This Garlic Hack Will Save You So Much Time In The Kitchen
Chopping garlic is one of the most common kitchen tasks—and one of the most tedious. First you have to peel it, then you have to chop it, then you have to corral stray chunks and chop some more until you reach a fine mince. Then you have clean up the sticky garlic residue from your knife, cutting board, and fingers. Tired yet? Us too.
There are a few supermarket shortcuts that make garlic more convenient, but they come at a cost. Pre-peeled garlic still needs to be chopped. Jarred minced garlic has a strange aftertaste. Frozen garlic cubes may be a lifesaver, but they’re an expensive one.
But what if we told you that there’s a simple solution that actually tastes better than every common shortcut? All you need is garlic, a food processor, and a bit of extra planning. Alessandra Ciuffo stopped by Delish Kitchen Studios to show us how (watch her video above).
First, you need to start with garlic (duh). Because we’re working in bulk, pre-peeled garlic is the ideal choice. But if you want to avoid the premium price, you can use whole heads and peel them yourself—just make sure to allocate enough time and energy to the task.
The next step couldn’t be simpler: throw all of your peeled garlic in a food processor and let it do all the work for you. How fine your garlic becomes is a personal choice, so you can opt for a rough chop or a fine mince.
From there, you should transfer your minced garlic into a resealable freezer bag. Seal it tightly, then use your hands to flatten the garlic into an even layer. The next part is what makes this trick super special: you want to use a chopstick or skewer to add indentations from the outside.
The number of indentations depends on the amount of garlic you’re working with or the size of your bag. What you’re aiming for is a few from each direction until your garlic is segmented into single-serving squares.
Once you portion out your garlic, it’s time to head to the freezer. The first few hours are key: You want to lay it flat so it can stay undisturbed. But once it’s frozen solid, you can store it any way you’d like. Now you can just break off a square and throw it into any recipe that calls for garlic.
A few minutes of prep and a round of dishes later, and you have the easiest, freshest shortcut to garlic whenever you want.
Have you tried this hack? Let us know how it went in the comments!
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