Everything you need to know to create spectacular dishes with green garlic and garlic scapes, including season, selection, storage, preparation, cooking, and great flavor partners.
Spring has arrived in the Northwest when the first bunches of green garlic show up at Portland Farmers Market. That’s always a momentous day for me, signaling the end of winter and the promise of blue skies and sunny days just ahead.
Both green garlic and garlic scapes are immature byproducts of bulb garlic. Green garlic hits Northwest farmers markets in early March, while garlic scapes appear briefly in late May to early June.
Green Garlic
Green garlic is simply immature “baby” garlic that’s harvested before the bulb thickens and hardens. It looks like a chubby green onion or baby leek. It has a mild, sprightly garlic flavor.
Green garlic is much milder and juicier than mature, hardened garlic bulbs.
Season
Green garlic arrives in Northwest farmers markets in early March.
Selection
Look for stalks that are firm and brilliant green. Early in the season, the bulb portion of green garlic is as slim as green onion or leek. Later in the season, the bulb begins to take of a bulbous form. Both make for might fine eating, with the more mature green garlic a bit more assertive in flavor.
Storage
Store in a loosely sealed plastic bag in the fridge for a week or longer.
Preparation
Remove the root end and green leaves at the top. Only the white and pale green portions (6-7 inches) are edible. Because green garlic is so mild, you’ll get the most flavor from it by mincing finely.
Cooking
Green garlic can be eaten raw or cooked. It’s marvelous raw in pesto, vinaigrette, and gazpacho. Or it can be slowly sautéed in the same manner as onions, shallots, garlic, and leeks. However, it doesn’t “melt” the way leeks and onions do, but instead retains its shape and crunch.
Flavor Partners
With their mellow, savory garlic-chive-green onion flavor, green garlic pairs well with everything with which garlic pairs well. The list is long and includes just about every savory ingredient under the sun, but consider almonds, bacon, basil, bread, butter, cream, cumin, eggplant, eggs, fennel, ginger, leeks, lemon, mayonnaise, mushrooms, mustard, olive oil, parsley, pasta, potatoes, rice, rosemary, shallots, thyme, tomato, and zucchini. The only issue with pairing green garlic with other flavors is its mildness. You’ll need plenty of green garlic to balance stronger flavor partners.
Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes are the curled flower stalks of a variety of hardneck garlic. The tender curled stalks appear on the garlic plant a month or so after the leafy stem, at which point they are removed to enhance growth of the bulb.
Season
Garlic scapes can be found in Northwest farmers markets briefly in late May and early June.
Selection
Look for long, gently curvy stalks that are firm, smooth, and brilliant green. The best garlic scapes are the early ones, with only one curl and the “beak” just visible above the leaves. They’re tender enough to eat raw. As garlic scapes mature, they curl dramatically and become fibrous and bitingly hot. Mature garlic scapes are still tasty but may need peeling and quick cooking to soften and tame them.
Storage
Refrigerate loosely sealed in a plastic bag for up to two weeks. For longer storage, blanch and freeze for up to three months.
Preparation
Although the entire scape is edible, with a mild, garlicky flavor, the pod and tip above it (known as the beak) can be fibrous and may need to be discarded. When possible, consider using the scapes whole, for drama. For instance, they look stunning draped across flatbread or pizza. Or side-by-side in a rectangular tart.
Cooking
Early garlic scapes have a mild garlic flavor and are tender enough to eat raw. They get tougher as the season progresses, and are then best cooked to soften.
Young, tender garlic scapes can be used raw in salads, dips, and spreads, or as a garnish. Blend them into hummus, pesto, vinaigrette, or butter to spread over grilled vegetables, flatbread, crostini, or pizza.
Garlic scapes are milder and sweeter when cooked. They can be cooked in just about any manner–steamed, blanched, roasted, grilled, or sautéed. Sautéing them briefly releases their volatile oils. When grilling, slather them in olive oil or vinaigrette to protect their skins from the heat.
Flavor Partners
With their mellow, savory garlic-chive-green onion flavor, garlic scapes pair well with everything with which garlic pairs well. The list is long and includes just about every savory ingredient under the sun, but consider almonds, bacon, basil, bread, butter, cream, cumin, eggplant, eggs, fennel, ginger, leeks, lemon, mayonnaise, mushrooms, mustard, olive oil, parsley, pasta, potatoes, rice, rosemary, shallots, thyme, tomato, and zucchini. The only issue with pairing garlic scapes with other savory flavors is its mildness. Because it’s so special and the season is brief, you’ll want to let it dominate whatever flavor pairing you select.
More LunaCafe Fresh Primers
- Fresh Primer: Apples
- Fresh Primer: Apple Cider
- Fresh Primer: Artichokes
- Fresh Primer: Blueberries
- Fresh Primer: Cherries
- Fresh Primer: Cranberries
- Fresh Primer: Lentils
- Fresh Primer: Pears
- Fresh Primer: Rhubarb
- Fresh Primer: Strawberries
- Fresh Primer: Winter Squash
Cookin’ with Gas (inspiration from around the web)
- A Garlic Primer | Mississippi Market
- All About Green Garlic & Garlic Scapes | About Food
- Everything You Need to Know about Garlic Scapes | Food & Wine
- Garlic Scape Primer | The Fridge Whisperer
- Garlic Scape Recipes: What They Are And How To Cook Them | HuffPost Taste
- Garlic Scapes | Fine Cooking
- Grassy, Sweet & In Season | New York Times
- In Season: Green Garlic & Garlic Scapes | Green Your Plate
- Real Food Right Now and How to Cook It: Garlic Scapes | Grace Communications Foundation
- What are Garlic Scapes | About Home
I had no idea!!! We only have the one sort of garlic here in the south west. boo. I always wonder about all the gorgeous and delicious produce we are missing out on living in the desert.
Scapes season is so fleeting, and they\’re such a wonderful addition to so many dishes. I\’ve already been using spring garlic like crazy. I love it\’s milder flavor and I can just chop up the whole thing 🙂
I have never used garlic scapes but now I’m going to try hem. Love the idea of your Primers also. Lots of great information!
Great article and I especially appreciated the tips on selection and storage. It seems like I can never store mine long enough to use all of what I buy. Thank You!
I’m not sure when we’ll see these in Michigan, but I’d love to try the green garlic. The only time I’ve ever found fresh garlic was actually while I was on vacation in Greece – I barely recognized it!
I have never heard or seen green garlic before. I’m in Connecticut and we are still covered in snow. I’ll have to look out for this once the farmer’s markets open.
Lisa, they are hiding next to the leeks or green onions. And the season is so brief that it’s easy to miss them. 🙂
I made a garlic scape pesto that I loved!
I can’t believe that I’ve never cooked with scapes – I’ve got to find them in the market! This was very helpful information!
Martha, thanks so much. 🙂
Susan,
It’s months before we’ll see green garlic here in Ohio–in fact, the snow disappeared just yesterday from the raised bed where my garlic is planted.
Actually, I’ve forgotten which bed it’s planted in, but once I muss up the compost and leaves I’ll see the shoots I am sure. Either way–days ago they were all buried in snow and today that snow has melted.
No matter–I’ve still got a bit of garlic scape pesto in the freezer to tide me over until Spring!
I’ve pinned this post to my Garlic Scapes Recipes Pinterest board–may I also include a link to here in my Garlic Scape Recipe Round Up from last May?
Kirsten, yes, I realized when I wrote this primer that we are very lucky in Portland to have such an early spring this year. Seeing those first bunches of green garlic actually thrilled me to the core. Hopefully you will be seeing spring soon too. 🙂 Yes of course would be honored to be part of your garlic scape roundup. I’m doing one too this year. May I include a link from your site as well?
Susan,
I’ve updated my round up to include your primer, thank you! Here’s the link: http://www.farmfreshfeasts.com/2014/05/28-recipes-using-garlic-scapes-recipe.html
This is so informative! I love love love using garlic scapes but can hardly find them even in season. So I’ve decided to growing my own .Can’t wait until they come in!
Des, oh how I miss having a garden this year (gave up the summer cottage). I would be planting garlic like crazy. But the pots on the deck are reserved for flowers and a few key herbs. Luckily we are walking distance from the downtown Portland Farmers Market. I’m going to be ready with ideas this year when scapes hit the market. The season is so brief, and I really want to push my understanding of this lovely ingredient this season.