Celebrating warm weather is picking wild leeks for me! I’ve been nibbling for a while. I make salad and include freshly picked leaves from the woods behind my house. I also make pesto from these leaves, usually blending with other greens. It’s been on my mind to make a rich vinaigrette cacao dressing for this salad.
Look for these oblong dark green leaves with purple stems and dig down to find their firm white bulbs, using a knife to cut them loose. When you find wild leeks you will likely encounter hundreds if not thousands of them and they propagate well and will not disappear because you pick a few. It is now the end of the season for picking the leaves. In the fall the greens will have dried up and in stead the root will increase in size and send up a stem with tiny black seeds to procreate for next year. Fall is when I pick most of the bulbs for pickling or use to substitute for onions or garlic. I do love foraging!
I bring the leeks home in my kitchen where I rinse, chop and sautee’ to bulbs and chop the oniony tasting leaves.
Ingredients:
chopped wild leek
1/2 cup of fresh blueberries
1 cup of fresh arugula
10 chopped deep green wild leek leaves
1 cup of mixed salad greens
1.5 ounce of cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the leeks into small pieces and cook them for about 10 minutes in a large pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil until they are soft. Then remove from the oven, add the blueberries, arugula, salad greens, and dressing, mix well. Divide the mixture among four bowls. Top each bowl with the salad greens, then sprinkle on the cheese. Serve and enjoy!
Dressing:
1/4 cup of olive oil
1 teaspoon of stone ground dijon mustard
1/8 cup of a sweet balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of natural unsweetened cocoa
In a bowl, combine the vinegar, olive oil, mustard, cocoa, salt and pepper. Mix well and pour over the salad.
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