This creamy potato and leek gratin makes for a perfect side dish – or even a meal in its own right. Simple to make, creamy and utterly delicious – give this one a go!
I love to serve this gratin on the side of baked ham, roast beef or roast lamb. It’s absolutely brilliant for those days when you can’t be bothered making roast potatoes – you still get a potato side dish, but it’s so much easier.
You could also serve this as a main course. Get some good, crusty bread to mop up that incredible creamy sauce and it’ll be filling enough for dinner. Some delicious kale on the side would be awesome too if you fancy a bit of greenery.
Ingredients, Substitutions and Variations
- Butter – leek and butter are best friends. If you’re making a leek gratin, it needs to be started in butter. It’s the rules (but if you REALLY need to, you can switch for olive oil).
- Leeks – you’ll need two medium or large leeks for this recipe.
- Potatoes – three medium white potatoes are the perfect amount. You don’t even need to peel them!
- Vegetable stock – or 200ml water and a good vegetable stock cube.
- Double cream – double cream is best – don’t switch for single cream unless you really need to.
- Breadcrumbs– stale white breadcrumbs work best.
- Garlic powder and dried mixed herbs – for the herby, garlicky breadcrumb topping.
- Olive oil– makes those breadcrumbs golden brown.
Top Tips
- Cooking the leeks and potatoes When cooking the leeks and potatoes at the start, you don’t need the potatoes to get fully soft – they’ll cook more in the oven. Just get them started in that lovely vegetable stock.
- Adding the cream Before you add the cream, you want to make sure that you don’t have too much liquid in with the vegetables, otherwise your gratin will be more like a soup. Let the vegetable stock reduce down.
- Cooking in the oven If your breadcrumbs look like they are cooking too quickly, cover the gratin with foil. You want the breadcrumbs to be golden brown.
Creamy Potato and Leek Gratin
Creamy potatoes and leeks with a garlic and herb breadcrumb topping.
Ingredients
- 25 g butter
- 2 leeks
- 3 white potatoes
- 200 ml vegetable stock
- 200 ml double cream
- 40 g white breadcrumbs
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp dried mixed herbs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
- Start by prepping your vegetables. Top and tail the leeks then slice them thinly. Cut the potatoes into 1cm chunks (no need to peel).
- Melt the butter in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks and potatoes. Cook for 3-4 minutes until slightly softened, then add the stock.
- Bring to a simmer, then let the stock reduce by half (approx 10 minutes).
- Take off the heat and stir in the cream. Season with salt and pepper. Pour into an ovenproof dish.
- In a small bowl, mix the breadcrumbs, garlic and dried herbs. Sprinkle this mix over the top of the creamy leeks and potatoes. Drizzle the olive oil over the top.
- Put in the oven and cook for 45 minutes, until crisp and golden on top.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
More side dishes for roast dinners:
- Creamy Bread Sauce
- Classic Braised Red Cabbage
- Potato Gratin with Pancetta
- The Best Cauliflower Cheese
- Carrot and Potato Gratin
- Welsh Style Potato Dauphinoise (Potato au Gratin)
- Incredible Truffle Mash
- The Most Incredible Stir Fried Kale
Hahaha – I loved your comment that, “leek and butter are best friends”! Well, yes, they are! And this delicious recipe proves it! I’m thinking this would also be great alongside our Thanksgiving turkey – something a little different, but so homey and rich to elevate the turkey! Yum yum yum!
As a Welsh expat living in Canada, this dish just reminds me of home so much. Creamy, packed full of flavour and comfort eating at it’s best. We served it with lamb (of course!) and it was wonderful. Thanks for a great recipe.
Gratin is my favorite! Very intrigued to try your recipe now – it looks awesome!
Creamy and utterly delicious side dish, this was quick and easy to make and paired beautifully with a couple of ribeyes! I can totally see this is a holiday side next to my ham. Thank you!
Leek and potato gratin is a popular side dish that is easy to make and I loved this recipe. It is made by layering thinly sliced leeks and potatoes in a casserole dish, then topping them with cream, cheese, and breadcrumbs before baking until golden brown. It is a delicious and comforting dish that is perfect for both weeknights and holidays.
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This is absolutely divine, creamy, delicious and truly easy to make. We loved this, I paired it with steaks and wow it was so good! I’ll be making this for the holiday season too, thank you!