A sweet garleek twist on Jonathan Gold's creamed leeks

At my Thanksgiving table, creamed leeks rarely make it to leftover containers. More than mashed potatoes or stuffing, the buttery, creamy leeks are usually the first to be gobbled up by vegetarians and turkey eaters alike. Our Thanksgiving leeks started as an accidental recipe when this paper’s late restaurant critic Jonathan Gold was trying to make cookbook author Paula Wolfert’s straw potato cakes stuffed with braised leeks for a dinner party he and I were hosting. When he made a mess of trying to flip the potatoes, he ditched the broken shards and served the filling by itself. We liked the results so much we served the creamed leeks at our next Thanksgiving and made them an annual tradition, one we’ve continued at the Ochoa-Gold table eight years after Jonathan’s death.

This year, however, I’m adding a twist. Ever since chef Dan Barber appeared with bundles of a new allium hybrid called sweet garleek at Alex Weiser’s Hollywood Farmers Market stand two years ago, I’ve been looking for ways to incorporate what Barber calls the “love child” between leeks and garlic into my cooking. Skinnier than most leeks, they are terrific grilled and served with steak. And they make a beautiful addition to creamed leeks. With sweet garleek, developed by obsessed Dutch breeder Hans Bongers and shared for distribution with Row 7, the seed company Barber co-founded, you can use most of the green part, which adds more color to the paler leeks. There’s also a lovely jolt of brightness that the garleek adds without sacrificing the comfort food aspect of the dish. You can buy garleek at Whole Foods, Sprouts, Erewhon and many farmers markets. And if you can’t find it this year, the all-leek version of this dish won’t disappoint.