Are you starting to plan your Christmas menu yet? Having people over? Celebrating small with just family?
I do Christmas dinner pretty traditionally in our house – the way my grandmother and my mom always did, with turkey, cranberries, stuffing, marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole, roasted vegetables, gravy. Just the essentials, not much more. Though we’re normally relatively adventurous – and at least inventive – eaters, there’s little appetite in my household for mandarin orange and pine nut-flecked dressing, or anything other than pecan or pumpkin pie for dessert. I’ve tried; but even I admit that there’s nothing better than the perfect bite of turkey dinner on your fork – first a spear of dressing, anchored there by a gravy-soaked slice of dark meat, and next a fragrant layer of roasted onion and a swipe of tart cranberry sauce across the back of the tines.
After making this roasted leek casserole, though, I might be willing to change my tune a little. It tastes traditional, in that way that a creamy, breadcrumb-topped casserole always does, but it is not like anything I have had for holiday dinners before. And if it does not make it on to your Christmas table, it is the perfect contribution to a holiday potluck meal; simple to make and delicious to eat.
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 8 small leeks
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cup cream cheese
- 1 1/2 cups Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1/3 cup breadcrumbs
- Salt and Pepper
- Preheat the oven to 350F and use the butter to grease a baking dish.
- Trim off the green parts of the leeks and the root end, using only the white and light green parts of the leek. Cut them in half lengthwise and wash them thoroughly.
- Cook the leeks in a pot of boiling water for 2 minutes. Remove and set on a paper towel to drain.
- In a small bowl, beat together the egg, yogurt, and 2/3 of a cup of the cheese. Spread half of this mixture into your baking dish. Arrange the leeks in a single layer in the dish. Season with salt and pepper, and top with the remaining yogurt mixture, breadcrumbs, and the rest of the cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Enjoy!
we don’t really celebrate the holidays, but we do acknowledge and mark the occasion by making something nice for dinner. nothing traditional, this year we’re thinking Trinidadian oxtail stew.
i love leeks, it has such a mild/mellow onion flavor . i see myself tucking into this with some toasted bread and calling it dinner.
Trinidadian oxtail stew! That sounds cool! I think my favourite part of the holidays is the food anyways. I can’t really get too excited about anything else, although I wonder if seeing my little one’s response to the Christmas haul (I have totally and unabashedly bought her waaaay too many things, despite how loathsome I find the whole idea of Christmas gifts sometimes) will change my mind.
I think toast would be the perfect answer to this meal. Just the idea is making me want to make it again….