All 17 chapters on one page, in order. Read straight through, or jump to a chapter below.
Read one chapter at a timeThe inulin in leek feeds gut bacteria rather than feeding you. That is the point of it.
Most of the flavour is in the pale part, and most of the nutrients are in the dark green tops people throw away.
Grit hides between the layers. Split it lengthways and rinse under running water.
It is high-FODMAP, so the same fibre that helps most people can trouble a sensitive gut.
Leek belongs to the same family as garlic and onion and carries a milder version of the same sulfur chemistry. What sets it apart is inulin, a fibre your own gut can't digest but your gut bacteria can, which is why leek turns up in almost every discussion of prebiotic food. Iranian cooking uses two different plants under similar names: tareh farangi, the thick-stemmed European leek used in soups, and tareh, the fine chive-like green chopped raw into kuku sabzi and ash.
Known to botanists as Allium ampeloprasum.
Iranian food already leans hard on alliums, and leek is the gentlest of them. It gives you the sulfur compounds and the prebiotic (fibre that feeds the helpful bacteria in your gut) fibre without the sharpness of raw onion or the commitment of raw garlic, and it goes into dishes people cook weekly rather than dishes they cook to be healthy.
The gut microbiome loses diversity with age, and prebiotic fibre is one of the few levers with human evidence behind it. Leek is also soft when cooked, which matters when chewing gets harder, and it carries vitamin K and folate at levels that often run thin after seventy.
Inulin (a fibre that feeds the helpful bacteria in your gut) from leek and its relatives increased bifidobacteria in controlled human feeding studies.
Allium vegetable intake tracks with slightly lower heart and blood vessel risk across cohort studies (a study that follows a group of people over time).
Persian temperament: Hot & Dry (2nd degree). Warming and opening. The old texts warned it heats the blood in quantity and paired it with yogurt or vinegar.
Persian medicine reads tareh as hot and dry. Hakims used it to warm a cold stomach, open obstruction, and clear the chest in damp weather, and warned that too much of it heats the blood and disturbs sleep. The counterweight in the old texts is yogurt or vinegar, which is roughly what a modern cook does anyway.
It was used: grown across the Middle East and the Mediterranean since antiquity, and mentioned in Egyptian records. Given for cough and a heavy chest in the classical Persian medical texts.
Used through Iranian winters as one of the few green things that keeps well in cold ground.
Kuku sabzi, the deep green herb and egg cake served at Nowruz, depends on tareh for the freshness that separates it from an omelette. The same green goes into ash reshteh, into the filling of dolmeh, and onto the sabzi khordan plate beside the bread and cheese. Whole bunches appear in the bazaar in spring, and households buy far more than seems reasonable, because the whole point of the season is to eat green.
Primary compounds
Inulin is a fibre your gut bacteria ferment, and it's the reason leek counts as a prebiotic.
Sulfur compounds related to those in garlic, milder because leek carries less of the precursor.
Kaempferol, a flavonoid (a family of protective plant compounds) concentrated in the green tops rather than the white stem.
Vitamin K1 and folate, both dense for a vegetable this low in calories.
Other notable constituents
Minerals: Manganese, Iron, Potassium
Antioxidants: Quercetin (a plant compound found in onions, apples and tea), Allicin (the compound formed when garlic is crushed) precursors
Fiber: About 2 g per cooked cup, much of it inulin
From laboratory work, not from people taking it
Kaempferol, the main flavonoid here, has shown vessel-relaxing effects in laboratory work.
Kaempferol relaxed vascular (relating to the blood vessels) tissue in laboratory preparations. Rated: early research.
What studies in people show
Inulin-type prebiotic fibre increased bifidobacteria counts in randomised human feeding trials. Rated: strong evidence.
In the kitchen: with a cooked main meal, especially in the cold months. Chopped raw into kuku sabzi with parsley, coriander and dill. Sweated slowly in olive oil as the base of a soup. Simmered into ash reshteh with beans and noodles.
grilled in halves until the outer layers char and the middle turns sweet.
One or two leeks a week, cooked into soup, kuku or stew.
Split the leek from the top down to just above the root, fan the layers, and run cold water through them.
Keep the dark green tops for stock. They give more flavour than the white part does.
Sweat sliced leek in oil on low heat for ten minutes before anything else goes in the pan.
Chop the fine Persian tareh at the last minute. It bruises and goes dull within an hour.
Yogurt
The classical counterweight to a hot and dry green, and it works on the plate as well as in the theory.
Walnuts
Chopped walnut in kuku sabzi adds fat and bite to a mixture that's otherwise all herb and egg.
Beans
Leek and beans together in ash give you two different prebiotic fibres in one bowl.
Olive oil
Slow sweating in oil turns the sulfur sharpness into sweetness. No other method does it as well.
Leek is high in FODMAPs. Anyone with irritable bowel syndrome may get bloating and cramping from a normal portion, and the green tops are usually easier than the white part.
Grit between the layers is the most common complaint about leek soup. Split and rinse before slicing, never after.
Known allium allergy.
Warfarin — Leek is dense in vitamin K, which opposes warfarin. Steady intake is what matters. Tell your clinic if your vegetable habits change. (moderate concern)
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Safe and worth eating. Folate is the main reason, and the fibre helps with the constipation that comes with the territory. Wash it thoroughly, since the grit that hides between the layers also hides soil bacteria.
Children
Sweated soft in soup, leek is mild enough for a small child and much easier than raw onion. Introduce it cooked, and expect some gas at first while the gut adjusts to the fibre.
Older adults
Soft when cooked and easy to swallow, and one of the better sources of prebiotic fibre for a gut that has lost some of its bacterial diversity. Anyone on warfarin (a blood-thinning medicine) should keep the amount consistent.
Spring
Fine Persian tareh floods the bazaar. This is kuku sabzi season and the reason for it.
Summer
Use it raw and sparingly. The heat makes its warming quality unwelcome in the old reading.
Autumn
Thick leeks arrive. Sweat them slowly as a base for the first soups of the cold months.
Winter
Leek holds in the ground through frost and sweetens with it. Grill or braise it whole.
What is the difference between tareh and tareh farangi?
Tareh is the fine Persian green, close to a chive, chopped raw into kuku and ash. Tareh farangi is the thick European leek used in soups and stews. Recipes rarely swap them well.
Can I eat leek with IBS?
Often not in quantity. It is high in FODMAPs, which is the same fibre that helps everyone else. The green tops are usually gentler, and leek-infused oil gives you the flavour without the fibre.
End of the Leek guide