Cheesy, Gooey, Leeks on toast. Why cook anything else?

So simple. So satisfying.

Sometimes I wonder, is it all worth it? The hours spent roasting, baking, and sweating before a stove. Anxiously performing the merry dance of the slightly over-ambitious home cook. You know the one - where you’re juggling potatoes that won’t crisp with overdone veg and a few things that have had to come out early to alleviate space in the oven… But, it’s ok because the gravy will ‘warm everything up’.

I’ve started questioning it all because sometimes you cook something that required very little thought at all. Simple ingredients, bunged together and is ready in a matter of minutes. Yet it is so delicious, that you then genuinely consider eating it every day for the rest of your life. This recipe of gooey leeks and smokey cheese on toast is one of those and trust me, there is no hyperbole here.

I think leeks must have a little magic to them. Thick and sturdy totems rising from the ground, surviving the grizzliest winters and hoovering up an impressive amount of soil in their their dodgy 80s hairdo style leaves… At least that’s the case for our allotment neighbour Paul’s crop. His are a mighty infantry unit of lusty-looking leeks. They hold sentry over his plot, firm, robust and putting our pencil-thin cultivars to shame. I still have a little vain hope ours will ‘girth up’.

For me though, their most enchanting quality is how they manage to withstand almost infinite cooking. Low and slow, like all alliums, leeks become sweeter and sweeter the longer you leave them. Let them gently soften and sweat and they will disentegrate into an oozey flavour bomb. The perfect base to pies and soups, or in this case the best cheese on toast.

Now that winter is firmly looming on the horizon, there’s not much that can beat the comfort of warm, gooey cheese smeared atop a crunchy sourdough slice. I hope you enjoy the recipe, and as ever please do comment and let me know how you found it tastes.

Recipe

Feeds 2 - Takes around 25 minutes