Leeks are vegetables in the onion and garlic family. They are pretty robust plants that basically look like big green onions. Instead of forming into bulbs, they produce leaf sheaths in a long cylinder. We found pre-trimmed leeks at Trader Joe’s this week. They were already pretty clean. I just trimmed off the ends and soaked them in water for a few minutes. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for new ways to add leeks to our regular menu, especially since TJ’s makes it so easy..

I’ve never cooked leeks and honestly, I’ve never really thought about them until now. We were really interested in trying them last week after watching Growing a Greener World on Saturday morning. Nathan Lyon made a recipe with braised leeks and pan-seared tilapia which looked incredible. I won’t re-post the leek recipe here since I followed it basically to the letter. I did use homemade chicken stock in place of the vegetable stock. I made this with seared sea scallops instead of tilapia since we had the scallops on-hand. After trying a few of Nathan’s recipes though, I’ll be sure to try that tilapia as well.

For the scallops…

• In a pan, heat about a tablespoon each of olive oil and grass-fed butter.
• Once the oil and butter are hot, place the scallops in the pan and sear (~2-3 minutes) on each side.
• Make sure the pan is hot. The key is to not overcook them. They should have a deep golden color on the outside and still be sweet and tender.