Recipes: 3 Ways with Wild Garlic.

It’s wild garlic season and our feeds are aglow with it. So popular has this weed become that I saw it being sold for £3 for a small handful in a well known supermarket the other day - that is bonkers. Every year I add to my Sussex Wild Garlic post from 2015, so if you’re in Sussex go grab yourself some of this gorgeous gift from nature. Or get some from your local farm shop if they stock it, you shouldn't pay anymore than a few quid for a good of it.

The wild garlic season is fleeting but not he most joyous things about Spring. When I lived in a cottage in the country back in 2015 the woodland behind my house was blanketed with wild garlic and I went a bit overboard. I made all sorts from it and then stored it in olive oil in the freezer which stunk it out. What I have found since then is I only fancy eating it in the Spring so I don’t bother trying to store it these days and just make it a Spring treat, making the most of it while it grows and turning to other edible nature when the season is over.

So, you’ve been out, you’ve foraged your wild garlic and now what? The internet will gift you many wild garlic recipes but I wanted to share my three go to quick and easy recipes that can be added to many meals and stored in the fridge for a few days to help with meal planning.

Should you wash wild garlic? The jury is out. If you’re careful when you’re picking (opting for leaves without bird droppings) you can leave it unwashed but otherwise give it a rinse. I tend to try and keep mine unwashed since I went to a workshop with Foraged by Fern and she told us how washing can wipe out lots of helpful nutrients.

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Wild Garlic Soured Cream.

This easy peasy recipe teams so well with sweet potato fritters, fajitas, flatbreads, chilli, filled pittas and so much more. You can swap out the coconut yoghurt for whatever you like. It’s quite runny when it’s blended but sit it in a fridge for an hour and it will thicken a little.

Ingredients

125g coconut yoghurt (I use Coconut Collaborative)

Juice from 1 lemon

1 large handful wild garlic

Pinch salt

Method

Simply shove everything in a nutri blender (I use a Ninja) and hit blend! So easy.

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Sweet Potato and Wild Garlic Hummus.

So quick to knock up and keep in the fridge for around 4-5 days. Perfect dolloped on salads, as a snack with crackers or crudités, spread on toasted sourdough and topped with chopped spinach and tomatoes or spread over the base of a plate and pile falafel and pickled onions on top. I used sweet potato as had a cooked one knocking about in the fridge but you can omit if you don’t and can’t be bothered to roast one. The paprika is in this recipe to bring a warm colour to the hummus but not essential.

Ingredients

1 roast sweet potato

2 tablespoons tahini

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1 large handful wild garlic

Juice from 1 lemon

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 tsp paprika

pinch salt

Method

Put all ingredients into a blender and whizz for a minute on high speed. Scrape the hummus from the side of the bowl and whizz for another minute. If your hummus is looking a bit dry you can add a bit of olive oil and a dash of water.

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Vegan Wild Garlic Pesto.

This is a newer version of the recipe I shared a few years back which isn’t vegan. This new version is just as delightful and can be stirred into pasta, spread on toast, stirred with olive oil to be used as a dressing and dolloped onto stacks of hasselback potatoes.

Ingredients

3 big handfuls of wild garlic

1 big handful of curly parsley

1/2 cup toasted pine nuts

1/4 cup toasted walnuts

1 cup nutritional yeast

2 large glugs of olive oil

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Pinch salt

Method

You guessed it, shove it all in a blender and whizz up. No faff at Croman towers!