Garlic scapes, shoots, greens

[liuzhou]

 

Garlic scapes are very common here. They're just treated as another green vegetable to be served as a side to other dishes. Usually simply stir fried (in lard).

 

Or used in other stir fries alongside other ingredients.

 

Stir fried garlic scapes with ham

 

They are also grilled by roadside vendors as a popular street food snack.

 

 

Edited July 13 by liuzhou (log)

[Ddanno]

I've been trying to get hold of them on and off for a while but the only source here I know of is a speciality farm that sells out almost as soon as they're available (and they're bloody expensive). I'd love to try them chargrilled, smacked up in a ratatouille, part of a pesto etc.

Edited July 12 by Ddanno (log)

[blue_dolphin]

If you search eG for “garlic scapes” you’ll find some good ideas, including pickling them, if you have an abundance. 
Like @Ddanno, they’re not all that easy for me to come by so when called for in a recipe, I often have to use garlic chives instead. 

[ElsieD]

2 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

If you search eG for “garlic scapes” you’ll find some good ideas, including pickling them, if you have an abundance. 
Like @Ddanno, they’re not all that easy for me to come by so when called for in a recipe, I often have to use garlic chives instead. 

I did do a search for garlic scapes but I got a message that nothing could be found.  I thought that odd.  Now that i've checked again, there are a bunch of ideas.  I must have searched on "topics" rather than "everywhere".  Thanks you.

[Ddanno]

https://www.thegarlicfarm.co.uk/blogs/recipes/how-to-cook-garlic-scapes

 

Here's the farm mentioned above and their suggestions for how to use them

[FauxPas]

6 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Does anyone use garlic scapes?  If yes, how to you use them?

 

I've used them in the most obvious way, which to me is pesto! 

 

But I also used them to make the Green Garlic Dressing that I love so much, though the scapes didn't seem to break down the same way that the green garlic does and I ended up straining after blending. It still tasted great, and I guess you could skip the straining but I didn't like the texture. The end result was not nearly as thick as using green garlic but it may be that the scapes i used were getting a bit old? 

 

Green Garlic Salad Dressing 

 

3 stalks green garlic (white and green parts) chopped

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 

1 teaspoon mustard (I used a honey garlic mustard)

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon lemon juice 

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Blend until dressing is smooth and emulsified (like a smoothy).

Refrigerate. 

 

Drizzle green garlic dressing on anything to add a sweet, intense garlic flavor.

From salads to pasta, to bruschetta and roasted vegetables.

 

 

 Edited to add:  I tried pickling them one year but I honestly did not like the result. The texture was not pleasant to us and not sure the garlic flavour was intense enough. But that may have been me, I know other people like them pickled. 

Edited July 13 by FauxPas (log)

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Ddanno said:

I've been trying to get hold of them on and off for a while but the only source here I know of is a speciality farm that sells out almost as soon as they're available (and they're bloody expensive).

 

I'm surprised to learn they are expensive in the UK. Maybe because they are little known and so, low demand? They certainly aren't expensive to produce.

Here they are towards the upper end of green vegetable prices, but I don't think anyone would call them "expensive". About the equivalent of ₤1.40 for 400 grams today. For others elsewhere, that's about  $1.90 USD.

 

 

Edited July 13 by liuzhou (log)

[Neely]

I recently had garlic scapes risotto at a restaurant and it was really good. Of course I don’t know how it was actually made but I could see they were finely chopped and incorporated into the rice. You can see two asparagus spears as a garnish which could be confusing but the flavour was different so I asked. You can also see white garlic flowers used as a garnish. 
 

[donk79]

12 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

 Edited to add:  I tried pickling them one year but I honestly did not like the result. The texture was not pleasant to us and not sure the garlic flavour was intense enough. But that may have been me, I know other people like them pickled. 

They can get fibrous,  depending on when they are picked.  Sometimes I have some that I will eat as they are.  Other times I stick to using them as an ingredient, blended or finely chopped.

[chromedome]

19 hours ago, ElsieD said:

Does anyone use garlic scapes?  If yes, how to you use them?  I have a bunch and don't know what to do with them.  They came from a joint garden we have with my SIL.

I use them stir-fried, in risotto, in frittatas, etc, but the low-effort option is just to puree them with a bit of oil (I blanch mine first, because I find the color and flavor hold up better). I pack mine flat in ziploc bags with the air squeezed out, and then whenever I want the garlic flavor and a bit of color in what I'm cooking, I just break off a piece and return the rest to the freezer. 

I grow a fair-sized patch of garlic, enough to more or less do us for the full year, so I also get enough scapes to last us from one summer to the next when treated this way. 

[FauxPas]

14 hours ago, liuzhou said:

I'm surprised to learn they are expensive in the UK. Maybe because they are little known and so, low demand? They certainly aren't expensive to produce.

 

Some growers here used to give them away but since scapes have become a popular ingredient they have started charging, although usually just a couple of dollars for a batch. 

[TdeV]

5 hours ago, chromedome said:

I grow a fair-sized patch of garlic, enough to more or less do us for the full year, so I also get enough scapes to last us from one summer to the next when treated this way. 

 

This is not obvious to me in the farmers' market:

 

Are the garlic scapes cut from young plants only? Does cutting off the scape kill the rest of the garlic plant?

 

 

[chromedome]

Just now, TdeV said:

 

This is not obvious to me in the farmers' market:

 

Are the garlic scapes cut from young plants only? Does cutting off the scape kill the rest of the garlic plant?

 

 

You get scapes only from hard-neck garlic varieties, the kind that have that woody stem in the middle. 

In my part of the world it's planted in the autumn for a mid-summer harvest, usually toward the end of July or beginning of August (it depends on the local microclimate). Garlic scapes are a seed stem put out by the plant about 4-5 weeks before it's due to harvest. So they're always young plants, in that they aren't yet fully mature. I usually try to grab the scapes just as they get large enough to curl properly, when they're less likely to be woody (bear in mind, these grow from the relatively woody stem, so they do have a fairly stiff texture). 

 

Cutting off the scape doesn't kill the plant, just prevents it from diverting any energy away from the production of large bulbs. I've seen varying opinions as to how much letting the seedpod mature affects the bulbs' growth, but on the whole Mother Nature is a frugal ol' gal and not big on the whole "belt and suspenders" thing. So I err on the side of caution and harvest my scapes, to maximize bulb size (just in case it matters). But no, it doesn't kill or otherwise damage the plant itself. 

 

[Ddanno]

22 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

I'm surprised to learn they are expensive in the UK. Maybe because they are little known and so, low demand? They certainly aren't expensive to produce.

Here they are towards the upper end of green vegetable prices, but I don't think anyone would call them "expensive". About the equivalent of ₤1.40 for 400 grams today. For others elsewhere, that's about  $1.90 USD.

 

 

 

Demand is probably the largest factor as you say, but then again I don't see a lot of UK produced garlic on the shelves (it's mostly Spanish if memory serves) and scapes don't seem like they'd travel well, so I'd speculate there's a supply issue on top of that.

 

ETA: The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight seems to be the only, or one of the only commercial producers (IoW has a micro-climate which is suited to growing it) in the UK, although you can buy bulbs to plant at home

Edited July 14 by Ddanno (log)

[liuzhou]

5 hours ago, Ddanno said:

it's mostly Spanish

 

I don't know for sure, but it strikes me it is much more likely to be Chinese. China exports approximately ⅔ of the world supply. 20.5 million tonnes in 2021 compared to Spain's .03 million, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Statistics Division (FAOSTAT)

[liuzhou]

Did you know that the word 'garlic' in English is derived from the Old English gárléac from gar + léac meaning 'spear leek', so originally referring to the shoots or scapes rather than the bulb?

 

Maybe they were more important to the English 2,000 years ago. I don't know; I wasn't around then although my great-grand children think I was!