roasted garlic scapes
June 10, 2013 § 46 Comments
flower tops from elephant garlic
When cooked, garlic scapes have a very mild garlic flavor with a texture and taste somewhere between asparagus and artichoke. The whole spear may be eaten, as is. The previous statement was copied from the little piece of paper stuck in the rubber band of the bunch of scapes I acquired at Whole Foods. I brought them home because I loved how they looked. Even if I didn’t cook them I could put them in a vase! The little paper from the rubber band said to steam, sauté or puree’ into a wonderfully mild garlic soup. Or chopped raw they are very hot and will spice up your baked potatoes, salads or dips. I decided to roast them. A few years ago I had planted garlic and amateur as I am as a gardener when the tops popped up looking somewhat similar to these…they were very curly actually…I didn’t do anything with them other than be amused when I visited the garden bed. The buds did open up, flower and go to seed.
A drizzle of olive oil, coarse sea salt and ground pepper. Roast in a 425° oven for roughly 25-30 minutes. These were so unique and delicious. I roasted them until the tops were crispy. We especially enjoyed the crunchy tops.
roasted garlic scapes
buon appetite.
COTTAGE GROVE HOUSE 
I have never noticed these at Whole Foods, but I’ll keep an eye out for them now. They look beautiful, and I love how you’ve prepared it simply. Thanks for sharing. This is one of the reasons I love reading food blogs – I learn something new!
daisy
I love reading food blogs too Daisy. Seems like my cooking has improved greatly by reading blogs. Just a wealth of information and ideas. These scapes were so good!
They do look pretty enough to put into a small vase! But they look even better roasted, as you did here! Beautiful! I, like you, will be adding this to the many, many, many (I could go on) dishes I wish to make from my fellow bloggers!
Thank you Lidia! I’m going to make your Meyer Lemon Souffles! :)
Thanks for a great idea. Love your work!!!
Thank you so much! Hope you can find these and give them a try!
No matter how many fancy ways I try preparing simple greens, I always come back to roasting. I love garlic scapes and wish I could get my hands on some right now… I can already hear the crispy crunch, hot from the oven :)
I agree about roasting. And then if it is too hot to turn on the oven I love to toss vegetables on the grill. :)
Never heard of these and definitely going to keep my eye out for them now!
Hope you find them, you will be pleasantly surprised how delicious they are. :)
Nice!, Yes, here in Spain it is normal tho eat them, for example with scrumbled eggs and gambas. Good idea to roast them. :)
Thanks! Sounds great with scrambled eggs!
I’m with Kat, never heard of these. They look beautiful!
Aren’t they beautiful? Jokingly I told my sis-in-law she could use them her bridal bouquet! :)
haha, they are very pretty. She could save quite a bit by doing that. :P
Have never heard of these! They do sound delicious.
I wish I could send some over to you Johnny! The buds open up to a nice white flower before turning to seed. I would love to see what you would do with them! ;)
I think I would probably do what you did and roast them :) Especially as I love roasted garlic.
– Thanks for the offer.
These look so fabulous on the plate! I haven’t ever seen them for sale over here, though will have to keep an eye out… Sounds like a great addition to any garden. Lovely to have learnt something new today – thanks!
Well, I am glad to bring them to your attention! :) I hope you do find them at some point. If you love garlic as we do you’ll love these. Very subtle, and textured as a properly cook green bean. :)
Anything roasted is better. Though I never tried roasted scape, I can only imagine how good they must be. Sounds like I need to get to Whole Foods tomorrow morning. Thanks for the inspiration.
I certainly hope your Whole Foods has them! Let me know if you do find them. :)
Our kids live in China and when we visit them, we’ve eaten something that looks like this– but I haven’t seen it in California. I’ll have to look around! thanks!
Wow! China? I hope you find them in California. I wonder how they cook them in China…
We call them garlic shoots and when my elephant garlic flowers in Oct/Nov I’ll be using your recipe. We usually add them to stir fries and they are sold separately in fruit and veg shops. Love elephant garlic roasted and spread on crunchy bread.
Yes! I have heard them called garlic shoots. That is great you will be harvesting your own in Oct./Nov. Thank you for your comment! Give Ruby a little scratch behind the ears for me! :)
Will do! Garlic is easy to grow – just get a head (organic if possible), separate out the cloves but leave them in their thin casing. plant 10-15 cm apart, water in and leave. They need minimal looking after – water now and again but take 6 months so I grow them in troughs so they don’t take up precious veggie plot space. Amazing that one clove grows into a whole head. Harvest when the leaves brown and wilt away. Rule is ‘plant on the shortest day of the year and harvest on the longest’ – or thereabouts!
Thank you so much for this valuable information. You really made it sound so easy. I’m going to give it another go. I did not properly harvest mine and now the plants looks like a bunch of spring onions. It’s in a area of my garden which does get neglected so it no wonder.
No probs – I’m not green thumbed at all but have had two years worth of garlic now – the elephant garlic is new this year. ps. after harvesting you need to leave the garlic (with dried leaves attached) somewhere warm and dry to ‘cure’. I leave mine on the top of the fridge. After a couple of weeks you can use the cloves.
What a great idea to roast them! We’re awash in (curly) garlic scapes these days and I use them in everything, but I hadn’t thought of that.
I don’t think I can even get these over here but this recipe it is such an eye opener for me. Thank you for sharing…..danny
thank you for stopping by danny! :)
these are so gorgeous! hoping I come across scapes some day so I can use this recipe.
– priya
thank you priya. hope you get a chance to try them someday. :)
We grow our own garlic – our scapes are not quite ready yet – but I always make garlic scape pesto with them. I’ll post the recipe soon. I love them so much i put them on the cover of my cookbook. And yet – I’ve never roasted them – so i will try this when I harvest this year. thank you for the inspiration!
This is great! I’ll look for your post. I have heard of a pesto I would like to try that as well. I may check to see if Whole Foods still has them.
mmmm – I love finding out different ways to get more garlic into my life! ;)
fact! I’ve only seen garlic scapes once. But I was so enamored that I kept it in my fridge until it wilted because I thought it just looked so pretty. Weird, right?
Not weird at all! I almost stuck mine in a vase instead of cook them. :)
Roasted garlic scapes look delicious!! I’ll have to try these – I have some left in my fridge. Thanks! :-)
Oh…. thank you for this, I was just told about scapes and I have a bunch of them in my father’s garden… I used them in a savory Ricotta pie I made and posted on my blog the other day… what else can I do with scapes besides pesto? —ime to be creative I guess. John
Oh my. I just took a look at your blog and it’s so full of well written posts and amazing recipes. This ricotta pie you are speaking of looks delicious, so well put together too. Thanks for visiting and for the follow too.
This has to be one of the most fantastic looking vegetables–and even better looking when roasted as you’ve done!
Garlic scapes are so wonderful. If you ever have the opportunity to acquire some…do! I have read many other ways to prepare them. Garlic scape pesto intrigues me, however, we really enjoyed them roasted. Thank you for your kind comments Mary Frances! ……Seana
Wow! These look delicious! I love the idea of roasting things. It brings out such beautiful flavor in them! I’ll have to try these sometime soon!
Yeah, they’re very unique and roast up nicely. Just came home from the market and they are in season now! Not sure where you live or what season you’re in right now but spring is the time to get them. Thanks!!