What's in Season in Spring? Green Garlic.

Since local foods are starting to pop up (literally! I’m starting to see them coming in my garden!), I’m going to start a new series to talk about a few of them and how we can use them in our cooking.

In the past couple of weeks, you may have seen something that looks kind of like a green onion, but not quite.

It has a white base like a green onion although it’s a bit bigger and its green stems are more flat than rounded.

It’s called green garlic.

Green garlic is a younger version of the garlic we know well and use in our cooking. It’s milder and can be used in many recipes. You can eat the white and green parts.

The younger version of this garlic has the same amazing health benefits as its older version making it an excellent addition to your recipes.

Not to mention it’s local and can basically be grown anywhere which is fantastic news for our environment.

Health Benefits of Garlic:

Helps to reduce cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure
Garlic’s sulfur-containing compounds can be beneficial to the upper digestive tract.
We need to eat garlic in our meals at least 2-3 times a week in order to see these health benefits.
Use it raw and cooked. Raw garlic retains its health benefits more so than when it is cooked.
Dried garlic doesn’t have the same effect as raw or cooked. Tastes good though!

Recipe: Quinoa (or rice or millet) with Green Garlic

Recently, I cooked a stalk of green garlic with some leftover quinoa.

Simply slice the ends off of the green garlic and thinly slice the entire vegetable including the green parts.

Put a tablespoon of olive oil into a pan and sauté the green garlic for 1-2 minutes. Add quinoa (about 1-2 cups) and stir. Add a bit of salt and pepper and voila! You have a flavourful side dish. We ate ours with fish.

Use green garlic in soups, stirfrys and as a salad topper.

Don’t let this one go to waste!

Have you heard of green garlic before?