This recipe is for a wonderful dish containing charred leek, delicious romesco sauce, fresh yogurt and crunchy hazelnuts. Making this dish is both easy, quite effortless mostly requiring staple ingredients. Serve this dish an an appetizer, side dish or main course. It is both vegetarian, gluten and grain free.
This dish is a mix of wonderful taste, textures and flavors. It is easy to make, taste amazing and is great to serve for any occasion. You have a lovely charred leek that becomes so tender and mouth melting with a gentle sweet taste. Served along with a wonderful romesco sauce it makes a lovely taste combination. Combining the sweet and gentle leek with a lovely, very flavorful and slightly grainy romesco sauce is a truly wonderful match. The charred leek just melts in your mouth while it spreads a subtile and gentle sweet flavor in your mouth. The romesco sauc, as a contrast, has a lovely nutty and spicy taste with a slight crunch that add flavor and texture to the dish. To top it off you have the fresh, creamy and tangy Greek yogurt that makes a wonderful contrast to the dish. Serve this dish as an appetizer, side dish or main course.
A few tips:
- Use a evenly thick leek to make sure all pieces have an equally baking time.
- Bake the leek until it is soft and tender on the inside, then increase the heat and let it char until it turn dar brown/black.
- If the leek turns really black remove the outer layer (but you can keep it for serving just for the ascetics because it looks so wonderful).
- If the outer layer is “just” dark brown you can keep it if you like the taste or remove the outer layer as mentioned above. I personally love the charred roasted taste the outer layer adds, but just if it’s not too burnt. Then you should not eat it.
- I used this recipe for my romesco sauce.
- The romesco sauce can be prepared in advance.
- The romesco sauce is great and equally delicious both warm and cold.
Ingredients for this Charred Leek with Romesco Sauce:
- Leek
- Olive oil
- Romesco Sauce
- Greek or Turkish yogurt
- Hazelnuts
- Fresh parsley
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Charred Leek with Romesco Sauce (Vegetarian & Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 1 Leek root and green part removed
- Olive oil
- 1 -1 1/2 dl Romesco sauce (see note 1 for the recipe)
- 1 – 1 1/2 dl Greek or Turkish yogurt
- Hazelnuts roughly chopped
- Fresh parsley roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
- Cut off the root and green part from the leek. Rinse under water and path dry using a paper towel. Cut into 2-3 equally long parts. Place on an oven safe baking sheet and brush with some olive oil.
- Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes on 175 degrees, until soft. Increase the temperature to 250 degrees and roast until the surface is dark brown, almost black.
- Remove from the oven, place in a plastic bag and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Remove the outer layer if it is too blackened, but save it for serving. Or just leave it as is if you din't mind that charred taste (I personally love it as long as the leek isn't completely black). Cut each piece in half lengthwise.
- Spread Greek or Turkish yogurt at the bottom of two plates. Place leeks halves on the yogurt and top with warm or cold romesco sauce, hazelnuts and chopped parsley.