The Easiest Way to Peel Garlic
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All true garlic lovers need an easy way to peel garlic.
I love the flavor of garlic and of course, everyone's read about all of the great health benefits that garlic has, but it's a pain to peel.
What a great thing to be able to add something that tastes great and is great for you to your everyday meals!
But the peels – now that's another thing.
For years I've been flustered about how to peel garlic without ending up wanting to pull my hair out. Or worse.
I've tried cooking with garlic in lots of ways:
- peeling cloves with my fingers (ouch!)
- peeling with a garlic peeler (those rubber rolls that look like toilet paper rolls [messy, messy, messy]). My kids loved doing it (for awhile), but the novelty soon wore off and those little garlic peelings were all over the place :-(!
- using pre-peeled garlic. I'd buy a large container of pre-peeled garlic and would freeze it in small bags (to see the bags and clips that I use, check out my posts on How and Why to Store Prepared Beans or 6 Super Tips for Cilantro).
- Smashing cloves with the flat side of my knife (thanks to the reader who reminded me of this) – but the cloves easily slipped out from under my knife and I always felt like I was at risk of impaling myself — all for the love of garlic!
- Using granulated garlic or garlic powder (or homemade garlic powder)
Clearly, the easiest method is to use granulated garlic or garlic powder, but I felt so much better using whole garlic cloves due to the health benefits of garlic and the fresher taste, so I gravitated towards the frozen pre-peeled.
That is, however, until I did some research and talked with a garlic expert on the phone who told me that the nutritional benefits of garlic are almost nil once you freeze garlic. Ugh! Back to the drawing board!
So I got out my silly rubbery garlic peeler again and had those pesky garlic peelings all over the place again.
And I pretty much dreaded making any recipe that had garlic in it!
Then – one day – I got an idea and I tried it. And guess what? My garlic peeling nightmares are over. And now yours are too :-)!
So if you've been wondering how to peel garlic without losing your mind, you are in the right place.
Does Garlic Lose Health Benefits When Cooked?
This is an important fact to know and a tip that can help you retain garlic's benefits in your cooked dishes.
Garlic is loaded with tons of health benefits, but heat will destroy them.
Letting the cut or chopped garlic sit for 10-15 minutes before eating or adding to a dish will maximize the benefits. The cutting or chopping breaks the garlic cells and releases enzymes from the cells that react with oxygen in the air. That reaction triggers healthy sulfide compounds, such as allicin (the most well known beneficial component of garlic), to form.
However, it's important to not cook garlic for too long or you will destroy some of those benefits. It's best to add garlic to your hot dish near the end of cooking. Of course it will taste a lot stronger, however, so that's the trade off.
Some sources say that letting the garlic sit for 10-15 minutes prior to cooking makes the allicin form and that it's pretty heat stable, but that seems to be up for debate.
Easiest Way to Peel Garlic
Instructions
- Remove one clove from the garlic head.
- Cut clove in half, through the peel.
- At this point, typically each half clove will come out easily from the peel. Sometimes, like in this photo, the halves just fall out of the peel on their own! (Occasionally, a half clove will prove to be a bit stubborn and you will have to cut off the thick end of the clove that is adhered to the peel. Just slice through it quickly with your knife.)
Well, there you have it! An easy way to peel garlic–simple and painless!
Need more kitchen tips? Out of time as much as I am? How about:
– The Easiest Way to Store Tomatoes
– The Easiest Way to Preserve Herbs
– The Easiest Way to Freeze and Store Berries
– Easiest Almond Milk Ever
– Easiest Coconut Milk
– Easiest Baby Wipes
How do you usually peel garlic?
Great tip! Thanks for sharing and linking to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.
Your post/idea is FANTASTIC! My teenagers will be jumping for joy because I usually stick them with the job! LOL I have them peel several bulbs worth, and then we freeze them in a baggie for quick use.
:-)! Glad to be of help in making family peace!
Ha! This is one of those “I canNOT believe I didn’t think of that!” tips. Thank you so much for sharing that. I stand over the trash can several nights per week smacking garlic with my knife and peeling it with my finger nails. Takes forever.
Ugh, I wish I had seen this post a few hours earlier. I just spent 20 minutes peeling garlic for dinner. Your way is so much better!
It’s crazy, isn’t it? I have a few more ideas too that I hope to share soon!
I use my bright yellow rubber gloves that I wash the dished with to peel the garlic. Put them on, roll the garlic around in your hands and it’s easy as pie to get the skin off.
Nice tip! Will try for sure!
I have been a Side of the Knife Blade peeler for several years now . Tips: make sure the garlic clove is lying on a flat side, rest the knife blade on the garlic, hit the blade with correct pressure (this took me a couple of tries to get right) & you’ll get whole, unsmashed, peeled cloves of garlic. I have recently tried the 2 bowl method. Awesome if you need a lot of garlic all at once. It works if you do it right: you need LARGE bowls, they need to be the same size as each other (yeah – I tried it with mismatched bowls), you need to do it for a full 10 secs. Peeled garlic keeps quite well in the fridge.
I just found your blog and I LOVE it! You are a woman after my own heart. I saw this on pinterest the other day and it’s a GREAT way to peel garlic (the day I saw it changed my life as I bleed garlic).
Thanks for all of your excellent contents!!
Hi Sarah. I saw a similar video a few days ago (it was a lot more dramatic and a LOT louder!). I am going to give it a run and one other peeling method. Maybe I’ll have to write another post :-).
I dont know if someone has posted this method and i missed it..
toss cloves of garlic in a pot of boiling water for about 60 seconds and the peel will come right off.
Maybe not a perfect everyday method.. but if you’re cooking with boiling water or if you always have your tea kettle on the stove like my mom did it’ll do in a pinch! -especially of you like your cloves whole.
Sounds great – but doesn’t your tea water taste like garlic then?
Haha, yes it would.. I didn’t mean to use the water for tea, just if you always have the kettle handy you can put on few cloves in a cup and pour the water in for a quick fix.
And what I meant when I said if you’re cooking with boiling water. ie: garlic mashed potatoes, pasta with a garlic sauce or making a reduction you can toss some cloves in boiling water and the garlic taste wont ruin your water or recipe.. in fact might add another layer of flavor.. but hey im a huge garlic fan 🙂
Great idea. Someone shared about the hot water tip earlier, I believe, but great for a recap and more ideas!
I got this tip from a book… just take a clove of garlic and hold it end to end between your thumb and pointer finger and squeeze. The peel will pop and you can just peel it off. It accomplishes the same thing as smashing it with a knife without the knife. I use a garlic press a lot too but I don’t like to put the clove in there with the peel since it seems like it leaves a lot of garlic goodness in the press. Also if you do buy a press invest in a good solid metal one. I went through quite a few of the cheaper ones before I bought a more expensive heavy duty one. 🙂
I just tried this and while it didn’t pop out quite as easily as the method I posted about, it sure has potential. I am working on another one. Maybe I need to write a post on New Easiest Ways :-).
AWESOME! This looks much easier than the smashing method I’ve been using (though I use a mallet, not a knife).