It’s spring, and wild garlic is popping up! It’s just for a short season, so I thought of freezing wild garlic ice cubes to preserve its flavor. You might find wild garlic in the wild, or you can also get it freshly picked at the supermarket. Preserving the flavor by freezing is super simple and works perfectly! You’ll end up with a bag of wild garlic puree in your freezer that you can use whenever you like. If you want a dried version for the pantry, drying wild garlic also works nicely to preserve that spring flavor.
Ingredients for making Wild Garlic Ice Cubes:
- Fresh wild garlic
Needed Equipment:
- Mixer
- Ice cube tray
How to make Wild Garlic Ice Cubes:
Take your fresh wild garlic and give it a good wash. Next, chop it roughly. Otherwise, the blender might act up (at least mine did). Then, pop everything into the blender and blend until you get a beautifully smooth, bright green puree. Add a little bit of cold water to the blender to speed up the blending process.
Pour it into ice cube trays and freeze overnight. The next day, I transferred the cubes into a bag, so the ice cube tray was ready for the next round. It’s such a great way to preserve that fresh wild garlic flavor. Just drop a cube into a stir-fry, a soup, or a salad dressing and have an instant flavor boost!
I hope you enjoyed this hack to preserve our delicious wild garlic. Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Important Knowledge about Wild Garlic:
Make sure to educate yourself before foraging. You will have to be extra careful when foraging wild garlic. There are some poisonous plants to confuse wild garlic with! Lily of the Valley, autumn crocuses, corn lilies, and others, can easily be confused with wild garlic. A deadly error!
Consult with a professional when foraging. You can go the safe route and buy them in the store when in season.
Educate yourself thoroughly before foraging, as there are some dangerous lookalikes to wild garlic. The key identifier is its strong garlic scent; however, caution is advised; once you’ve rubbed a few leaves between your fingers, the garlic smell lingers on your hands, making it hard to safely identify additional plants. Wild garlic features broad, oval-shaped green leaves, each growing from its own stem. The tops of the leaves are glossy and dark green, while the undersides are matte with a distinct central vein and several parallel veins alongside it. This matte underside helps distinguish it from toxic imposters. The plant also produces edible, white, star-shaped flowers with six petals. Wild garlic typically thrives in moist, shady environments with nutrient-rich soil and grows from a small bulb, much like other members of the allium family.
The best time to harvest wild garlic is between March and May before the plant starts to flower. After flowering, it loses some of its intense flavor, but you can still use it, and even the white flowers are edible. The best time to collect is in the morning when the leaves are still fresh and juicy. Only cut one leaf per plant to avoid weakening it too much. It’s best to use scissors or a small knife or gently snap the leaf off without pulling up the root. Avoid digging up the whole plant so it can regrow, and you can harvest again next year.
Some Recipe Suggestions:
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Wild garlic ice cubes
Wild garlic season is short, but you can enjoy it all year long with this easy trick! Just blend and freeze in ice cube trays. These wild garlic ice cubes are perfect for soups, sauces, and quick seasoning boosts.
- Total Time: 24 Hours
Ingredients
Fresh wild garlic
Instructions
Notes
Make sure to educate yourself before foraging. Lily of the Valley, autumn crocuses, corn lilies, and others, can easily be confused with wild garlic. A deadly error! You can go the safe route and buy them in the store when in season.
- Prep Time: 10 Minutes
- Freeze Time: 24 Hours
- Category: Kitchen Hack
- Method: Freezing
- Cuisine: International
- Diet: Vegan