Perhaps you’ve been seeing wild-looking tangles of garlic scapes at your local farmers’ market. These thin, curly, vibrantly green stalks come into season in the late spring and early summer, when they’re often sold by the bunch. Garlic scapes are the stalks that grow from the bulbs of hardneck garlic plants. If left unharvested, the scapes eventually bloom flowers when the garlic plant fully matures. However, the scapes are usually harvested before they flower so the garlic plant can channel all its energy into producing the most flavorful bulbs. The resulting scapes taste mild and sweet, like chives or scallions, but with a hit of unmistakable garlicky flavor that’s softer than its bulbous counterpart.
Raw garlic scapes are crunchy like green beans or asparagus, but you can eat scapes raw or cooked, whole or chopped. Prepping them couldn’t be easier: Just trim and discard the stringy tip of the scape, then cut crosswise, either into tiny coins or string bean-like stalks. The easiest way to think about cooking with garlic scapes is to use them the way you would use garlic or scallions, although there’s hardly a wrong way to enjoy these tasty tendrils. The next time you’re at the farmers’ market, pick up a bunch—they’ll keep for weeks in a plastic bag in the refrigerator—then try out some of these 10 ways our test kitchen staff likes to use garlic scapes:
10 Things to Do with Garlic Scapes
- Blitz some stalks into a garlicky pesto. If you’re a hardcore garlic fan, leave out the basil altogether in favor of the scapes. Otherwise, substitute garlic scapes for up to half of your greens and proceed as usual. (Don’t have a go-to pesto recipe? Find one here.)
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Fold chopped and sautéed garlic scapes into frittatas or our best-ever scrambled eggs.
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Chop garlic scapes into little coins and add to stir-fries and fried rice.
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Finely dice a couple of garlic scapes and and mix into a vinaigrette. (They also make a tasty addition to green goddess dressing.)
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Throw whole scapes on the grill, just like you would make grilled scallions.
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Fold chopped scapes into a dip for grilled meat or roasted veg.
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Cut garlic scapes into 6-inch pieces and pickle them. (Think pickled green beans or thin kosher dill pickles.)
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Sauté scapes and use them as a pizza topping. Don’t forget to save any leftover sautéeing oil for drizzling.
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Use the scapes whole in a warm-weather-friendly braise.
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Mix chopped scapes with a stick of butter to make a garlicky compound butter for grilled or pan-fried fish.
