Turkish Leeks in Olive Oil

Submitted by Mercy

"From "The Complete Book of Turkish Cooking". The author suggests serving this dish cold with lemon juice."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 8
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 2 lbs leeks
• 1⁄3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 small carrots, halved and sliced
• 2 tablespoons uncooked rice
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons sugar
• 3⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 lemon, juice of
• 1 1⁄2 cups water

directions

1. Trim leeks and remove a few of the outer layers.
2. Slice 3/4" thick, discard tough green leaves.
3. Wash leeks well in several changes of water.
4. In a heavy skillet, heat olive oil.
5. Stir in leeks and carrots.
6. Cover and cook very gently (low heat) for 30 minutes, shaking the skillet occasionally.
7. Blend in the remaining ingredients in order.
8. Cover and simmer for another 30 minutes, checking the liquid and adding more water, if necessary.
9. When fully cooked, it should be very moist but not watery.

Reviews

[ChefMissy]

MUCH better cold, so be sure to allow time for chilling before serving. I lived in Istanbul for a year and ate this regularly - the taste of this recipe is authentic.

 

[mctoft]

My boyfriend went crazy over these.

 

[Leah in Bologna]

Really tasty! I like the flavor combination and its a very different way to prepare leeks. A great vegetarian dish.

 

[Dinu9582]

very tasty.. my suggestion would be adding in some more sugar. i substituted olive oil with sunflower oil because it is lighter and put a tablespoon of sugar (and another tsp (or 1 1/2) of salt to balance it) as i like it sweeter, a nice contrast with sour lemon.

 

[Sackville]

I haven't tried this cold yet, but we really enjoyed it as a warm side to a roast! The finaly result was good, although I didn't add nearly as much water as called for and if I had I would have had to cook it a lot longer. I only added about 1/3 cup water and it was still very moist at the end of cooking. I would recommend squeezing a bit of lemon juice over just before serving if you are going to use this as a type of mezze as you can't really taste the lemon juice once it's been cooked.