Vegan Creamy Leek Pasta Recipe (2024)

I boiled the weeks first, the transferred them to the blender with the leek water. Next I fried the julienned leeks and put them aside before adding the leek oil to the blende. Finally I boiled fresh pasta in the remaining leek water. This order worked out very well.

How do you separate the leek greens from the pasta? Could you not just cook them first, then puree and keep warm? Also a bit confused about the instruction to cut lengthwise and crosswise (twice).But will give this recipe a go. Sounds yummy. Jamie Oliver does something similar with cauliflower.

Just made this, it is great. One needs to read through the whole recipe first, of course. The reason we put the leek greens in with the pasta is for flavor. We leave them long is so they are easy to fish out and place in a blender or bowl before we drain the pasta. I always use a stick blender as I have a small Swiss kitchen, but it worked fine with the pasta water, flavored oil and cooked leek greens buzzing into a creamy sauce in seconds!

Simple and great recipe, using almost every part of the leek. The separate treatment of the leek whites and greens (fried vs boiled) is vaguely similar to the Mughlai-Indian recipe style "Do Piaza" ("with onions, 2 ways") where a dish uses onions in two forms. Half are blended with spices and a souring agent like yoghurt/tomato to marinate a main ingredient like meat, paneer or cauliflower. The other half are sliced and fried or roasted until crisp, added as a topping to the cooked dish.

Are frizzled leeks a reserve from the cooked leeks?

Want an even easier, faster, even tastier, richer, way richer version?Simmer the leeks in a pint of heavy cream until it turns into a gorgeous saucy goo. Toss with pasta, then lie back and listen to your arteries snapping shut.Works great with scallions too.

To answer Pam T. The reason you want to cut leeks lengthwise first is that dirt tends to accumulate between the white layers. This way you can thoroughly clean the leeks and then cut cross wise to separate the white part from the green. I agree that there could have been a bit more clarity in the recipe. I think you're right about cooking the pasta and leeks separately, although you could easily pull the leeks out with tongs after draining the water.

You could certainly boil the leek greens first if you don’t think you’ll be able to separate them from the pasta, but then please do wait for the pasta water to make the sauce. It’s the starchy nature of the pasta water that helps make the sauce thick and creamy.

I envision a slightly healthier twist on this. Roast the leek whites in a small amount of olive oil. Then, you can still use the rest of the oil in the finished dish but it won’t have been heated.

I would have fried the leek whites a bit longer, and with a higher temperature, which I will do next time. I also boiled the leek greens first and then put the pasta in the water after removal. That worked fine. My husband wants cheese on anything green, so we grated some parmesan and put it on top. Not too much, or it changes the entire flavor. "When (yes, when) I do this again, I will use shaved pasta instead. My husband went back for seconds.

Step 2: trim the very ends off the leeks (roots and ragged edges). Top 2/3 of leeks (anything green) cut in half lengthwiseStep 5: green parts (top 2/3 of leeks) go in boiling water with the pasta. After cooking, they go in blender and are reduced to sauce.Both commenters are correct — you use the whole of the cleaned leek, and you only trim off a small amount while cleaning.https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bow-ties-with-sausage-and-leek-sauce-recipe-1939094 not vegan but great!

I cooked the leek greens first, then the pasta in the same water. I had about a cup of ricotta cheese in the fridge so I added that along with the leek oil and cooked leeks and used an immersion blender to puree. I tossed some cooked shrimp into the pasta at very last minute. The sauce was silky and the combination of flavors was really lovely. The crispy leeks and lemon zest and juice were the perfect foil to the richness of the sauce. Definitely making this again!

Without seeing his note, I followed the same process as Mike in NC sans the ricotta. I did, however, add a teaspoon of red pepper flakes as well as three garlic cloves, thinly sliced, into the blended sauce and then let the sauce simmer in a saucepan for a few minutes. The result was rich and delicious. A winner! I HIGHLY recommend boiling the leeks separate from the pasta as many others have stated. It would be very time consuming to try and separate the pasta and leeks.

Commenting again now that I cooked this. It was fun to make and I love the premise and wanted to love the finished dish, but... meh. It is just extremely lacking in depth of flavor and any kind of excitement. I might try it again with some tweaks.

this is a staggeringly flavorful recipe for one with so few ingredients! agree that boiling leek greens before (and separate from) the pasta makes things go more smoothly. only additional tweak would be to *chop up* the leek greens before boiling and blending them. I only cut them lengthwise and found that they remained long and stringy in the blender that way. (possibly because I have an old blender though!)

Susie Townsend: I like the way you think! Sometimes more is more, but you are right that sometimes less is more. Simmered heavy cream + leeks (or turmeric, or garlic, or lemongrass) makes such an easy 2-ingredient sauce!

Edible but not particularly tasty.

Honestly, my wife and I thought it was rather flavorless. Not terrible hard to make but also not terribly good either.

Meh. This was a lot of effort and not worth it.

Very good dish and healthy. A little on the bland side but the lemon helps brighten the flavors. May try other reader’s suggestion to add some red pepper flakes.

I added cream to the blended sauce. Reserved extra pasta water. Separating leeks and pasta is not hard if you take the leeks out before the colander. Fried leeks were annoying but added a lot to the flavor. Loved using the whole leek. I will make this again.

Put the pasta into the pot first, then put the leek greens on top. The greens will float and the pasta sinks. It's easy to pick out the greens with tongs. Easy to do but I found the resulting sauce bland (delicate?). It needs a robust accompaniment.

Very, very good. Used 2 leeks and 6oz pasta for two people. Lime instead of lemon - it was a delight. Parmesan an extra decadence although it certainly didn’t need it. I will see this recipe and make it again in the summer with halved cherry tomatoes tossed in. Also chickpeas would be lovely.

Nice recipe - but be careful when frying the leeks - I went a little bit over and they were slightly burnt in places. Still a tasty dish overall but will have to try again to perfect it

The lemon is crucial to rounding out this dish, and also added some red pepper flakes to finish. Great way to use up an enormous leek!

This was ok, but not worth all the steps and effort for just an ok end result. I don't see how you could possibly fit all the leek greens in the pot and have room for the pasta to cook properly, so the tip of doing the greens first and the pasta after in the same water is helpful. I put this into the "I won't make it again but would not turn it down if someone offered it to me" category. I feel the lemon as well as good quality pepper is essential in this dish.

Adding to my previous note: Cooked leek separate from pasta which was a good idea. Some say the dish is bland. With so few ingredients, it's essential to make sure your pasta cooking water is seasoned properly, as well as the sauce. Adding enough lemon zest and juice to open the dish also important. If the above isn't enough add some crushed red pepper (or aleppo, my new fav for mellower flavor) when you saute the leek whites. This dish really needs proper seasoning.

Surprisingly good given the few ingredients. I made this with fresh bucatini from the farmers market which helped keep this dish light (along with the lemon). Was concerned the pasta water wouldn't be starchy enough but it wasn't an issue.I sprinkled some aleppo pepper (my new red pepper substitute, wow is its subtle flavor amazing) on top of finished dish, but in retrospect could have added this to the saute pan with the leek whites as it would have then infused into the oil a bit.

I realize this makes it no vegan but added parmigiano and peanuts to the pesto (since I did not have pinions) really delicious and did not boil them with the pasta cause too complicated. Perhaps boiling them with a potato would give it some of the starchiness missing from the pasta water. Also didn’t add the key oil from the whites cause too complicated added directly to the pesto. Sorry! Fantastic recipe thank you

I've made this many times over the last few months, and have decided that the secret is, as with so many recipes, to make more sauce - more leek, a tad more oil, a full cup of pasta water. Also, it's actually better with smaller pasta like penne or casarecce. So good!