Leek Focaccia with Feta and Toasted Pine Nuts

Name: Leek Focaccia with Feta and Toasted Pine Nuts
Prep time: 120 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 145 min
Yield: 2 focaccia
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon active dry yeast; 1 1/2 cups warm water ((warmed to 80 degrees)); 4 tablespoons olive oil, (divided); 2 teaspoons salt; 4 1/2- 5 cups bread flour; 2 medium organic leeks, (cut each leek down middle and wash well to remove dirt; thinly slice white and pale green parts); 1 tablespoon olive oil; salt and white pepper to taste; 1/4 cup toasted pine nuts; 1/4 cup feta cheese, (crumbled)

12/03/2015 Updated: 03/27/2019 By Karrie 35 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

Leek Focaccia with Feta and Toasted Pine Nuts is an easy and delicious bread to add to this year’s holiday brunch, lunch or dinner.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend spending lots of quality time with family and friends. I had such a relaxing mini vacay that it’s taking me some time to get back into the swing of things (aka: real life). In case you guys are wondering exactly what kind of grand ol’ time I had celebrating the holiday, this is what I did:

I ate
I napped
I ate again
I napped again
Repeat sequence eight more times

Alright, that may be a slight exaggeration and I might have accomplished a few more things in-between all the eating and napping, but I will admit the most common denominator was definitely the eating.

Total overindulgence to the max by participating in two separate, yet complete, Thanksgiving dinners (one with the family and one with friends). I ate more food than any person in their right mind should. It was bad. Well, it wasn’t that bad because all the food was kick-ass to the tenth degree but, nonetheless, it was bad.

After two days of the “stuffing my face-a-thon”, I decided to push aside the leftover turkey and trimmings for a big pot of my low fat and low calorie Chipotle Butternut Squash Soup, that’s chock-full of healthy, organic veggies.

As I started preparing it, I had a moment of panic that I wouldn’t get my carby bread intake for the day, so I promptly got out the pure-white-flour-of-no-significant-nutritional-value-whatsoever and made this leek focaccia with feta and toasted pine nuts. So much for the idea of eating a single 100% healthy meal during this holiday season.

The leeks I used are from my last organic CSA share. I have two more left and am closely guarding them like they are Fort Knox gold bars. The fantastic thing about buying in-season produce directly from a local farm is the vegetables stay fresher for longer periods, so these leeks will still be good until I’m ready to use them.

I’ve held squashes, beets, and cabbage in a perfectly fresh state for months after they had been picked, which is so wonderful during the NH winter months. I’ll be very sad when the last of my leeks are finally used up, but it’s better to have loved and eaten a sweet local leek then never to have loved at all.

Hey, you may be thinking that there’s a ton of leeks on this bread and it might be a bit of an overkill. Well, I like a lot of leeks. I sauté them until they are just cooked through, maintaining a slight bite and delicious sweet taste, then I (over)load them up on the bread.

It’s probably too many leeks per a typical focaccia and I’m sure many may consider this to be an open faced leek sandwich. All that is just fine by me. The more leeks the better is my standing motto…it’s also a tattoo on my bum (oops, TMI??)

If you’ve got some beautiful fresh leeks laying around, do them a favor and make this easy Leek Focaccia with Feta and Toasted Pine Nuts. By the way, this recipe is completely vegetarian and can easily be made vegan just by omitting the feta cheese.