Everything You Need To Know About Green Garlic

Regular garlic with its papery white peels and cluster of cloves are easy to identify, but how about green garlic with its long tender stalks and green leaves? Is it the same as garlic scapes, green onions or even garlic itself? Here's everything you need to know about green garlic.

What is green garlic?

Botanically classified as Allium sativum, green garlic is a young garlic plant that’s harvested before maturity. Also known as spring garlic or baby garlic, green garlic can be identified by its long, slender green leaves—similar to green onions and spring onions—and, depending on the stage of growth when it was pulled, a tiny undivided bulb near its roots. The latter sometimes has a pink or purple tinge.

Early-harvested garlic plants have been used for centuries in Europe and Asia, especially in India, but have recently become a popular ingredient in North America. While it was traditionally culled when farmers were thinning their garlic field, it’s now grown specifically for harvest as a crop of its own.

When is green garlic in season in Canada?

Available in late winter to early summer, the peak season for green garlic is early spring, with crops popping up around March or April.

What does it taste like?

Brighter and milder than regular garlic, green garlic has garlic’s heady, savoury aroma, but with less heat than mature garlic. When eaten raw, it tastes sharp, with subtle fresh, vegetal undertones—similar to a hybrid between scallion and leek. Like all garlic, green garlic’s taste mellows out when cooked.

How is green garlic different from scallions or green onions?

Green garlic has a similar appearance to many members of the allium family that have long stalks and tender green leaves, but there are differences between each species.

While green garlic has a similar appearance to scallions (a.k.a. green onions) or spring onions (Allium cepa)—which are both young onions at various stages of growth, harvested before the bulb has had a chance to swell—it is immature garlic.

(Photo: iStock)

Is green garlic the same as garlic scapes?

No. In contrast to garlic scapes (the flowering stalks of the mature hard-necked garlic), green garlic has tender leaves and is harvested before the garlic bulbs develop. Garlic scapes also look like thin, green, curly, straw-shaped vegetables that start tender, but get tougher as they mature. Besides having a more tender-crisp texture than soft green garlic, the flavour of scapes is stronger. However, scapes can be substituted for green garlic and vice versa.

These are garlic scapes, not green garlic (Photo: iStock)

What are its nutritional benefits?

Green garlic has the same nutritional benefits as mature garlic, including a high amount of allicin, vitamin C, manganese, vitamin B6 and traces of iron, phosphorus and calcium.

Where can I find green garlic?

Typically found at farmers’ markets and CSA boxes in the spring, green garlic is sold whole, sometimes bundled as multiple stalks. In Ontario, look for it starting in March at places like the Uxbridge Farmers' Market, from producers such as Ottawa Garlic, or specialty grocers like Iqbal Foods. Choose a bunch that has fresh green tops and avoid those with dried leaves.

If you garden, you can grow green garlic from garlic seeds purchased from vendors like John Boy Farms.

How do you store green garlic, and how long does it keep?

Unlike its mature form, green garlic lasts from five to seven days if stored in the refrigerator. To keep it fresh for longer, wrap it in a damp paper towel and store it in a plastic bag in the refrigerator or keep it refrigerated in a tall glass with its roots submerged in water.

You can also dehydrate it to make garlic chips or powder, or slice it and freeze it in an airtight container for six to eight months.

How do I freeze green garlic?

Alex Chesney, a registered dietician and farmer at Thames River Melons in Innerkip, Ont., says that "you can simply dice it and freeze it in bags, or add it to mini ice cube trays, top with oil and freeze. Once frozen, pop the cubes out and store in a freezer-safe bag or container for quick and easy use in a stir-fry or soup. Feel free to add other herbs as well!"

How do I prep green garlic?

To use, simply wash and remove the roots at the base plus any wilted or tough leaves. Unlike garlic, there is no need to peel the immature bulb.

How do I eat green garlic? What green garlic recipes should I use?

Versatile and flavourful, green garlic can easily be used in everyday cooking. Great raw or cooked, the entire vegetable can be consumed like leeks or green onions, and used in anything that typically employs regular garlic, green onions or leeks. One stalk and bulb of green garlic has been equated to a small onion or leek, or clove of mature garlic. And since green garlic has a fresh, mild garlic flavour, you might need a little more of it if you do use it as a garlic substitute.

Green garlic pairs well with seafood, meats and poultry; try it with salmon cooked en papillote or as a ginger and green garlic sauce over steamed red snapper. It gives legumes such as lentils, chickpeas and beans a fresh boost similar to bay leaf. Green garlic’s fresh flavours work well in a cooling vichyssoise, or as part of a creamy dip for crudités. The aromatic vegetable also plays well with herbs including mint, parsley, basil and sage, plus roots like ginger.

Sliced, green garlic can be used as a garnish like green onions, tossed into pasta, stir-fries, risotto, or used to finish dishes like fried rice with egg. Green garlic can also be used to flavour stocks, soups and chowders, taking the place of the leek and garlic in this dairy-kissed spring leek-and-garlic soup or lightening the bite in this raw green goddess soup. Blitz a bunch to make pesto, or simply dehydrate until crispy and then blitz it in the food processor and use it as a seasoning.

The flat, dark green leaves can be added to salads or, when minced, added to salad dressings and vinaigrettes, compound butter or sauces, scrambled eggs or stuffing. For a slight garlicky kick, top a baked potato or nachos with green garlic or used instead of green onions in dishes like chèvre-scallion mashed potatoes and green onion flatbreads.

Crisp and succulent, the green stalks and juicy developing bulb have a nutty-oniony flavour that is great roasted or grilled in butter or olive oil, or poached or braised until they are sweet and tender. Green garlic is also great for pickling. Serve picked green garlic as part of an an antipasti platter or blend it into dips.