Wet Garlic

Wet garlic (sometimes known as green garlic) is picked before full maturity and eaten fresh to enjoy a tender burst of vibrant flavour without the full hit of garlic. It’s somewhere between the freshness of spring onions and the kick of dried garlic. It can be used in its entirety, stem and all.

Use wet garlic like spring onions. It is milder than dried garlic so goes well with scrambled egg. Try chopping into salads, dressings, marinades, salsa, stir-fries, stirring into mashed potato or try the simple roasting recipe below:

Roasted Wet Garlic

Serves: 2

Ingredients

2 Wet garlic bulbs
A drizzle Olive oil
A pinch Sea salt
A pinch Freshly ground pepper

Method

  1. Heat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Trim the top 3cm off the wet garlic bulbs and trim off the roots. Wash off any dirt, then halve the garlic bulbs lengthways.
  2. Pop the garlic bulb halves in a small roasting tin or baking dish and drizzle over a little olive oil. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for around 30 mins – check after 20 mins to see if they bulbs are golden brown and very tender when pressed with a fork.

Serving Instructions

Roast garlic bulbs are delicious mashed and served on the side of roast chicken, beef or lamb. Mash and stir them into mayonnaise with chopped parsley and Dijon mustard to make an aioli for dunking chips in. Or mash and spread them on toast, then top with a little grated cheese and grill to make quick garlic bread.

Chilli Pesto Garlic Bread

Serves: 6

Ingredients

medium sized white or sourdough loaf 

For the chilli pesto

1 large Red chilli 
200g Pecorino Toscano 
25g Basil
 4 large cloves Garlic
8 tbsp Olive oil
50g Pine nuts

Method

  1. Halve the chilli and discard the seeds. Put the chilli into the bowl of a food processor with the pecorino, basil leaves and stems, the raw garlic and the olive oil, then process for a few seconds. Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4.
  2. Tip the pine nuts into a shallow pan and toast over a moderate flame, shaking the pan regularly, until golden. Remove from the heat and roughly chop, then stir in the herb and chilli oil.
  3. Score the bread three of four times across the top, cutting a good two thirds of the way down to the base, then cut in the opposite direction. Place the loaf on a large piece of tinfoil and spread the pesto down into the splits in the bread. Wrap the loaf loosely in the tinfoil and bake for 45 minutes before tearing.

Serving Instructions

Tear to share!

“Growing up at Doddington, eating seasonal produce from the Kitchen Garden and farm was the only thing I knew. I learnt to cook using what was on hand here as the seasons passed and my love of cooking and good food stems from this. I strongly believe that the fresh, good quality ingredients are the foundation of delicious food.