This is without a doubt the easiest vegan leek & potato bake you could wish to make. Don’t you just love simplicity?
You just put the ingredients into the casserole dish and bake. No sautéing or fussing involved. And it tastes divine.
It’s similar to the easiest ever wfpbno scalloped potatoes but here we use leeks and mushrooms instead of the onion.
I’m sure you’re going to enjoy this dish and make it time and time again.
It’s vegan, wfpb (whole foods plant based), wfpbno (i.e. oil free) and it’s tasty and easy.
What more could you ask of a dish, right?
Lots of people think of soups when they hear the word leek, but actually leeks can be used in so many different ways!
Ingredients for this Easy Vegan Leek & Potato Bake
You can use as many leeks as you like. They shrink during cooking so you could easily double the amount I used here if you have space in your casserole dish!
Mushrooms go well with the leeks but are entirely optional. You could also add a sliced onion, either within the leek mix or between the potato layers.
Red pepper is another veggie that goes well in among the leeks. Feel free to play with it, using up whatever you have on hand.
The secret of this dish is that it’s so easy to make. You just have to prepare the veggies, then throw them in a dish and put them in the oven.
You can use the potatoes with skins on or peel them before cooking.
If you peel them as I did on this occasion, use a fat peeler and cook the skins in the air fryer with a generous sprinkling of salt and you’ll have a delicious snack of air-fried potato peeling chips to eat while you wait for the casserole!
Perfect for when you want to be busy doing other things for an hour before you eat.
Ingredients from the bottom clockwise: sliced leeks, sliced mushrooms, nutritional yeast, peeled potatoes, plant milk, freshly ground black pepper, fresh chopped parsley.
How Much Plant Milk to Use
You can use about 400ml of milk, but to be honest the exact amount will vary and it’s probably best that you get used to adding it by feel.
When you pour the plant milk over each layer you can see it collecting at the bottom of the dish (if the dish is made of glass).
You should see the milk up to about one third of the way.
If you add too little milk, the potatoes won’t cook (or they’ll take forever). But you can always add more milk during the cooking process if you think it’s too dry.
If you add too much milk, there will be a puddle of milk at the bottom of the casserole when it’s cooked.
Although it doesn’t look so attractive, it doesn’t matter at all. You can just serve the veggies and leave the liquid in the baking tray.
If you eat leftovers the next day, the extra liquid comes in handy for re-heating.
How to Prepare the Leeks
There’s a crime going on in the world of leeks! People are throwing away the green part of the leek.
Or you can read recipes saying that it’s tough, so you have to sauté it before using.
To be honest, I’ve never heard of something so crazy in my whole life! That’s just pure wastefulness!
The green part of the leek is every bit as delicious as the white! Slightly less potent in flavour sure, but still delicious. And personally, I wouldn’t want to miss out on the addition of colour that the green part brings.
If you get the choice, choose fresh leeks that have the whole lot – not the ones which are already packaged up with just the white part!
Washing the Leeks
You’ll probably need to trim the very end off, like about 1-2 cm normally. You can see how much because the tips may look ragged and less bright coloured, less appetising.
Next, I would finely cut into the outer layer and remove it, because that’s normally a bit tough and dirty too.
Cut the leeks in half cutting off the white bottoms where they begin to turn green. The white bottoms are the easiest part to wash. Slice downwards into the leek so that the leaves can open up as you rinse them under water. You don’t want to cut all the way, just enough so you can remove any hidden grit from the inside.
Now for the green part. You will sometimes need to remove and discard some of the outer green leaves – it’s just a matter of looking and seeing if they’re very tough or damaged or old looking. You can just cut parts out and leave whatever looks ok.
Now take a knife and slice downwards into the top of the leek, again not going all the way to the bottom. Carefully rinse between each leaf, removing the mud that gets trapped inside the leek.
Cutting the Leeks
Some people cut the leeks very fine, but I prefer to chop them in rounds. I cut the green parts in smaller rounds and leave the white part in rounds of about 3-4 cm, because I like to find an actual piece of leek in the final dish.
Leeks do tend to shrink so if you cut them small, they’ll end up even smaller.
Putting together the Leek & Potato Casserole Bake
If you want a more juicy finish, leave a space between the potatoes and the top of the baking dish and press the potatoes down half way through cooking.
The boiling milk with cover them and make them soft.
I prefer the crunchy top level so I leave them above the milk sauce level.
Recipe for the Easiest Vegan Leek & Potato Bake
Easiest Vegan Leek and Potato Bake
Course: All Vegan PostsCuisine: vegan, wfpbnoDifficulty: Easy6
servings20
minutes50
minutesA simple dish of creamy potato and leek with mushrooms
Ingredients
1000g potatoes thinly sliced
800g chopped leeks
200g sliced mushrooms
500ml soy milk
50g nutritional yeast
Freshly chopped parsley or other herb of choice
Salt and pepper
Directions
- Prepare all the vegetables
- Place the leeks and parsley and mushrooms in the bottom of a casserole dish, sprinkle with salt and mix well.
- Pour over half of the milk and half of the nutritional yeast and sprinkle with black pepper.
- Press the veggies down with a spatula and place a layer of thin potato slices over the top. Sprinkle with salt and pour on half of the remaining milk and nutritional yeast.
- Repeat with the final layer of potatoes and finish off with the remaining milk and nutritional yeast.
- Feel free to jazz it up with other veggies if you like, and use more or less milk and nutritional yeast according to your preferences.
- Cook in the oven at 195º for 50 minutes and let sit in the oven for a further 10 minutes before removing.
Notes
- You can use the potato peelings to make some potato peeling chips.
I hope you love eating easy vegan wfpb food meals as much as I do. It’s one of my greatest pleasures in life, knowing that I’m eating real food that’s healthy for my body and soul and that I’m not supporting the abuse of animals.
I mean if you’re an animal lover, it’s an easy choice, isn’t it.
Made this a couple of times now. I tweaked the recipe a bit as I couldn’t find a big enough dish. This was easy to make and tasted really good, will definitely make again 🙂
Hello Andrew, I’m so glad you liked it, and I love to get the feedback, thank you!