Can You Freeze Wild Garlic: Spring is the perfect time that reminds you of versatile herbs and plants that can be used in various delicious dishes right? Wild garlic is one of them that steals the show today. Wild garlic has a very strong garlic or oniony smell that acts as the last Cherry on the cake for any ordinary dish.
It generally prefers to grow in shady and damp areas and generally starts late Winter and lasts till the end of Spring. So if you have a fresh bulk harvest of wild garlic and want to preserve it even beyond Spring, freezing is the first thing that comes to your mind right? Okay! Let’s find out more about this.
- Can You Freeze Wild Garlic Leaves?
- How To Freeze Wild Garlic Efficiently?
- Best Tips To Freeze Wild Garlic
- How Long Can You Freeze Wild Garlic?
- How To Defrost And Use Frozen Wild Garlic?
- Can you blanch and freeze wild garlic?
- Can you freeze chopped wild garlic?
- Can you freeze garlic without curing it?
- Does freezing garlic ruin it?
Can You Freeze Wild Garlic Leaves?
Yes, garlic can be preserved quite well if frozen. Also, before putting the wild garlic in the fridge or the freezer, you can try plucking whole wild garlic leaves with the stem and soaking them in a glass of water first. This will make sure your wild garlic remains fresh for even longer. Hence, if you wish to preserve garlic for the longest time possible without losing its benefits, then freezing is the best choice you can opt for.
How To Freeze Wild Garlic Efficiently?
Freezing wild garlic is quite similar to freezing most of the other herbs. The approach we mention here is simple, and effective, and gives you plenty of options to choose from when it comes to thawing and consuming your wild garlic again. Here is a step-by-step guide in order to help you do so:
- Step 1: First, clean your chives off all the dirt, bugs, etc. especially if you have picked them up freshly from the garden.
- Step 2: After cleaning, make sure to dry it properly and spread them on a kitchen towel to soak up any excess moisture whatsoever.
- Step 3: Next, you need to slice up your wild garlic by slicing the leaves together one on top of the other, along the length and portion them out evenly in the slots of a moderately sized ice-cube tray.
- Step 4: Ensure that you have filled the chopped wild garlic no more than 2/3rds of the slot area and fill the rest of the portion with water, vegetable broth or olive oil. Once the garlic leaves are fully submerged wrap your tray with a cling wrap and flash freeze them for a good 6 to 12 hours or preferably overnight.
- Step 5: Once the cubes are frozen solid, just transfer them into an air-tight freezer bag and return them back to the freezer.
Read Out:
Best Tips To Freeze Wild Garlic
Now that you know how to freeze wild garlic, why not look into some amazing tips to get the best results? Here they are: you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing wild garlic to have the best results:
- When you freeze any liquid, it expands, hence make sure to leave enough room for expansion while topping up the slots of your ice-cube tray with garlic and liquid.
- Try freezing your wild garlic in cubes because it is both efficient and easy to be consumed in the future. Whole leaves, on the other hand, can get a bit mushy and unappetizing.
- Try preserving your wild garlic in the form of butter because flavoured butter freezes exceptionally well.
How Long Can You Freeze Wild Garlic?
Wild garlic like most other soft and green herbs, stays good in your freezer but must be consumed within 4 to 6 months if possible. This is because the longer you leave it the more the flavour is going to degrade. The degradation might not show up at first but will slowly become noticeable the longer you keep it.
Always ensure to add a label with the date on your freezer bags to make sure you never go out of date or panic at the time of consumption in future. If you plan to store your wild garlic in the refrigerator then it is going to last only for 2 to 3 days or a maximum of a week because once picked wild garlic deteriorates rapidly and freezing is the only saviour here.
To get acquainted with the freezing process of herb parsley refer to our article Can You Freeze Parsley and resolve your doubts.
How To Defrost And Use Frozen Wild Garlic?
Fortunately, you do not need to defrost wild garlic. If you have frozen your wild garlic in the form of pesto or cubes then you can directly add them to your hot soup, stew, sauce or pasta and wait for it to melt on its own and coat everything in the cooking heat itself. This exceptionally works wonders for vegetables.
Just boil the vegetables, drain the excess water and just add a cube over low heat until it melts and coats your vegetables beautifully with wild garlic. Refreezing is something we strongly advise against wild garlic because it will end up degrading the flavour rapidly.
FAQs on Can You Freeze Wild Garlic
1. Can you blanch and freeze wild garlic?
Yes, blanching wild garlic leaves in boiling water first for 15 seconds and then immediately plunging them in cold water before freezing is amazing to make your wild garlic last a little bit longer than 6 months, i.e the actual season for wild garlic.
2. Can you freeze chopped wild garlic?
Yes, chopping wild garlic and then freezing it in ice cubes is considered better than freezing garlic whole, because it is way easier to be used up as per choice in the future.
3. Can you freeze garlic without curing it?
Yes, wild garlic is pretty versatile and can be frozen in any form like peeled, unpeeled, individual bulbs, chopped and even without curing it.
4. Does freezing garlic ruin it?
Not at all, freezing garlic doesn’t ruin it, instead, it helps you last the garlic many more months without the risk of spoilage or botulism caused by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium.
Conclusion
Wrapping everything up, and freezing wild garlic is an amazing way of preserving it. Still, there can be a fairly high chance of discolouration especially if you happen to store whole leaves. Besides that, you will not see any visible changes because garlic itself has a very strong scent and flavour of its own. With that being said, we hope you found this article helpful and cleared we could clear all your doubts. Keep connected to us for more updates on articles such as Can you Freeze Coriander and many more.