Meet Sweet Garleek, the New Vegetable Hybrid of Garlic and Leek That’s Flying off the Shelves
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As the head of Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Dan Barber has helped define the fine-dining scene in the United States. The chef is hoping that he can do the same thing with the grocery-store produce section.
Five years ago, Barber helped found Row 7 Seed Company, which has just debuted its latest creation: Sweet Garleek. The allium is a mix between garlic and leek (hence the name), and it’s now available at 25 Whole Foods locations in the New York area, New York magazine’s Grub Street reported recently.
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“Garleek is not something anyone was asking for because no one knew the love child of garlic and leek was possible,” Barber told the outlet.
Yet here it is: about 19 inches long, with a thin white bulb and flat green stems. Grub Street described the vegetable as less pungent than a regular old clove of garlic, but with a butter-like flavor when cooked. Grassy and sweet, it can be enjoyed sautéed, grilled, or raw, according to the company.
Sweet Garleek was bred by Hans Bongers, who worked for a decade to come up with the ideal version of the allium. Patch Troffer, Row 7’s culinary director, then collaborated with 150 farmers and chefs across the globe, getting their opinions on how it grew and how it tasted. One of those farmers, Charlie Muzzarelli, told Grub Street that the veggie grows more quickly than leeks, and it can be planted and harvested several times a year, unlike green garlic.
While its debut in the New York region now brings it to millions of people, it will expand to the West Coast and the mid-Atlantic before rolling out nationwide in 2024. Current trends seem to suggest that it’ll be a hit: Liz Mahler, the COO of Row 7, said that Sweet Garleek has had an 82 percent sell-through rate during the three weeks it’s been in Whole Foods stores.
“It wasn’t something where I was like, ‘They needed to come up with this,’” Jon Fell, a Whole Foods customer, told Grub Street. “But I could see using it—it’s like a great-aunt to the onion.”
A bit of a fun, quirky great-aunt, at that.
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