Last week, when we went to pick up our farm share booty, I discovered something I had never seen before: garlic scapes.
Apparently, when garlic grows, it sprouts a curly, green shoot that must be cut off in order to encourage the garlic to continue to grow underground into the delicious root that we all know and love. That curly, green shoot is the garlic scape, which you can often find at farmer’s markets in June.
When I got home, I immediately researched what to do with this new-found treat.
One popular recipe on the internet is garlic scape pesto. Basically, you make pesto substituting garlic scapes for the basil. Here are two recipes that I found: Garlic Scape Pesto and Garlic Scape Pesto.
I think the scapes would be excellent in a stir fry. I also want to try to use them to make a dip, the way onion dip is made, substituting the scapes for the onions.
I did not have enough scapes to make either of those, so I made a spinach, garlic scape, and parsley open-faced omelet. (All three of those ingredients came from the farm.)
I combined chopped, fresh spinach, chopped parsley, shredded mozzarella, salt and pepper with 5 eggs and mixed well.
Then, I sauteed the chopped garlic scapes in a small amount of olive oil for a couple minutes in a small pan.
Turning down the heat to med-low, I added the egg mixture and covered. I let that cook until the top of the eggs looked set. (You will totally be able to smell it when it is ready.)
Cut into wedges and serve. Yum!
I had two scapes left over, so I cut them into fine pieces and mixed them into a package of cream cheese, covered with plastic wrap, and refrigerated over night.
Serve that up on your morning bagel and you will not be sorry. It was amazing!
So, the next time you see these curly beauties at your local farmer’s market, be sure to snag a few. They add a delicious, mild garlic taste to any dish.
But get them while you can – they are usually only around in June.
