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Elephant Garlic: Facts You Should Know

January 9, 2015 by Nancy Lopez-McHugh 13 Comments

Elephant Garlic: Facts You Should Know by @SpicieFoodie | #elephantgarlic #foodfacts
Lately I’ve been getting to taste many new foods and ingredients. I love that. Elephant garlic is one of the latests new foods to come into my kitchen, and it was the first time I’ve ever seen it and tasted it. Below are some facts that I learned about elephant garlic and also facts that I think everyone should know. In a few days I’ll be sharing a recipe in which I cooked the elephant garlic. Have a great weekend amigos!

 

• The elephant garlic I’ve purchased is one large clove rather than many individual cloves making up a whole bulb. But there is another variety that looks just like the small garlic bulbs with many individual cloves.

• Sizes can range from similar to a golf ball, to as large as half a kilo or one pound in weight.

• Elephant garlic is more closely related to leeks than to ordinary garlic.

• In order to use it, small segments first need to be cut off then prepared as desired.

• The taste of elephant garlic is much milder than standard garlic.

• Elephant garlic’s mild flavour has sweet tones and hints of onion like tastes.

• Due to it’s subtle flavours, elephant garlic may be used raw.

• To bring out more flavour depth it is recommended that elephant garlic be cooked.

• Because of it’s light flavours, this garlic is perfect for people that don’t typically like too much garlic in their food. But also because of the subtle flavour, one should keep in mind that elephant garlic is not a substitute for regular garlic — and vice versa.

• Obviously, because it is merely one large clove, elephant garlic is much easier to peel than the a whole bulb of regular garlic. The peel on the elephant garlic is also thicker and drier, and so easier to remove.

• When selecting elephant garlic for purchase, choose firm bulbs with dry papery peels.

• Extra care is needed when sautéing or cooking elephant garlic because it will brown faster than standard garlic. Overly browned or burnt garlic (of any kind) is to be avoided because it’s flavours turn bitter.

• Elephant garlic is available year-round. It is native to China so look in Asian food stores if you can’t find it in the regular super market.

• Unfortunately, elephant garlic does not have all the wonderful health benefits that regular garlic does. But even so, I think it’s worth a taste.
Elephant Garlic: Facts You Should Know by @SpicieFoodie | #elephantgarlic #foodfacts

Knowledge is power, empower your kitchen with more food facts. 

 

Filed Under: Food Facts, Spices & Spice Mixtures

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Comments

  1. Rosa says

    January 9, 2015 at 07:56

    Wow, very interesting! I have never heard of that variety before…

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    Reply
    • Kerry Schubert says

      January 20, 2019 at 21:16

      Thanks for the information about Elephant Garlic. You mentioned that Elephant Garlic doesn’t have the health benefits of common garlic. This is actually a myth. It just hasn’t been studied as widely! Could I direct you to a journal article: The Antimicrobial Activity of Elephant Garlic. This study found that the antimicrobial effects of elephant garlic were stronger than that of common garlic and stronger than penicillin. I am an Australian grower and interested in rebuilding local farm production decimated by imported product.

      Reply
  2. Angie@Angie's Recipes says

    January 10, 2015 at 02:54

    I haven’t seen those garlic giants over here…so interesting.

    Reply
  3. Ramona says

    January 11, 2015 at 06:24

    I have never tried Elephant garlic… Thank you for your great introduction to it! I’ll keep my eye open for it. now. :)

    Reply
  4. mjskit says

    January 11, 2015 at 21:58

    Interesting. I’ve only eaten it once and was a little disappointed that it was so much milder than regular garlic. Didn’t know it was closer to being leek than a garlic. Thanks for the info Nancy!

    Reply
  5. Mindy says

    January 11, 2015 at 22:22

    Funny, I’ve purchased elephant garlic lots of times and it isn’t, physically, as you describe at all. It has a group of cloves, like regular garlic but they’re massive in size, in comparison. There must be different varieties. I’ll have to look for this type.

    Reply
    • Spicie Foodie says

      January 12, 2015 at 22:14

      Mindy, you are correct there are different varieties. I had actually added that information to the article but it appears that I didn’t save and re-upload the updated version. Oops! Thank you for catching the error, it is now corrected. :)

      Reply
  6. anna@icyvioletskitchen says

    January 14, 2015 at 22:19

    how interesting that it’s closer to leeks than garlic! i never would have known that!

    Reply
  7. GreginNC says

    September 11, 2016 at 22:33

    Just recently bought some at a local farmers market (the variety with separate cloves) and love it. I looked online because I noticed as you stated it had a very mild only somewhat garlicky taste. I have been using it in vegetable stir fry with Onions, Cauliflower, and Broccoli finished off with just a drizzle of teriyaki sauce. I never saw this variety before stumbling on it and was doing some research on exactly what it was when I found your article.

    Reply
    • Spicie Foodie says

      September 13, 2016 at 15:58

      Hi Greg,
      I’m glad that you found this unique garlic and that you’ve been putting it to great use. Thank you for sharing and continue to enjoy!

      Reply
  8. tomatopus says

    August 21, 2017 at 17:52

    The variety is not a variety at all… the garlic that looks like an onion is that it did evolve into the clove bulbs itself. This happens usually when the weather didn’t get cold enough, causing the clove that you planted to turn into an onion like bulb rather than the many clove bulb. It has to do with temperatures not reaching cold enough for some of the cloves to grow in their natural cycle. I grow Elephant bulbs and always have a few cloves that this happens to.

    Reply
  9. Eleanor says

    October 20, 2017 at 11:52

    Actually it is incorrect to say it isn’t as beneficial as garlic – it is! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3874095/

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. (Not) Another Kale Recipe | Kale Sautéed with Elephant Garlic and A Strawberry-Kale Smoothie | Healthy Vegan Recipes on Spicie Foodie – Spicie Foodie ™ says:
    January 15, 2015 at 21:14

    […] the firm stem, tore the pieces into small ones, heated up some avocado oil, then sautéed a bit of elephant garlic and once it was soft I tossed in the kale pieces. Now and then I stirred the pan and once the kale […]

    Reply

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