How to use garlic flowers

Hi,

After growing some hardneck garlic this year, I now have a whole load of garlic flowers (the little mini-bulblets). Does anyone have some tips on how I can use these? Can you just use them in place of garlic cloves? Do they need peeling? Seems a shame to let all that lovely garlicky-ness go to waste.

Thanks,
Alastair

Most people don't let them get that far, if you cut them off when they do their first curl you will get bigger bulbs and the flowers at that point are delicious in a stirfry or salsa or anywhere you want a mild garlic taste. With those ones I would suggest using them to flavour oil or in soup. lightly crush them, then boil/infuse and then strain them out before serving.

I would use them just like you would use a close of garlic.  Being small they would be great on salads or even baked potatoes.

To preserve them so you can use them all year, just drop them in some vinegar or olive oil.  I keep mine in the refrigerator so I don't know if they will keep without refrigeration.  They can also be dried and mixed with salt for a garlic salt.

Thanks for the replies - we'll definitely be harvesting them earlier next year! Tried a few of the bulblet balls in a tomato sauce yesterday & it was delicious .