s nice to have some of them in the freezer, especially when you’re going somewhere, because others often want to get you something that replaces the meat, but don’t know what. So here’s which products I would definitely recommend:

1) Chicken Fillets from Quorn. I think they taste really nice and they are easy to handle. They are also what’s used in this recipe. I’ve just been on their website for the first time, and there’s many recipes for their products (who would have guessed hej?), so I think it’s worth having a look!

2) Anything from Linda McCartney really! Everything I’ve tried, has been absolutely delicious and it’s by a long short the best meat replacing stuff I’ve come across. I particulary like (well I haven’t tried more… otherwise I’m sure this list would be endless!):
- Burgers (nice for a fuzz-free BBQing, especially if you can’t see vegetable anymore and really can’t be bothered to marinate even more feta!)
- Country Pies (for when the others are having a Roast sort of meal)
- Sausages (my beloved aunt would actually not believe these aren’t meat, when she was served them at a B&B).
But now that I browsed through the website, I decided I will definitely also try the following:
- Cranberry and Camembert Burgers
- Farmhouse Pies
- Mini Snack Sausages
- Mozzarella Burgers
- Red Onion and Rosemary Burgers
Yep that’s right, pretty much the whole range! Btw you should definitely at least click some of the links, because they have pretty photos of the foods on the website.
Linda McCartney also has a campaign called Meatless Monday, which, if you haven’t been able to figure out from the name, encourages people to leave out meat at least once a week, which I think is a wonderful idea.

Anyway I think I’ve talked enough, haven’t I? Here’s the recipe:

Spicy Spaghetti Napoli with Crispy (Fake) Chicken
 1. Defrost fake chicken in the microwave. For normal people I’d recommend two pieces each, if you’re as greedy as I am though, use three.

2. Prepare three bowls. In the first one you put flour, in the second one you scramble up an egg and in the third one is for breadcrumbs.
3. Put the fake chicken (obviously the meat eaters among you can use actual chicken, but hej let’s all be a bit more vegetarian, shall we?) in the flour first (making sure it’s covered, but shaking off any excess), then egg, then breadcrumbs. Put aside.
4. Caramelize 1 chopped red onion, add in 1 crushed clove of garlic and 1 chopped chili (or less, depending on how strong the chili is).
5. Optional: Add roughly 500g of sliced mushrooms. But if you do this step, take into account that it will take some time for the water of the mushrooms to cook off. This is also the time, where you might want to start pre-heating the oven.
6. Add 1 tin of chopped tomatoes to the pan and any spices you would like to add (salt, pepper, curry powder, sugar whatever you fancy) and thyme.
7. Stir well and let it cook for a little while to get rid of any more excess liquid.
8. In a different frying pan, heat up some olive oil and fry the fake chicken pieces (make sure the oil is hot).
9. Cook Spaghetti according to instructions on the package. Use roughly 100g (dry weight) spaghetti per person.
10. On an oven tray, put the fried fake chicken pieces on some grease proof paper and put some of the tomato-mix on top. Cover with sliced mozzarella and put in the oven until the mozzarella is melted and slightly golden.
11. Mix the spaghetti with any sauce that wasn’t used (if any), and divide amongst the plates. Put 2-3 pieces of fake chicken on top of them and you’re done!