Keeping Garlic for Longer

Fresh garlic always delivers the best flavour and nutritional value, and it's not long now until our new season garlic will be ready to harvest (green Elephant Garlic can be eaten from May!). Wild garlic also delivers a fabulously fresh flavour hit at this time of year - try our simple recipe for Wild Garlic Pesto with pasta or on toasted ciabatta for an instant taste of Spring.

When you want to ensure a ready-to-use stash of garlic all year round, these methods for preserving garlic are the best way to lock in the flavour to Isle of Wight garlic, so you never have to worry about being caught short.

Garlic Powder

This is great for sprinkling over vegetables, chickpeas, potatoes and chicken prior to roasting - or add a dash to salad dressings or directly over salad leaves.

How?

Slice cloves thinly and lay them flat on a baking tray. Switch oven to its lowest setting and roast the sliced cloves for a couple of hours, until they are crisp; try snapping one in half - if it breaks cleanly, it's ready, if it's still a bit soft, keep roasting! Once you are happy that the cloves have dried out completely, tip them into a food processor or spice grinder and blitz to a fine powder. Transfer to a sterile pot and use as needed.

Frozen Garlic Butter

Pre-prepped garlic butter is wonderful for cooking with (melt into mashed potato, fry mushrooms or other vegetables in, use in Chicken Kiev) but also perfect for making garlic bread whenever you are craving our most popular side dish!

How?

Crush peeled garlic cloves and mash into salted butter, in the ratio that you like best (we use roughly half and half garlic:butter). You could also add a little finely chopped parsley if desired. Scoop into a clean ice-cube tray, or store individual portions in a tupperware pot, and freeze until needed.

Frozen Garlic in oil

This is an incredibly convenient way to store garlic, so that you always have some on hand, chopped and ready to pop into a pan and start cooking. It's not only a good way to preserve garlic but is also a great time-saver for the busy cook.

How?

Crush or finely slice several cloves of Isle of Wight garlic. Tip half a clove into each cube of a clean ice-cube tray; fill with olive oil and freeze. Once the cubes have fully frozen, you can tip them out into a freezer bag or tupperware pot, so that it's easier to take one or two out as you need them.

Garlic Confit

Confit is a French method of preservation that gently poaches individual garlic cloves in olive oil, tenderising them, so that you can then use straight from the jar as needed. And once you've eaten all the garlic, you can then enjoy the delicious, garlic-infused olive oil too!

How?

To preserve whole cloves of garlic in oil, follow our recipe online here.