La vie en garlic

It was the mid-80s in Austin, Texas, and I was taking this garlic thing to an extreme. I had been cooking for myself for a few years by this point, putting myself through college, and I had developed some kitchen habits. One of them was based on my solid belief that there was no such thing as too much garlic. If a recipe called for one clove, I put in four. If it called for six — well, you can imagine what happened.

Then I made a potato salad for some friends.

How much garlic did I put in there? Was it a whole head’s worth? I mainly remember two things: One, that it had no chiles and yet had a back-of-the-throat heat that made you want to cough. Two, that for the following 24 hours, maybe longer, the smell of garlic emanated from the pores of every one of us who took some bites. We turned strangers’ heads as we passed them on the street, and not in a good way. When I think of it now, I picture Pig-Pen from “Peanuts,” but instead of a cloud of dust, a cloud of garlic envelops us.

Table of Contents

• Nutrition maxing

• I break for animals: Cactus

• Recipe: Toum

• More favorite garlicky recipes

This, in turn, reminds me of hearing a friend tell about going on a first date with a boyfriend who was a chef, and when he came to pick her up, “he was just reeking of garlic.” She found that repulsive, and I thought it was the sexiest thing I could possibly imagine. Yes, chef!

Anyhow, The Potato Salad Incident taught me that even my love for garlic had its limits. And then I started paying closer attention and learning more about one of my favorite foods. It seems like old hat now, but it was such a revelation to learn what a chameleon garlic can be, how its flavor can change so dramatically based on how you cut it and how you cook it, or don’t.

The sharpest flavor, as that potato salad shows, comes from mincing, grating, or pressing the garlic first — and using it raw. And I love a hit of this, though my quantities have come down quite considerably over the years. One of my go-to ways to cook broccoli of late is to steam it, then toss it with olive oil, a couple cloves of minced garlic, maybe a little lemon juice, salt, and pepper. The residual heat of the broccoli takes the edge off the garlic, which perfumes the whole dish.

When I’m sautéing garlic with onions at the beginning of a dish, I cut it bigger, either rough chops or maybe slices, and that’s partly so it doesn’t get too brown (or burn), which can overwhelm a sauce or stir-fry with bitter flavors.

For the mellowest, sweetest treatment, naturally, I roast the garlic, usually by slicing off a bit of the head, drizzling with oil, and sometimes wrapping in foil. This turns it into something caramelized and so good you can just spread it on toast, although it makes a stellar addition to salad dressings, garlic bread, dips, so many things. Seriously, if you don’t do this already, consider throwing a head of garlic into the oven virtually any time you roast something. You’ll thank me later.

When I discovered toum, the Lebanese garlic condiment, it tasted like a blast — literally — from the past. If you’ve never had it, it’s super-sharp and intense, but the wonderful thing about it is that you can control how much of a hit you get, simply by scooping up a smaller or larger amount. In restaurants like D.C.’s Maydan, it’s a popular accompaniment to roast chicken, but it also makes the most delightful dollop on a platter of roasted carrots, potatoes — really anything you like.

I think of it like aioli’s louder cousin. Because it’s made much like mayonnaise, with the oil contributing to an emulsion, but instead of egg, the other partner is the raw garlic. It’s hard to believe until you make it, but when you puree a cup of peeled cloves with some salt, and then start streaming in oil as your food processor runs, it swells, turns whiter and fluffier, and — with the help of a little lemon juice and ice water — becomes this gorgeously creamy cloud with the capability of tickling your taste buds or punching you in the face (lovingly, of course).

This means that you can use toum anywhere you might use aioli, just keeping in mind its strength. I love it with paella. I love adding it to mayonnaise in, yes, potato salad. I’ve even thought about using it instead of mayonnaise there, but I think that might create another Incident. I’ll let you try it and get back to me.

I’ve learned one other thing about garlic, particularly raw garlic: If you take out the little sprout from each clove, you can reduce not the pungency, but the bitterness. I don’t bother for most treatments, but given the amount that’s going into toum, I find that it’s worth it. The fresher your garlic, the less likely it’ll have much of a sprout, but if you see one, take it out, and you’ll like the toum better.

How to peel all this garlic, you ask? (You did ask, didn’t you?) I know, I know, there are all sorts of gadgets and hacks out there, including shaking the cloves inside stainless steel bowls; soaking them first in hot water; rolling them in silicone tubes; and so much more. I’ve tried them all, and for ease and speed, I always come back to simply smashing each clove with the back of my knife. If you want to keep the cloves perfectly intact — such as for making garlic confit — you can hit them a little more gently before peeling, but for toum (or anything where you’re going to chop the garlic anyhow), now’s the time to take out any frustrations and bang away.

Besides, only by getting your hands dirty will your skin take on enough of that raw garlic smell to take advantage of one of garlic’s qualities most celebrated in a certain genre of literature and film. Let me put it this way: Garlic might just save your neck.

Nutrition maxing

This is the time of year when food media tend to feature “healthy” recipes, and of course it makes sense: New year, new you, and all. I have somewhat mixed feelings about it, because I think people can get so caught up in eating “right” that they can lose a sense of enjoyment about food, and that to me is such a shame. So I embrace the philosophy that if you eat a varied diet that consists mostly of vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and fungi — in other words, plant-forward or -focused if not -based — you’re going to get what you need.

But there are some simple ways to make sure that you’re getting more nutritional benefits out of some of those foods. Here are a few of them.

• When it comes to garlic, try chopping it and then leaving it for about 10 minutes before cooking it. That allows it to fully develop allicin, a compound that has remarkable anti-inflammatory and pro-heart qualities.

• Try to eat produce that’s as fresh as possible, because its nutritional value does decrease the longer it sits around, especially once you cut it. (Frozen vegetables are a great option, because they are frozen at the peak of freshness.)

• When cooking vegetables, keep in mind that many of their nutrients are water-soluble, so avoid boiling or simmering in a lot of liquid — unless you’re going to consume that liquid, as in soups and stews. But there’s a major caveat to this: Overall, prepare vegetables in a way that makes them the most delicious to you, and you’ll eat more of them overall.

• If you’re using fermented foods such as kimchi or miso for their health properties, remember that heat destroys the probiotics. That doesn’t mean you should never cook them — they’re great flavoring agents! — but just that if you want to maximize their benefits, stir them into foods off the heat or eat them raw.

I break for animals:
Cactus

Recipe: Toum

When I first learned how to make this fluffy Lebanese garlic dip many years ago, I was floored: There’s really no mayo in it? Nope—but it’s made in a similar way, with garlic cloves and oil forming a tight emulsion as it’s pureed. With more than 10 times the garlic in a typical aioli, it packs an unbeatable intensity. Use it as a sandwich spread, a dip with crudités or chips, as the base for roasted vegetables, or try adding it to potato salad or coleslaw.

Makes about 2 cups // Time: Weekday // Storage: Refrigerate for up to 3 weeks.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (142g) peeled garlic cloves (from about 3 bulbs)

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1½ cups (350ml) neutral vegetable oil, such as sunflower or canola, plus more as needed

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

• 3 tablespoons ice water

Directions

To take out the germs from the garlic, use a sharp paring knife to cut a slit in a clove, slightly off center near the root end, open up the clove, and pull and cut off the little sprout you should see in the center. (Compost the sprouts.)

Transfer the garlic and salt to a small food processor (or the blending cup or canning jar if using an immersion blender) and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed.

While the machine is running, pour in a very thin stream, very gradually, ¾ cup (180ml) of the oil. The mixture will look like loose mashed potatoes. Scrape down the bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and continue processing, streaming in another ½ cup (120ml) of the oil, then the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice. The mixture should be turning lighter and whiter.

With the machine still running, slowly stream in the ice water, then the remaining ¼ cup (60ml) oil. Process until it’s white and fluffy. If it isn’t, slowly stream in a little more oil at a time to reach the right consistency.

Use immediately or transfer to an airtight container for storage.

Recipe from “Mastering the Art of Plant-Based Cooking” (Ten Speed Press, 2024), copyright Joe Yonan.

More favorite garlicky recipes

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Triple Garlic Bread

Garlic Confit

Cauliflower and Roasted Garlic Soup