Garlic Scapes: A Happy Side-Effect

Anyone else get as excited as I do on delivery day? Thursdays are starting to feel a lot like Christmas morning, whether I customize my basket or not. I just can’t wait to dive into my Seasonal Roots box and see all of the fresh goodies that are waiting for me.

Last week’s basket was full of kale, several different lettuce varieties, mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, cilantro, artisan bread, kombucha, and GARLIC SCAPES. While I was excited about all of the beautiful produce that had been harvested that week, the garlic scapes are what really grabbed my attention. I had never seen a garlic scape before, much less experimented with them in the kitchen. Our family had fun passing them around the dinner table that night, seeing who could come the closest to guessing what this “new” food actually was. Everyone happily took a bite off of a raw stalk for “investigative purposes” and the majority vote was that it was some type of onion (and that it didn’t taste good with a glass of milk!).

With Google on our side, we learned that garlic scapes are basically a happy side-effect of growing garlic. The “scapes” are the stalks that grow from the bulbs of hardneck garlic plants. If left unharvested, they will eventually bloom flowers once the garlic plant fully matures. If harvested before they flower, these edible green stalks are a palative cross between a scallion and……. yep, a clove of garlic.

As you may have already guessed, the scape doesn’t just mimic its bulbous counterpart’s flavor. It also shares many of the same nutritional benefits as garlic. Garlic scapes are a great source of manganese, vitamin B6, vitamin C, and selenium. They have also been linked to numerous health benefits including lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, boosting the immune system, and preventing heart disease and various types of cancer.

Some of the most popular suggestions that I came across for how to use garlic scapes included chopping them up and using them in place of scallions in a salad or as a garnish for soup, lightly sautéing them with greens, adding them into a stir fry, or making a garlic scape pesto.

After some consideration, I decided to add our scapes into one of my daughter’s favorite things: hummus. In less than 10 minutes, we had a new dish to try out and minimal mess to clean up. Served alongside some fresh veggies and homemade pita chips, we had a picnic-style dinner with lots of leftover Garlic Scapes Hummus to enjoy throughout the week.

I’m still looking forward to trying out other garlic scapes recipes in the near future, but this was an easy way to introduce a new food into a familiar family favorite. If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

Garlic Scapes Hummus

Ingredients:

–        3 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

–        1/3 cup garlic scapes, chopped

–        ½ – ¾ cup tahini

–        ¾ cup fresh lemon juice

–        ¼ cup olive oil

–        ¼ cup water

–        1 ½ teaspoons cumin

–        1 teaspoon salt

–        Ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Place chopped garlic scapes into a food processor and pulse several times.
2. Add chickpeas, tahini, and lemon juice to the scapes and process. The mixture will be very thick.
3. Add water and process again.
4. Slowly add in olive oil while still blending.
5. Once desired consistency is reached, add cumin, salt, and pepper, and blend.
6. Serve drizzled with olive oil and cumin, alongside fresh veggies, crackers, or pita chips. Enjoy!

Sarah Young is a wife, mother of three, Certified Health Education Specialist, and healthy living advocate. She has a background in Dietetics and a B.S. in Health, Fitness, and Recreational Resources with a concentration in Health Promotion. She is also a writer for several local and online publications, an ambassador for the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, and a health contributor for ABC 7 News/WJLA. In her spare time, she enjoys running, hiking, gardening, and spending time with her family and their dog, Maple.