Garlic scapes
Photo by thebittenword.com

Everyone is familiar with garlic, that delicious bulb that lends a kick to everything from pizza and pasta sauce to hamburgers, hummus, and mashed potatoes.  But like most plants, garlic is a seasonal delight, and right now, it's not in season.  Luckily, garlic scapes are!

Scapes are the flowering shoots that grow up from the crown or roots of plants.  They draw energy from the formation of the garlic bulb, so farmers typically cut them off.  Fortunately, garlic scapes are delicious, with a sweet, garlicky flavor that isn't as intense as the part of the plant you're used to eating.  (If you're curious to know more about how garlic grows, you can read a detailed anatomy lesson here.)

To prepare a garlic scape, cut the flower end off just below the ridge and discard.  (Your scapes won't have flowered yet, but you'll see where the flower will bloom from.)  If you're going to eat them raw, remove the woody bottoms by snapping the cut ends off at the lowest point where they naturally break.  If you're going to cook them, just cut a quarter inch off of the bottom end so that you have a fresh, wet nub.

Slice scapes just like scallions, in thin little medallions.  Toss them in salsas, soups, dips, and other dishes raw, or saute them in butter or olive oil to soften them.  Cooked this way, they have a crunch to the outside and a soft, sweeter inside, reminiscent of asparagus.

Garlic scapes are all over the fields and markets right now, but their season is short.  Once they've all popped up and been chopped off so that the rest of the garlic can continue to mature, they're gone.  So get some now, and use them wherever you would use garlic bulbs.