Leek Mushroom Galette with za'atar and labneh

Do you have those moments? That you cooked something, that you couldn’t stop talking about?

I do. And yes, I quoted myself in this blog’s title! 😉

It might overcome you when you make this Leek Mushroom Galette with za’atar and labneh.

>>>

“This is good!”

“Oh, this is so good!”

“Oooooh, this is soooooo unbelievable gooohooood!”

> “Oh, shut up.”

“Oh, but I really need to say it one more time. Please!?!?!?”

> deep sigh

“This. Is. So. Oooooooh. Goooooooooood. Period.”

That we’re the kind of conversations Mr. Eats and I were having in my pre-blogging period. That time that I really started to explore my kitchen and cooked up an awful lot of different dishes that sometimes turned out so good, that I wanted to shout off about it from the rooftops. As we say in Dutch.

It made Mr. Eats decide to allow me to using the word “good” in relation to my home cooked food with a maximum of 10 times during and after a meal. Truth!

So I searched and found myself another way to express my pure joy about good (my) food: blogging, now more than 9 years ago. It resulted in writing two food blogs, various articles and recipes for online and offline magazines, and teaching about cooking in person.
And in a completely new start in English when I moved to California. Starting all over is fun, scary, difficult, exciting all at the same time. But only as long as I can make one person enthusiastic about one of my dishes and try it out, I feel it’s all worth it.

But still … I keep on doing it.

Telling Mr. Eats how much I like what I am eating at that moment. Like I did when I made this Leek Mushroom Galette with za’atar and labneh.

And Mr. Eats agreed. So here it is.

What’s a galette?
Well, that depends on who you’re asking. An ordinary Frenchmen might say “ a roundish freeform crusty cake”. A Breton will answer that it’s a pancake made with buckwheat, while a French Canadian will refer to large cookies. Today, I’ll go with the French: a nice rustic tart. Not a sweet one, but savory this time. Enter leek and mushrooms.

What’s labneh?
Labneh is an Middle Eastern thickened yogurt. You can find it in the fridge of specialized supermarkets or make it yourself by straining double the amount of (thick, Greek) yogurt overnight in a cloth, put in a strainer over a bowl. For my Dutch readers, hangop is the same thing.

I only can hope you try this recipe, and maybe even let me know that (if!) you liked it!

Leek Mushroom Galette with za’atar and labneh

The free-form part of it means that you’re not using a tart ring or pie pan. And that’s great, as this dough won’t be very ‘workable’ and easy to put in a tart form. So be ready to work a bit sloppy and not overdoing it. Really, try not to knead the dough! Work fast and not too long on it. Only that way your galette will end up flaky and crusty, and that’s what we’re after. It contrasts perfectly with the sweet leeks, earthy mushrooms and fresh labneh.

You need:
1,5 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons of za’atar (see here)
1 stick (8 T) butter
2-3 tablespoons cold water
1 small onion (or half of a big one)
1 big, or 2 normal, leek(s)
1 lb | 450 gr brown crimini mushrooms
2-3 tablespoons olive oil (or butter), plus extra
1/4 cup | 60 ml cream
1/4 cup | 60 ml labneh
salt and pepper

You do:
Start with the dough. Mix flour with 1 tablespoon of za’atar. Cut butter in small cubes and the rub butter and flour with your hands. Or put all in a kitchen machine and pulse it a few times. Add the water and mix until it all comes together at bit. No worries if part of the flour is still ‘loose’. Just don’t overwork the dough by kneading it. Put it all on a big piece of plastic foil, fold the ends of the plastic loosely over the dough. Now quickly with your hands (on the outside of the plastic) knead it together, till it more or less sticks together. Let rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Bake your veggies. Clean ’em and cut in (very) small pieces. Heat the olive oil and let the onion cook for about 10 minutes on low heat. Add leeks and let slowly cook until done. Scoop out the pan and after heating some new olive oil sauté the mushrooms. About 5 minutes, you may want them to be a little bit firm. Mix all veggies, add the rest of the za’atar and salt and pepper to taste. Let cool a bit.

Roll out the dough. Might need to slap the cold out of it with your rolling pin. Roll out to an 12 inch | 30 cm round. Put on parchment paper on a baking tray and let cool back in the fridge again for about 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven at 375 F | 190 C degrees.

Whisk cream until firm. Fold labneh in it and carefully mix in the cooled veggies. Put mixture on dough and fold outer dough (1,5 inch | 3-4 cm) over the filling. Bake in the hot oven for about 30 minutes or until the dough is done.

Tip: To help the dough color a bit, brush some whisked egg on it. If you don’t want to waste: keep 1/5 of the egg apart for this, and mix the rest of it in the filling before you put it on the dough.

Serve with dollops of extra whisked cream and labneh, garnished with fresh, cut parsley.

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Do you love to cook with your oven? Here you can find some more recipes. Or check my other recipes with leeks or mushrooms. Or check the overview of all my recipes, or only my vegan and vegetarian recipes.