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Experienced chefs know that in the preparation of various dishes, you can use not only garlic bulbs, but also the greens of this plant. Young leaves and arrows have a characteristic aroma, pungent taste. They contain many vitamins, minerals and other beneficial trace elements. Garlic greens are able to raise immunity and have a healing effect on the human body. Such properties of the product are especially valuable in winter and spring, when various pathogenic viruses are activated and a lack of vitamins is observed.
But is it possible to keep greens of garlic for the winter without loss of useful properties and how to do it? It is this question that may become relevant in that summer period, when young arrows are formed on garlic. For diligent housewives who want to get the most out of their garden, we will try to describe in detail the various storage methods and recipes for preparing winter preparations from garlic greens.
Garlic greens - a versatile seasoning
Some gardeners on their plots specially grow garlic on a feather, cutting off a green bunch every 2 weeks and using it for food. The fact is that garlic greens contain more vitamin C than the bulbs themselves. Therefore, even if the garlic grows per head, green leaves and an arrow should not be neglected.
An arrow of garlic forms at the end of the growing season, in summer. It is edible for 2 weeks before the small bulbs at the top of it begin to ripen. During this period, the arrow is cut off, the top and bottom coarse part are removed. Young leaves of garlic are also cut and used in cooking various dishes or harvested for the winter. The edges and tails of the leaves become rough as the plant grows and should be removed.
Garlic greens can be used in soups, main courses, sauces and other culinary delights. This seasoning can be an excellent addition to meat, fish or vegetable dishes, salads. Having cut off a bunch of greens from the garden, you need to lightly fry it in a pan, this will make it softer and more aromatic.
Harvesting garlic greens for the winter
Experienced housewives offer several different ways to preserve garlic greens in winter. For example, garlic arrows can be dried, pickled, salted or frozen. Each method includes several recipes, the most popular of which we will try to present below in the article.
Drying is an easy way to preserve vitamins
It is known that during the drying process moisture evaporates from the product, and all useful vitamins and trace elements are retained. For the winter, it is customary to dry spicy and fragrant herbs. An arrow of garlic is no exception in this case.
For drying, it is preferable to use herbs of especially hot varieties of garlic. This will make the taste of the seasoning more astringent, brighter. The fleshy arrows of the plant are cut before full maturity. The tip with the seeds is cut off, the remaining greens are washed with running water and dried, cut into pieces.
You can dry the arrows:
- in the oven at 400With the door ajar;
- in special electric dehydrators;
- on a tablecloth, scattering the cut arrows in a thin layer and placing them outside in the shade.
Dry herbs can be crushed to create a free-flowing seasoning. It is better to store dry green garlic in a sealed container.
Freezing garlic greens
Freezing allows you to keep the product fresh and healthy for a long time. The only drawback of this storage method is the need to take up free space in the freezer.
There are several ways to how to freeze greens garlic:
Freeze in bag
Fresh garlic greens can be frozen without any prior preparation. To do this, rinse the product with running water, dry it and chop finely. Pour greens into a bag and place in the freezer. Several times before the onset of complete freezing, the bag must be crumpled so that the greens are crumbly.
Freezing in portions
For ease of use, the greens of garlic are frozen in portions in small plastic or silicone molds. For this, chopped greens are poured into molds and poured with a small amount of chilled boiled water. The containers are placed in the freezer and, after hardening, the ice cubes are taken out of the molds, put into a plastic bag. If necessary, the hostess can add a frozen cube with herbs to the first or second course.
Freezing fresh greens of garlic allows you to get a rather coarse seasoning, which must be cooked (stewed, boiled) along with the main course. But there are some recipes that allow you to prepare garlic greens in a certain way before freezing, giving it softness and tenderness.
Freezing recipes
To get soft garlic frogs, blanch them before freezing. To do this, rinse the product and cut into pieces 4-5 cm long. Immerse the prepared greens in boiling water for 5 minutes, and then in very cold water until it cools completely. Such a sharp change in temperature will allow the shooters not to cook completely, but only to make their structure softer.
Blanched arrows are slightly dried, removing excess moisture from their surface with a paper towel, and then laid out in containers or plastic bags, placed in a freezer for subsequent storage.
There is another interesting way to freeze garlic greens for the winter... For its implementation, the arrows must be crushed in a meat grinder or blender until a homogeneous mixture is obtained. A little salt and vegetable oil are added to it. After thorough mixing, the garlic paste is placed in containers with a sealed lid and placed in the freezer. If necessary, such a paste can be taken with a spoon in the required amount without first defrosting, since it will not stay completely frozen during storage.
The given freezing recipes allow each housewife, if there is free space in the freezer, to choose her own, most suitable way of storing a healthy product. It is also worth remembering that you can freeze not only garlic greens, but also a mixture of chopped greens and a head, a mixture of aromatic and spicy herbs with the addition of garlic greens.
Salting garlic arrows
Various pickles become a real boon in winter. Among other recipes, experienced housewives know how to properly salt garlic arrows so as to preserve their benefits. For example, the following simple recipe may be useful for novice cooks:
- Rinse young garlic arrows, dry and cut into 4-5 cm pieces. Mix them with salt in a ratio by weight of 5: 1. For example, for 1 kg of shooters, you need to add 200 g of salt. The resulting mixture should be left alone for half an hour.During this time, the greens will release the juice. Fill the prepared jars tightly with arrows so that the juice covers the product completely. Hermetically closed jars with such salting are stored in a dark, cool place.
You can prepare salting according to another interesting recipe, which may be of interest to novice and experienced housewives:
- Arrows, cut into pieces of 4-5 cm, blanch for 3 minutes, cool in ice water. To prepare brine, add 25 ml of vinegar (9%) and 50 g of salt to 1 liter of water. Bring the brine to a boil. Fill clean sterilized jars with arrows and cold brine, seal tightly. Store in a cellar.
These simple recipes will help keep the product fresh and healthy for the whole winter. It is important to remember that pickles must be stored at a temperature of no more than +50C. If such conditions in the cellar or basement are not established, then storage is recommended to be carried out in the refrigerator.
Pickling: harmony of taste and benefits
Increasingly, housewives pickle garlic arrows. Such blanks combine the benefits and excellent taste of the product. Pickled arrows can be a great appetizer on the table or an original addition to a main course.
You can pickle garlic arrows according to several different recipes, for example:
- Wash the green arrows and cut into long pieces. Blanch them in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, then cool with cold water. Prepare the brine. To do this, add 50 g of salt and sugar and 100 ml of 9% vinegar to 1 liter of water. Put 2-3 mustard peas and chopped arrows in prepared clean jars. Pour boiling brine over the ingredients. Roll up the banks.
- Grind blanched arrows and place in sterilized liter jars. Prepare the marinade: for 3 liters of water 4 tbsp. l. salt, 10-12 black peppercorns, bay leaf. Add to banks 3 tbsp. l. vinegar 9% and pour boiling marinade over the arrows. Sterilize the filled jars for 15 minutes, then roll up.
Anyone who has ever cooked and tasted pickled garlic arrows claims that it is simple, fast, and, most importantly, very tasty. Rolled up banks will not take up much space and will become a real treasure in the cellar.
You can find out some other marinating recipes for this product from the video:
Conclusion
Every farmer who grows garlic on his plot should try to use healthy greens, because they are in no way inferior in their properties to the heads of this plant. Only the owner decides whether to use the product in season in summer or prepare it for the winter. In the article, many different methods of preparation and recipes for preparing this tasty and very healthy product were proposed.
