Mediterranean Leeks Casserole (Tavë me Presh) (2024)

This Mediterranean Leeks Casserole is the perfect Winter casserole made with leeks, rice, onions, garlic, crushed tomatoes, seasonings and more. Don’t forget the lemon juice and fresh lemon slices for that added extra flavor!! Usually we serve this meal with bread and salad!

Growing up in the Mediterranean, winter meals meant lots of cabbage, leeks, and spinach dishes. They’re so versatile, you can cook casseroles or stews if you just add a handful of ingredients. My favorite thing about this specific casserole is that you can adjust it to make it vegan or keto with just few slight substitutes.

Healthy Benefits of Leeks

Leeks are a great source of antioxidants.They are shown to help with heart related issues and have cancer fighting qualities. This vegetable is a great source of Vitamin K and Vitamin B6. Leeks also have lots of manganese, copper, iron, folic acid etc.

I was surprised at how a lot of people I know are unfamiliar with leeks. They look like a green onion on steroids. Even though they come from the same family as onions and garlic, they have a milder taste.

Leeks won’t make your eyes watery and they don’t give you bad breath either. But they still do carry a lot of the health benefits that onions and garlic have!! So load up on leeks!! Casseroles are an awesome way to increase your leek consumption. I also make a that is very famous for the Holidays:).

Preparing Leeks for Cooking

Leeks need to be cleaned and prepped before cooking. Because of the way they grow they can accumulate dirt and sand under the layers so that’s why they need to be cleaned carefully. I usually cut the white part, remove a thin slice from the top and then remove a layer or two. I wash each individually, put them in water then slice them in half inch to an inch medallions and add then to water again so they can soak for a while as I prepare everything else.

Then the ‘tail’ part, the green part of the leek is cleaned and washed thoroughly layer by layer. You can choose to include the green part on the casserole or cook them separately for another dish like pispili (shapkat) or Albanian byrek.

Making The Casserole

Start by getting all the ingredients together. It helps to shorten cooking time. Once I am done cleaning and cutting the leeks, then I start chopping the onion and mincing the garlic. I tend to use fresh parsley and crushed tomatoes for this dish.

You can replace fresh parsley with dry and if you don’t have crushed tomatoes, use diced tomatoes or tomato sauce.

Best thing about this dish is that you can add more rice for a bigger casserole or less rice for a stronger leeks taste.

Saute diced onions and minced garlic in olive oil. Add ground beef and brown thoroughly as you mix with an wooden spoon. Slowly add all the other ingredients as seen in the video and described in the recipe card below. Let cook until rice has absorbed most of the liquid and the mix looks like a thick stew.

Transfer the leeks stew into the casserole dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and bake casserole for about 45 minutes. This Mediterranean Leeks Casserole will be one of you winter favorite meals:).

Recipe Modifications (Includes Keto and Vegan options)

Keto variation – My husband is currently doing a low carb diet so in order not to cook 2 separate dinners, I did the following. I did everything the same until step 7, then before adding rice I separated part of the leek mixture in a separate, smaller baking dish and baked that separately in the toaster oven for 35 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Vegetarian/vegan version – to make a vegan version of this casserole, omit the ground beef, double the rice to 1 cup instead of half a cup and replace the broth with vegetable broth.You can also add more parsley and more herbs for additional flavor.

How to Serve this Leek Casserole?

In Albania we eat this dish with toasted bread and drizzled with fresh lemon juice on top.

You can serve this dish with a fresh salad or a light soup to start with. In that case, chances are you’ll have plenty of leftovers. This dish tastes better the next day because the flavors have had time to really work together. I have never frozen the leftovers so I don’t know if it holds frozen.

My favorite salad to serve this Mediterranean casserole is this green salad made with lettuce, kalamata olives, lemon slices and onions. Add salt, some red wine vinegar and olive oil to salad and enjoy:). This salad compliments the casserole to perfection!

Additional Notes & Tips

This easy leek casserole is amazing!! If you have never tried leeks, it might take you a while to like this dish. But I hope you give it a try. It’s healthy and delicious:).

If you are not a fan of casseroles, there’s a way to make this into a stew instead of baking it. I’ll have to do it again so I can give you exact cooking times. To make it into a leeks stew, use meat chunks instead of ground beef. Don’t include rice in the recipe. Follow all steps pretty closely up to number 8. There’s no point in separating for keto since you’re not adding rice. Add water or broth then cook until ready. Don’t stir too often and cook in low temperatures.

If you would like to save this Leek Casserole recipe for later, please save the below image to Pinterest:

Other Mediterranean Recipes:

If you would like to check my other Mediterranean recipes please check out the below links:

• Stuffed Peppers
• Mediterranean Asparagus Soup
• Tarragon Chicken In White Wine Sauce
• Mediterranean Potato Salad
• Baked Mediterranean Branzino

Frequently Asked Questions