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vjoliv0's picture Vanessa Oliver, MS, RDN
Registered Dietitian
College or Department
Eat
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Lancaster Aquatics Center, room 170
Email Address
vanessa.oliver@uky.edu

Participating in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) or frequent the Lexington Farmers Market? Sooner or later, you’ll likely be introduced to garlic scapes. When you find yourself curious about how to use them — and you can use the entirety of each scape — this video is a perfect primer. 

UK Dietitian Vanessa Oliver, M.S. R.D., L.D., highlights three delicious ways to prepare these flower stems of hard-neck garlic plants, along with inspired suggestions to help you get creative in the kitchen.

Watch the full video of our pilot Veg Out workshop on garlic scapes and learn:

  • Clever (and beautiful) storage methods
  • Ideas to increase your scope of use for garlic scapes
  • A fun and easy prep method that also applies to any raw vegetable
  • And more tips and tricks for eating well and enjoying garlic scapes!

What you need to know:

Storage 

You can keep garlic scapes in the refrigerator in a paper bag for about 1 month, although they are best if used sooner. Found in large quantities, they also freeze well both raw and blanched, though they will lose some flavor potency.

Use

The flower stem of a hard-neck garlic plant, garlic scapes have a mild garlic flavor and can be chopped and used anywhere you might use fresh garlic, or pureed and used as a main ingredient of dips, spreads, and soups. They make a killer pesto! You can also steam them whole, much like green beans or grill them whole like asparagus. Either way, season lightly with salt and pepper.

Nutrition

High in Vitamin C and higher fiber than garlic. Good source of minerals like manganese, copper, phosphorous, selenium.

Use your garlic scapes in these recipes: