Wild Leeks and Butter
Ramps picked young, cooked down in butter until soft. Two ingredients, one pan.
- calories
- 220
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 63
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 min
- water
- 250 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Day hike
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Day one only
- Basic
Ingredients
| Wild leeks (ramps) | 2 packed cups | pick them young, leaves about six inches |
|---|---|---|
| Butter | 2 tbsp | ghee if it will sit warm in the pack |
| Salt | to taste | |
| Water for washing | 250 ml | grit is the whole problem |
Method
- Trim the roots. Split any bulb thicker than a pencil so it cooks at the same rate as the leaves.
Ramps are a foraged, day-one ingredient, so this stays a car-camping or basecamp dish rather than a trail dinner. The only real technique is washing. They grow in leaf litter and hold grit down in the sheath, so a lazy rinse means sand in every bite. Two changes of water, and split the fat bulbs open before the last one.
Butter does the rest. The bulbs are sharp raw and go sweet as they soften, and fat is what carries that flavor instead of boiling it off. Keep the heat moderate: ramps scorch faster than onions do, and burnt garlic is what they taste like when you push them. Ghee holds up better than butter if the cooler is not a real cooler.
Packing
Ramps go in a paper bag or a loose cloth sack, never sealed plastic, or they sweat and turn slimy by afternoon. Butter rides in a small screw-top tub. Cut ghee if the day is hot.
Variations
- Dice the cooked ramps into ground meat and cook as patties on a grate.
- Add them to a potato soup with sliced kielbasa.
- Stuff a handful into the cavity of a trout before it goes on the fire.
- Dehydrate a batch at home and they season everything for the rest of the year.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/leek-recipes.6111