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Leeks with ham

Name: Leeks with ham
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 38 min
Total time: 1 h 38 min
Yield: 4 people
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 80 g Comté cheese; 4 leeks; 4 tablespoons olive oil; 1 litre milk; 2 cloves garlic; 4 slices ham; Salt; Pepper

In this recipe, we're going to treat leeks a bit like endives with ham, for a slightly atypical but delicious gratin with leek béchamel sauce.

2,483 4.3/5 (3 reviews)

Duration

1 hour 40 min.

Difficulty

Easy

Last modified on: March 22^th 2026

Step by step recipe Ingredients Duration Nutritional facts Cost Comments Support the site ❤️

For 4 people, you will need:

1 80 g Comté cheese
2 4 leeks
3 4 tablespoons olive oil
4 1 litre milk
5 2 cloves garlic
6 4 slices ham
7 Salt
8 Pepper
Total weight: 2,240 grams

Times for this recipe

Preparation

1 hour

Cooking

40 min.

All in all

1 hour 40 min.

Preparation 1 hour

Cooking 40 min.

When should you start or finish this recipe?

If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time

To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 3 min.

Grate 80 g Comté cheese and set aside.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 10 min.

Preparing leeks

Cut off the base of 4 leeks, then cut the stem down to the beginning of the green leaves, the part often called the "white".

Wash and dry the whites, and cut them to about the width of your gratin dish.

Reserve the green leeks for later.

Stage 3 - ⌛ 3 min.

Cut the egg whites in 2 lengthwise and season with salt.

Stage 4 - ⌛ 3 min.

Pour 4 tablespoons olive oil into a large frying pan over medium heat, and when hot, drop in the leek halves.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 8 min.

Brown them on both sides over low heat, to taste, then remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 5 min.

Leek béchamel sauce

Prepare and chop the green leeks.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 10 min.

Pour 1 litre milk into a saucepan, add salt, leek greens and 2 cloves garlic, then cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 2 min.

Pour the contents of the saucepan into a colander set over a salad bowl, and scoop out all the leek milk, pressing down on the leeks with the back of a tablespoon.

Remove and discard the garlic cloves, and set aside the green of the cooked leeks, which you can use for another recipe.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 20 min.

Use the leek milk to make a béchamel sauce, then add half the grated Comté cheese and set aside.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 2 min.

Assembling the gratin

Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F).

Place a layer of béchamel sauce in the bottom of your gratin dish.

Stage 11

Reconstitute a leek by assembling 2 halves.

Stage 12

Roll it in a slice of ham.

Stage 13 - ⌛ 10 min.

And place in the dish, doing the same for all the leeks.

Stage 14 - ⌛ 2 min.

Top with a generous dollop of béchamel sauce, then sprinkle with the remaining grated Comté cheese.

Stage 15 - ⌛ 20 min.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes, giving a little broil at the end if necessary to get a nice color on the top.

Stage 16

Enjoy warm, but not hot.

Remarks

For a quicker version, as in the original recipe, leave the leek whites unsplit and steam them whole.

You can use cheeses other than Comté, but preferably a hard one (Gruyère, Emmenthal, etc.) to brown the top.

Keeping: 1 or 2 days in the fridge, protected by cling film.

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Nutritional information

	Proteins	Carbohydrates	Fats	Calories	Energy
Per 100 g	5 g RDI=9 %	5 g RDI=2 %	7 g RDI=11 %	115 kcal RDI=6 %	484 kJ RDI=6 %
Per person	33 g RDI=51 %	28 g RDI=11 %	44 g RDI=61 %	647 kcal RDI=32 %	2,709 kJ RDI=32 %
Whole recipe	132 g RDI=204 %	113 g RDI=43 %	178 g RDI=244 %	2,588 kcal RDI=129 %	10,837 kJ RDI=129 %