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FRESH FOOD:Wild Garlic

Alex Venables from the Tollgate Inn at Holt loves cooking with freshly-picked Wild Garlic. He's rustled up some delicious nutritious recipes which are simple enough to take just a few minutes in the kitchen leaving you more time enjoy the Summer!

Freshly picked wild garlic

What is Wild Garlic?

"It looks a bit like spinach and it’s got iron and good vitamins in it. You’ll find it by the canals and in woodland areas where it’s slightly damp with deciduous trees round it. And you’ll notice it because the smell is pungent and it hits you straight away. It’s very cheap and very good for you."

"We go out and pick the Wild Garlic, bring it back, wash it off three or four times and then put it in our cooking. It’s just the leaves that we use because the bulb on wild garlic is very small and you can actually use the flowers too as a garnish on salads."

"For all these recipes you need to blanch the wild garlic. Put it into hot boiling water for about 20 seconds then refresh in ice cold water. Now it's ready to chop up and use."

Wild Garlic Omelette

"I use three free-range eggs from our three varieties of chicken here at the Tollgate Inn, they are the Black Rock, the Leghorn and the Speckledy. Free-range chickens eat more grass and that’s why you get that lovely sunshine yellow yolk."

Wild Garlic Omelette in Cheese Sauce

"Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk up with some cream and a touch of salt and pepper. Put some clarified butter into a hot omelette pan. Add the egg mixture and as it starts bubbling away it comes away from the side of the pan. Keep moving it round the pan so it doesn’t stick and until it becomes like the consistency of scrambled egg."

"Put in the wild garlic and pop it under the grill. Now fold it over and turn it out onto a plate. You can now take a clean teacloth over the top and shape it into a fat cigar shape."

" I like to serve it with a nice cheese sauce, starting with a butter and flour roux with milk slowly poured into the pan stirring continuously and then adding some Somerset cheddar."

Wild Garlic Pesto

"Put the blanched wild garlic into a blender. Pop in some walnuts which mellows the taste out. Now add a good slug of olive oil and some roughly chopped Somerset cheddar."

Wild Garlic Pesto

"Now put the lid on, press the button and blitz it up. You can add this pesto to anything that needs a bit of pepping up."

Wild Garlic Soup

"Chop up a fresh onion, some potatoes, celery and blanched wild garlic. Heat up a pan with some clarified butter then sweat off the vegetables for about ten minutes."

"After that add some vegetable stock, you can even just use the water from boiling your broccoli or carrots. Add a touch of cream and pour it into the blender."

" Blitz it up and pour into a serving bowl finished off with some wild garlic pesto. A really robust vegetarian soup that reminds me of Summer."

Wild Garlic Bubble and Squeak

"Start off with some mashed potato, Maris Piper always make it nice and fluffy. Chop up your blanched wild garlic and mix it in well with the potato using your hands."

"Add a bit of wild garlic pesto and it goes a fantastic green colour. Make small pattie shapes like burgers and roll them in some breadcrumbs and they’re now ready to be put into a hot frying pan."

Wild Garlic Bubble and Squeak

"To make your poached egg, add some white wine vinegar to the boiling water and create a vortex. Drop in your egg and it spins round while it cooks."

"Now the egg and bubble and squeak are cooking, you can make the hollandaise sauce. Put the yolks from two free-range eggs into a pan, add some white wine vinegar and whisk it up on the heat allowing the sauce to cook through. Slowly add warm clarified butter until it thickens up adding a drop of hot water if it’s too thick."

"Once your pattie is cooked and browned off on both sides. Place it in the centre of the plate, top with the poached egg and finish off with the hollandaise sauce. A fantastic light healthy dish and a great vegetarian option."

last updated: 04/12/2008 at 11:44
created: 06/05/2006

Have Your Say

Have you ever picked Wild Garlic? Any recipes you can recommend?

Sue
Eliz & JaneI have heard the thin leaved/white bell-flowered variety called Garlic Chive - slightly different taste but use the same

Sharon Barnfield
I made a lowfat white sauce added 50g cheese. I dry fried some British oak smoked streaky bacon Portabello mushrooms onions and at the last minute I added 2 good handfuls of washed shredded wild garlic. Pour the sauce over the bacon/garlic mixture and mix in 300g of cooked pasta place in an ovenproof dish and grate some parmesan over the top. Bake in the oven for 15mins or until browned.

Marion Cook
Do these questions get answered on email? I have the Bluebell-like leaved 'wild garlic' and would like to know if that is edible and if not what is it?

Kat
I love the fresh taste of wild garlic! I know a wood where it grows in abundance, and I've found that a really tasty and easy way to enjoy it is to wrap a piece of goat's cheese or other soft white cheese (e.g. brie) in each leaf. Then all you do is very lightly fry the resulting parcels in some olive oil. Maybe add some sweet chilli or herbs, whatever you like. Don't fry them for too long or they will burn. Cooked like this they are delicious!

red@core.com
the wild garlic we have here in ohio is nit like what you show in your pictures.here it looks like an onion with tiny ribs on the green tops. their is a bulb like an onion on bottom. our wild onion looks almost like it but has smooth green tops. thay look so much alike that i have to bread a piece and smooch it , then smell to know which it is. i make buttered potatoe with a ciuple of whole pieces diced real fine. my husband loves it. looking foreward to hearing your comments. sincerly charlotte

lee anderson - North Wales
I picked wild garlic this morning along the hedgerows above my cottage on a perfect spring morning, tonight we shall eat it blanched and thrown in at the last minute with a bowl of finely sliced carrots, parsnips and brocolli and a knob of unsalted butter, served with baked salmon and new potatoes with home grown mint- yum!

Eliz Ray
I have what I thought was wild garlic but the leaves are thiner. The flowers are white bell like with 4-5 on a stem. Is it wild garlic it smell like it.Thanks Eliz

christina birch
I use it chopped in salads - with grated carrots, chopped peppers and other similar veg. Also chopped on a tomato based sauce with pasta.

Graeme Johnston
i have recently discovered a lot of wild garlic and was wondering where or who i could sell it too. nugent55@hotmail.com

sharon jones
can you please freeze wild garlic??

vesna
I just love it!Here's wild garlic cheese salad recipe:cow cheese crushedwild garlic chopped in 2-3 cm (1 inch)piecescreamolive oilolivesfresh chopped parsleysaltMix cheese, cream and olive oil until creamy, add other ingredients.

camilla revell
made the walk on Box Hill so worthwhile! Made hugh fw's recipe for skordalia with wild garlic and the next night added leaves to potatoes baked with milk and cheese.I think my family is wild garliced out now but can you freeze them like spinach?

Rumbaba
These recipes look lovely - but is he using wild garlic? I have a lot of what I know as wild garlic growing where I live. It smells and looks liek a small version of cultivated garlic, and can be used in similar ways. It does not have green spinch-like leaves - tho the local wild sorrel, does.

Emily Austin
Fab, just dug a load up to make space for the Beltain planting! Was desperate for a pesto recipie, thanks alot. I'll try it and taste it on some Luinginie in the garden!

Val Price
We received wild garlic in our organic vege box so I am very grateful for Alex's recipes. Thank you.

John Raftery
I cycle every morning before I start work through some local riverside woods here in Northumberland and there is loads of the stuff its everywhere! I've never tried it but tomorrow i'm taking a bag and I'm gonna fill it. When I get in, I'llcook meself a wild garlic omelette. Can't wait!

Abby Jones
I use wild garlic when roasting chicken. I just loosen the skin and put it underneath before roasting.

Jane Parsons
I thought I had wild garlic in the garden, but the leaves look diferent, more like bluebell leaves. the flowers are like wild garlic and it smells like garlic. what is it?

Joanne Anderson
I have wild garlic in my garden and use heaps of it at this time every year - in salads, casseroles particulary chicken, cheese sandwiches, potato gratin, pasta sauce, I am always finding new uses for it.

jane thorndale
having heard of Alex's recipe on Radio 2 I went out to our wood and picked some leaves and seed heads. After washing them I chopped them up and put them into a mixed leaf salad. They were so delicious that I then put them into floured tortilla's with some fresh mayonaise and Brie de Meaux. Delicious. The added benefit is that a digestive health problem that has 'bugged' me for several years seems to have gone away. I guess that is to do with the antifungal and antibacterial properties. All praise to this versatile herb that will be the hit of the year I am sure. Just don't tell anyone where I live - it's mine all mine!!

fee
I have a whole area of wild garlic growing in my garden. It is not yet flowering, do I need to wait until it's flowered to pick it?

sylbia
i love the smell as you walk in the woods .I will try it thank you

Claire Wallace
Strudel - from Austria.Fry wild garlic (bear grass) with onion and a dash of nutmeg. Get pastry roll and put in a mixture of this and sheeps cheese (Feta or equivalent). Carefully roll up pastry (spread it out on a dishcloth if necessary) until it is in a roll. Coat roll with butter/eggwhite or nothing as preferred. Heat oven to 180 degrees and put strudel in for 20-30 minutes. Prepare a sauce - usualy roux plus chopped herbs of choice.Recipe 2: spread. Take Quark cheese (also known as Tvaroh) and blend in wild garlic leaves with seasoning. keep in fridge to spread on toast or brown bread.2. Saute wild garlic with a tiny bit of butter. put in a ring in a heatproof dish. In the middle put poached eggs (use your method described above of boiled water and vinegar to make these). Put them in the middle of the ring of cooked wild garlic. Make a roux and add cheese to make a cheese sauce. Add this on top. Top with more grated cheese. Put under grill about 10minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes. Mmmmm(free and delicious).You can blanche the stuff and freeze it for the rest of the year....Why doesn't anyone use this wonderful source of free vitamins?Tell meClaire

Beth
My father has wild garlic growing in his back yard. Before he passed away five years ago he reminded me of how his mother used to pick wild garlic and fry up a pan of potatoes with fresh garlic blades added in.I had the priviledge to fix a pan of fried potatoes and garlic for him before he died. Now every spring a smile comes to my face when I see the garlic growing in my back yard. thanks for letting me share my memories like my father did with me. P.S. i have fresh blades in my fridge now4/10/2007Beth BakehornBloomington, Indiana

victoria
we pick wild garlic from the side of the canal.Lentil & Wild Garlic Curry:Fry 3 finely chopped onions, a full crushed garlic and 2 or 3 handfulls of washed wild garlic leaves.Add spices (1/2 teaspoon mixed curry powder, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, corriander powder(or fresh).Add pre soaked and drained (about an hour)lentils, add 1/2 to 2 kettles full of water and boil for 2 hours or longer. add salt if desired. serve with tomatos & cucumber & lemon and fried dried chillies (Warning Hot!)

nick collins
just found a wood by river full of wild garlic !! now iknow wot to do with it cheers, got wild water cress soup in freezer from last autumwill try and mix it with your garlic soup !!

Keith
It grows wild in the woods at the back of our house. I tried the omlette recipes today and it was yummy!

Shaun Joynson
Pea Ristotto Aborio Rice, Onions, Olive Oil Peas White Wine Rocket to serve Make a standard white risotto by sweating onions in the oil until soft, then adding the rice until covered then putting the pan up high, throw in a goodly sized glass of wine and let it fizz away. Then, add stock, a bit at a time. When adding the last bit of stock, put the peas in and the garlick leaves and absorb it all, Serve on a bed of rocket and it will taste superb.

Steve
Brilliant - I've been looking for something to do with the infestation of wild garlic that's growing at the end of the garden. Should have a job-lot of wild garlic pesto by the end of the day.

Nickie-rae@ntlworld.com
I wish to buy wild garlic for growing any information as to where? would be great!....Thanks Nickie

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FRESH FOOD:Wild Garlic

What is Wild Garlic?

Wild Garlic Omelette

Wild Garlic Pesto

Wild Garlic Soup

Wild Garlic Bubble and Squeak

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Presenter Profiles

FRESH FOOD:Wild Garlic

What is Wild Garlic?

Wild Garlic Omelette

Wild Garlic Pesto

Wild Garlic Soup

Wild Garlic Bubble and Squeak

Have Your Say

SEE ALSO

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