Putting underrated leeks in the spotlight with this miso pasta recipe
This dish is minimal effort - high reward. The only prep is a bit of chopping and then the oven does most of the work. The end result is savoury, creamy with a burst of lemon to lift it up to the next level. Not to mention the satisfying texture of the soft melty leeks.
Ingredients: (serves 4)
Miso Leak Pasta Sauce:
4 leeks
1 veg stock cube
2 tsp miso paste
600mL boiling water
30g salted butter
15g parsley
1 lemon, juiced
20g Grana padano cheese, grated
180g pasta shape of choice
1 tin of cannellini beans
Extra parsley for garnish
Method:
Preheat the oven at 200°C
Clean the leeks making sure to get in-between the layers, slice in half if particularly dirty.
Slice to 1-2 cm thickness and place in a deep oven-proof dish with 20g of butter.
In a jug, mix the miso with the veg stock cube and boiling water until it has dissolved. Then, pour over the leeks and cover the dish with aluminium making sure to seal it up tightly.
Bake for 40 minutes until the leaks have fully softened and the stock reduced by half.
Remove from the oven, take off the aluminium and add 1 can of drained cannellini beans. Put back in the oven for 10 minutes.
In the meantime, cook the pasta according to pack instructions.
Chop the parsley finely and grate the Grana padano.
Remove the leaks from the oven and stir in the parsley, cheese, 10g of butter and the juice of one lemon.
Stir in the pasta with a bit of pasta water and serve with a bit of extra parsley on top. Bon appétit!
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More about this recipe:
Leeks are a great source of folate, vitamin C and fibre. They also contain restorative allium sulphur compounds which have been shown to reduce incidence of cardiovascular diseases, and specific flavonoids shown to reduce risk of some chronic diseases and cancers.
I've combined them with cannellini beans and fermented miso paste to make a nutritious and satisfying pasta dish full of fibre, protein and nutrients.
This recipe is inspired by the miso onions from Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage's book Flavour.
VEGAN TIPS - make this recipe vegan by replacing the cheese with 1 Tbs nutritional yeast and the butter with vegan butter.
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