The wild garlic season is short and wants to be savored all the more intensively. If you want to enjoy wild garlic the rest of the year, you can preserve the wild vegetables. We present different methods.
In spring, the leaves of the aromatic wild garlic only sprout from the ground for a few weeks. The wild garlic season usually runs from mid-March to early May. Then the wild garlic begins to bloom. Contrary to widespread belief, the weed is not poisonous, but the leaves become fibrous and lose their taste.
In order to be able to enjoy wild garlic all year round, you can preserve it. This is also recommended if you have harvested too much wild garlic and cannot use it while it is still fresh. There are several methods you can use to preserve wild garlic: you can process it into a more durable food like wild garlic oil, freeze it, or dry it.
Preserve wild garlic: these recipes make it possible
Wild garlic not only tastes fresh as an ingredient in a wild herb salad or wild garlic butter. There are a number of recipes with which you can preserve wild garlic and use it for a longer time.
Wild garlic oil: By soaking wild garlic in oil, you can preserve it for up to a year. You can use the aromatic oil to refine salads or pasta far beyond the wild garlic season.
Wild garlic salt: With this recipe, you can keep wild garlic for at least a year. You can sprinkle the wild garlic salt over a sandwich or give a garlic-like aroma to a vegetable pan.
Wild garlic pesto: With this classic, you can preserve wild garlic for several months. Wild garlic pesto tastes great with pasta, risotto or as a basis for a salad dressing.
Pickled wild garlic buds: Wild garlic buds are also edible. The plants form them shortly before flowering, i.e. from around mid-April. From this you can then produce the so-called wild garlic capers – a regional alternative to the caper plants native to the Mediterranean region. The wild garlic buds will keep in the fridge for up to four weeks.
Preserve wild garlic by drying
You can use dried wild garlic in a variety of ways even after the wild garlic season is over. For example, it adds a slightly spicy flavor to home-made herb salad mixes.
Note that dried wild garlic is significantly less flavorful than fresh wild garlic. Still, drying is a better alternative than possibly throwing away parts of an oversized crop. This allows you to preserve the leftover wild garlic if you can no longer eat it before it wilts.
Preserve wild garlic: This is how you freeze wild garlic
Fresh wild garlic tastes best. But after just two days in the fridge, it wilts. If you freeze wild garlic, you can keep it for about six months longer.
You can freeze wild garlic either in a glass or in practical ice cube molds. You can find the corresponding instructions here: Freezing wild garlic and preserving it: Here’s how!
Tip: You can also make dishes prepared with wild garlic last longer by freezing them. Wild garlic soup, for example, is suitable for freezing in jars. A wild garlic quiche can also be frozen easily.
