A whole bulb, and the flowers too
Wild garlic season is short. Here is what to do with the part most cooks throw away.
The flowers taste milder than the leaves and keep for a week in a jar of water. Scatter them on anything with butter in it.
Pick them just as the buds open. Rinse gently, pat dry, and use them raw: on eggs, on new potatoes, on a plain tomato salad.
The best part of the plant is the part most cooks throw away.
The part most cooks throw away
Wild garlic arrives in the woods in early spring and is over within a few weeks. Most people pick the leaves and leave the flowers, which is a shame: the small white stars taste of garlic and green pepper and look better on a plate than almost anything else.
Pick them on a dry day, from stems well away from paths, and only take a few from each patch so it comes back next year.
Three ways to use them
Scatter the flowers raw over new potatoes, butter and salt. Stir them into scrambled eggs at the last moment, so they wilt but keep their shape. Or fold them through soft butter with a little lemon zest, roll it in paper and keep it in the freezer for months.
The leaves make a quick green sauce: a large handful blended with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, a few almonds and a pinch of salt. It keeps a week in the fridge under a layer of oil.
A short season
By the time the flowers turn to seed heads, the leaves are bitter and the season is over. That is the point. Cook with it every day for three weeks, then wait for next spring.
