6 Ideas for Discovering Garlic Scapes

When you first saw garlic scapes, do you remember what you thought?

Did you say to yourself "look at those beautiful, delicate, curved stems with their intoxicating fragrance"? or rather "look at that funny vegetable that looks like a rodent's tail, I think I'll put this in the exchange basket and pick up something else I know…"?

Unfortunately, the second reaction is the most common, and if it's been yours, let me tell you that you're missing out on a truly succulent vegetable!

Garlic scapes are like garlic, with all its nutritional, health and taste properties, but milder and easier to digest!

At the start of the season, I use at least 5 garlic scapes in almost all my recipes. Slice, slice, slice, and it's the base of flavor for almost every dish: stir-fries, omelettes, sauces, vinaigrettes, soups and so on.

But for a little more inspiration, here are 6 ideas that might just spark your imagination and make you want to try these tender stems in your next basket!

Make a garlic scape butter

For a super-fast garlic butter: chop your garlic scapes or process them in a food processor with a little oil. Mix with softened butter and you've got a delicious garlic butter to enhance your croutons, meat, fish, potatoes, snails or roasted vegetables.

For even more flavor, you can sauté chopped garlic scapes in a little oil for 1-2 minutes before adding them to the butter!

Cook them on the BBQ

Like to cook vegetables on the bbq? Try adding garlic scapes to your selection! I like to season them with a little chimichurri or just oil and salt and cook them for a few minutes over medium heat on a foil plate.

We then eat it with our fingers on the side to add a little garlic flavor to our bite with the protein.

Steamed garlic scapes

Looking for a tender, tasty side dish for your main course? Steam your garlic scapes in a steamer for a few minutes and serve with a little salt.

Garlic scapes will enhance the flavors of many dishes such as roasted fish, chicken, tofu, tempeh or grilled meats. You can also add them to rice or quinoa, or mix them with other vegetables in a stir-fry or salad!

Burgers full of flavour

Want to make burgers with even more flavor the next time the weather's nice? Chop your garlic scapes and mix them with a little salt in your meat mixture.

With medium-lean meat, the patty should hold together well, but if you're using extra-lean meat and find that the patty is likely to fall apart, mix an egg into your mixture.

Sautéed garlic scapes

Cut your garlic scapes into bean-length sections and sauté in a pan with sunflower oil and a little salt. You'll have a delicious crunchy vegetable to replace asparagus or beans.

Pizza with garlic scapes

At the beginning of the season, the more "traditional" summer fruit vegetables (zucchini, peppers, cherry tomatoes) for pizza are not yet available, so we have to be creative in our choice of toppings. Garlic scapes are really perfect for pizza, where they add flavor and crunch.

Here's a pizza made with scallions, garlic scapes, asparagus and pea shoots. You can also use all kinds of other leafy vegetables in your pizzas: spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, kale, etc.

I hope these ideas will make you want to give those garlic scapes a try next time you have the opportunity to take them in your organic basket!

For more information about our organic vegetable baskets visit this page, you can also sign up right from our webpage.