Latest features Cooking with wild garlic

Date Published:

19/02/2008

There is an abundance of things to do with wild garlic that children and families can have great fun doing together. Foraging enthusiast Fergus Drennan gives us his top tips

Wild garlic pesto

Roughly chop a handful of washed ramsons leaves (wild garlic), peel and crush a garlic clove and blend in a food processor together with 100 ml olive oil and 50g pine nuts. Stop, push down any leaves, add 50g grated Parmesan, sea salt and milled black pepper to taste plus a tablespoon of lemon juice. Blend and serve or spoon into a clean jar and refrigerate until needed. Add a little more oil if you prefer it less thick. Of course, you could always use a pestle and mortar – hence, pesto not blendo. Lovely with pasta or on bread

Wild garlic infused olive oil

Finely chop a large handful of fresh, washed and dried ramsons leaves. Stir into 750 ml extra virgin olive oil. Leave to infuse overnight. Strain the oil through muslin or a clean pillowcase to remove the leaves. Pour into a clean 750 ml bottle. Take about six washed and dried ramsons leaves and carefully push them into the bottle, stalk end first. After a few hours they will absorb oil and turn dark green. Looks and tastes great and is particularly good for making salad dressings.

Wild garlic and nettle soup

Put about one pint of water and one pint of milk into a saucepan, bring to a simmer and stir in two vegetable stock cubes or some stock powder. Add one large peeled and finely sliced potato, two crushed garlic cloves, a chopped leek, a small sliced onion, 150g spring nettles, 150g ramsons leaves, some salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. Liquidise, reheat and serve. Simple, nutritious and delicious.

Pickled wild garlic bulbs

Dig down about 10 inches into the soil where wild garlic grows to extract the bulbs. This is done when no leaf is present above ground (late July – December). You will need about 50 - 100 bulbs for a jam jar’s worth of pickled bulbs (can be gathered in about 15 minutes). Remove the roots from each bulb and wash under cold running water. Sterilise a jar and lid by immersing and boiling in water for five minutes. In the meantime, stir two dessertspoons of light brown sugar into a small pan of pickling vinegar. Bring to the boil. Place the cleaned bulbs in the (hot) jar with a teaspoon of pickling spice, then pour in the vinegar right to the top and screw the lid on. Once cooled, refrigerate. Keeps about 10 months. Good to eat after two weeks in salads and with cold meats.