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Vegetables

Leek

Leek is a vegetable whose leaves are eaten. The leaves are crunchy and firm when raw and soft when cooked. Cooks use leek raw, boil, simmer or sauté it, and season or stuff it.

  • Plant-based

About the plain ingredient, not packaged products; general information, not medical advice. Details

Category
Vegetables
Part used
Leaf
Texture
Crunchy, firm, soft
Cooked most in
Europe, Africa, Asia
Top country
Germany
Leek, cut

Photo: Jim Lukach · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use leek

Typical ways to cook or use it

  • Boil simmer
  • Raw
  • Saute
  • Season
  • Stuff

Preparing it

Leeks are commonly cut into slices 5–10 mm thick. The dark green leaves are tough and often discarded, though they can be cooked or used to flavor stock. For a stuffed preparation, boil thick slices and separate the leaves before filling them.

Cooking with it

Boiling softens leeks and makes their flavor mild. Frying keeps leeks crunchier and retains their flavor.

Flavour

Taste and texture

Texture, raw

  • Crunchy
  • Firm

Texture, cooked

  • Soft

Nutrition

What 100 g of leek holds

Per 100 g, raw. Averages from USDA; real values vary by variety, season and growing conditions.

Protein 9%Fat 2%Carbohydrate 89%of the macronutrients by weight

Nutrition per 100 g of leek, raw
Energy61 kcal · 255 kJ
Protein1.5 g
Fat0.3 g
of which saturated0.04 g
Carbohydrate14 g
of which sugars3.1 g
Fibre3 g
Sodium18 mg
Cholesterol0 mg
Nutrition per 100 g of leek, raw: minerals and vitamins
Potassium319 mg
Calcium51 mg
Iron0.76 mg
Magnesium16 mg
Zinc0.29 mg
Vitamin C12 mg
Vitamin A (RAE)83 µg
Folate64 µg

Source: USDA FoodData Central (foods 169246, 2727584), public domain. Minerals and vitamins are listed only where USDA measured a non-zero amount.

Around the world

Where leek is cooked

5 dishes in the catalogue use leek. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list leek among their ingredients.

Origins

  1. -2000/-1000 · Egypt

    Leeks were eaten in ancient Egypt by at least the second millennium BCE.

  2. 0001/0100

    The cookbook Apicius included four leek recipes in the first century CE.

On the table

Dishes made with leek

4 of the 5 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.

  • Bauernfrühstück

    Germany

  • Lemang-lemang chicken

    Indonesia

  • Saumagen

    Germany

  • Porrusalda

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include leek.

Good to know

Diet and allergens: leek in detail

These notes describe the plain ingredient. Packaged and prepared products vary, so read the label; for allergies and medical diets ask a doctor or dietitian.
Allergens
None of the 15 listed allergens foundChecked and not found: eggs, fish, milk, molluscs, sulphites, crustaceans.
Animal origin
No animal ingredients foundChecked and not found: egg, fish, meat, dairy, honey, insect, gelatin, poultry, bone char, shellfish, other animal, animal fining, animal rennet.
Alcohol
None
Pork
None

Cooked together

Ingredients that go into the same catalogued dishes.
Photo credits for this page (4)

Around the world

What leek is called

Names in 105 languages, from Wikidata.

  • Spanish

    puerro · Allium porrum · Alium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum var porrum

  • French

    poireau · Allium porrum · Poireaux · poireau baguette

  • Italian

    porro

  • Portuguese

    alho-porro · Alho porro · Alho-francês · Alho francês

  • German

    Lauch · Allium porrum · Porree · Winterlauch

  • Dutch

    prei · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum

  • Greek

    Πράσο · Πράσον

  • Turkish

    Pırasa

  • Russian

    лук-порей · Allium porrum · порей · порей-лук

  • Polish

    por · Czosnek por · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum

  • Arabic

    كراث · كرات

  • Persian

    تره‌فرنگی

Show all 105 languages

  • Afrikaans

    Prei

  • Albanian

    presh · Allium porum · Purriri · Prasi

  • Aragonese

    porro

  • Armenian

    պրաս · պռսասոխ

  • Asturian

    Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum · puerru · ayu puerru

  • Bangla

    পলাণ্ডু

  • Basque

    porru · Allium ampeloprasum · allium ampeloprasum

  • Belarusian

    цыбуля парэй · цыбуля-парэй

  • Belarusian (Taraskievica orthography)

    цыбуля-парэй

  • Brazilian Portuguese

    Alho poró · Poró · Alho porrô · Alho-porrô

  • Breton

    pour

  • Bulgarian

    праз · Allium porrum

  • Burmese

    ထန်းကြက်သွန်

  • Cantonese

    京蔥

  • Catalan

    porro · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum

  • Cebuano

    Allium porrum

  • Chinese

    韭葱

  • Corsican

    porru · Allium porrum

  • Croatian

    Poriluk

  • Czech

    pór · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum

  • Danish

    porre · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum

  • Egyptian Arabic

    كراث

  • Esperanto

    poreo

  • Estonian

    porrulauk

  • Finnish

    purjo · Allium porrum · purjosipuli

  • Galician

    allo porro

  • Georgian

    პრასი · Allium porrum

  • Haitian Creole

    powo · Pwaro

  • Hausa

    Albasa mai kara

  • Hebrew

    כרישה

  • Hindi

    हरा प्याज

  • Hungarian

    póréhagyma

  • Icelandic

    Blaðlaukur

  • Ido

    Porelo

  • Inari Sami

    purjosiipuul

  • Indonesian

    bawang prei

  • Irish

    cainneann

  • Japanese

    リーキ · ポロネギ · セイヨウネギ · セイヨウニラネギ

  • Javanese

    Brambang préi

  • Kannada

    ಲೀಕ್

  • Kazakh

    Порей пиязы

  • kbp

    Puwaroo

  • kge

    Jumbak

  • Kinyarwanda

    Igitunguru · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum · Allium porrum · Ibitunguru

  • Korean

    대파 · 리크

  • Kurdish

    Pirasa · Pirase · Allium ampeloprasum · Allium porrum

  • Latin

    Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum

  • Latvian

    puravi · Allium porrum · puravs

  • Limburgish

    Sjpoor

  • Lithuanian

    Poras · Allium porrum · Daržinis poras

  • Low German

    Look

  • Luxembourgish

    Porrett · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum

  • Macedonian

    праз

  • Malagasy

    Tongoloherana

  • Malay

    Bawang perai

  • Malayalam

    വെളുത്തുള്ളി

  • Maltese

    kurrat

  • Manx

    Cannian

  • Mingrelian

    პურასქია

  • nah

    Huēyi Caxtillān xōnacatl

  • Neapolitan

    puorr

  • Northern Frisian

    Pore · Allium ampeloprasum ampeloprasum · Allium ampeloprasum · Allium porrum

  • Northern Sami

    boskalávki

  • Norwegian Bokmål

    purreløk · Allium porrum · purre

  • Norwegian Nynorsk

    purre · Allium porrum · Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum · Purrelauk

  • Occitan

    pòrre

  • Ossetic

    Зæнгджын хъæдындз

  • Picard

    poreau · Allium porrum

  • Piedmontese

    Pòr

  • Romanian

    praz · Allium porum

  • Sardinian

    porru

  • Scots

    Leek

  • Serbian

    Празилук

  • Serbian (Cyrillic)

    празилук · праса · праз

  • Serbian (Latin)

    Praziluk

  • Serbian (Latin)

    praziluk

  • Simplified Chinese (China)

    韭蔥

  • Skolt Sami

    purjoluukk

  • Slovak

    pór

  • Slovenian

    por · Allium porrum

  • Somali

    Yuruqcadde

  • Swedish

    purjolök · Allium porrum · purjo · porjulök

  • Tajik

    Гандано

  • Tamil

    லீக்ஸ்

  • Thai

    กระเทียมต้น

  • Tibetan

    ཀེའུ་ཙོང་།

  • Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)

    韭蔥

  • Tunisian Arabic (Arabic)

    كرّاث

  • Ukrainian

    цибуля порей · Allium porrum

  • Urdu

    کراث · گندنا

  • Venetian

    pòro

  • Vietnamese

    Tỏi tây

  • Walloon

    Porea · Allium porrum · porete · poret

  • Waray

    Poro (utanon)

  • Welsh

    Cenhinen · Cennin

  • West Flemish

    Pret · Prei · Poreie · Poret

  • Western Panjabi

    ہرا پیاز

  • Wu Chinese

    韭葱

  • Yiddish

    פארע-ציבעלע

Sources and credits

Data

Wikidata item: Q1807269

Photos

Photo: Jim Lukach · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons