leeks Archives - A Calculated Whisk

Instant Pot Potato Leek Soup with Cauliflower

January 23, 2017 By Becky 34 Comments

This Instant Pot potato leek soup is lightened up with the addition of cauliflower, and comes together super quickly in a pressure cooker. It’s also paleo and Whole30 compliant!

It’s Day 1 of my January/February Whole30! Usually I start a Whole30 right at the beginning of January, but this year I had plans to help out with a styled wedding shoot and travel to Florida. I wanted to make sure I could eat some faux wedding cake and all the Cuban food, so I pushed my start date to today. I went to a great yoga class last night and made some mini frittatas (similar to these) to reheat for quick breakfasts, so things are going swimmingly so far. Tonight my Whole30 partner in crime Lindsey and I are making my shepherd’s pie with rutabaga, which is one of my favorite cold-weather meals of all time.

This instant pot potato leek soup is a great addition to my winter Whole30 repertoire. The base of the soup is half potato and half cauliflower, so you get the great flavor and creaminess of potatoes without the huge carb spike. Anyone suspicious of cauliflower will not be able to taste it! The leeks add wonderful savory flavor to the soup, which is further complemented by the grassy, oniony freshness of the chives sprinkled on top.

Quiche Lorraine with Leeks

April 29, 2016 By Becky 4 Comments

This gluten-free quiche lorraine with leeks is perfect for Mother’s Day brunch! The crisp cassava flour crust and custardy filling studded with leeks and bacon are both total crowd pleasers.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and if your mom is anything like mine, she would love this quiche. I’ve been working on it for weeks, playing with the proportions to make a crisp but sturdy crust with my new favorite grain-free flour, Otto’s cassava flour, and balancing the flavorings of the filling so that they’re just right. After more tries than I care to count, I’ve finally nailed it. This gluten-free quiche lorraine is good enough for your mother, skeptics who raise their eyebrows at the thought of grain-free pastries, and just about anyone else. Don’t tell your gluten-eating family members and I bet they won’t know there’s no wheat in here.

Quiche is a bit of a process, so setting aside my recent burst of quiche-testing mania, I don’t make it often. A frittata is quicker and easier and does just fine for a regular meal, but when the occasion is special or you want to treat yourself, a quiche is 100% worth it.

Despite the many recipes that try to bill a frittata as a crustless quiche, the absence of crust is not the only difference between the two. The fillings of quiches and frittatas, even when made with similar ingredients in similar proportions, are totally different in texture. In addition to the quiche crust being delicious and satisfyingly toothsome in its own right, it plays a vital role in ensuring that the filling is delicate, light, and custardy instead of chewy and overcooked. The crust shields the egg and cream mixture from getting too much direct heat, which allows it to bake into an impossibly smooth and irresistible sensation that’s worlds better than an omelette or frittata.

Braised Chicken with Leeks & Scallions

May 8, 2014 By Becky 4 Comments

Coq au vin is one of my favorite classic French dishes. Chicken braised slowly in wine of any kind is almost guaranteed to be delicious, and I’ve made this coq au riesling recipe several times over the past year. It’s become my go-to dish for whenever company is coming. However, wine is not truly part of a paleo diet, and many people try to avoid all alcohol, even in cooked dishes. The question on my mind was this: can you make coq au vin without the vin? Without any wine, is braised chicken still something exceptional?

You may have guessed that my answer is a resounding yes. This recipe is proof: wine is not necessary for making delicious braised chicken. In fact, I liked this dish even more than the coq au riesling I’ve been making, and to me, the chicken and sauce still had all the flavor benefits of dishes made with copious amounts of wine. I’m eager to see if you agree, so if you try this recipe, please let me know what you think!

Want to know why this recipe is so good, even though there’s no wine in it? My theory is that it’s because of the following three reasons. First, this recipe uses Pure Indian Foods’ organic, grassfed ghee. Ghee is by far my favorite cooking fat, because it has all the delicious flavor of butter paired with the higher smoke point of oil. In fact, I think ghee tastes even better than butter, and it’s also a much healthier choice than canola or vegetable oil. If you haven’t heard me talk about the wonders of ghee, you can read more about what it is and how it’s made here.