The Capsule Pantry: Making the Most of Wild Garlic (Whilst It Lasts)
Wild garlic bagels, pan-fried lamb and risotto a-go-go
The Capsule Pantry in one sentence: Reduce your food waste by “thinking like a chef” with highly flexible recipes based on a capsule pantry of just 50 ingredients.
Free food is the best food. Especially when it tastes like garlic.
Wild garlic season is very much upon wide swathes of the northern hemisphere right now and I tell ya, it makes me so happy to see clumps of the stuff in woods and on roadsides. Much like asparagus, it’s a surefire sign that Spring is here.
I found a fantastic carpeting of it in my hometown the other day which I took home to turn into dinner for the next three nights.
Three nights, three wild garlic recipes coming up, from wild garlic bagels to dressed lamb.
But first, if you’re interested in picking your own wild garlic, here’s what you need to know:
Safety first - wild garlic looks suspiciously like Lily of the Valley which is poisonous. Wild Garlic has long, flat leaves and smells strongly of, well, garlic. The flowers also look very different - wild garlic has star-shaped flowers whereas lily of the valley are bell-shaped. There’s a good article about spotting the differences here.
In the US and Canada, wild garlic grows largely on the Eastern side of the country. The USDA website has a good resource on where to find it.
In Europe, Britain, Germany, and Austria are good places to find wild garlic, often in forested areas with acidic soils.
Make sure to thoroughly wash your wild garlic before using it.
If you can’t forage wild garlic locally, ask at your local farmer’s market. You can even purchase the seeds and plant them in your garden or on a balcony. Be warned, it spreads so many people choose to plant it in pots.
If you’re interested in signing up to TCP - as well as the whole of Simple and Straightforward - you can still grab 30% off until the end of April. Normally full access to S+S is $5/mo or $50/yr but right now, it’s $3.50 / $35. That gives you access to a whole archive of recipes as well as new ones every week.
Key: Bold = Capsule Pantry ingredients
Recipe no. 1 - Wild garlic bagels
I made these bright green bagels with my three-year-old niece who loved the color and chew of these bouncy, easy-to-make snacks. They taste a lot like onion bagels but are so, so much more fun.
Makes 8:
450g strong white bread flour
1 level tbsp flaky sea salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
300ml warm water
Handful of wild garlic leaves (around 5-6)
Place the bread flour and salt in a mixing bowl.
Mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar in a separate jug and leave to activate for 3-4 minutes.
Finely chop - or even better, blitz with a hand blender - the wild garlic.
Add the wild garlic, the activated yeast, and water to the flour. Mix into a ball of dough.
Knead either by hand on a floured surface or with a mixer for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel, and leave somewhere warm for an hour, or until the dough has doubled in size.
Knock back the dough and leave for another 30 minutes.
Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll each one into a ball and flatten a little. Put your finger through the middle to make a ring. Rest for another 15 minutes.
Pre-heat your oven to 200C/390F.
Bring a big pan of water to the boil. Drop in your bagels and boil for 2 minutes. Turn and boil for another 2 minutes. You’ll probably need to do this in batches.
Turn out the boiled bagels onto an oiled baking tray. Put them in the oven for 20 minutes.
Leave to cool and serve.
Recipe no. 2 - Wild garlic with lamb, roast potatoes, and asparagus
I really like the taste of wild garlic when it’s chopped rather than blitzed into pesto or paste. There’s something about the gentle process of chopping that prevents it from becoming too earthy. This Spring dish of lamb, potatoes, and asparagus is elevated by sprinkling wild garlic over the whole thing.
Serves 4
4 lamb leg steaks
A handful of new potatoes per person, cut in half
Olive oil
Green asparagus - 5-6 stalks per person
A handful of wild garlic finely chopped
Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F.
Boil the potatoes for around 8 minutes or until you can stick a knife through them. Drain and leave to dry for 5 minutes.
Toss the potatoes in oil, season with sea salt, and roast in the oven, turning every 10-15 minutes until golden (around 30-40 minutes).
Prepare the asparagus by chopping off the woodier ends.
Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat. Place the lamb steaks into the pan. Fry on each side for around 4 minutes (depending on the thickness of the steaks), seasoning each side when you turn the meat.
Place the steaks in foil to rest whilst you fry the asparagus in the same pan. Turn them frequently until slightly blackened.
Thinly slice the meat. If it’s not done to your liking, you can always put it back in the pan for a minute longer.
Arrange the lamb, asparagus, and potatoes on a serving platter and sprinkle with the wild garlic.
Recipe 3 - Wild garlic and pea risotto
An oldie but a goodie.
Serves 4
1 medium white onion finely chopped
300g / 1.5 cups risotto rice
1/2 cup white wine (optional)
Approximately 1 litre / 4 cups vegetable / chicken stock
Approx 3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
1 generous knob of butter
A handful of frozen peas
A handful of wild garlic, finely chopped
Take a saucepan and heat a glug of olive oil in the bottom on a low-medium heat. Gently fry the onion until softened - around 5-7 minutes.
Add the risotto rice and coat in the onion and oil.
Throw in the white wine if you’re using it, or if not a splash of stock. Constantly stir until it’s absorbed.
Turn the heat down to a slow simmer and slowly add stock to your rice 1/2 a cup at a time. Stir pretty much constantly until the stock is absorbed before adding the next 1/2 cup. I’ve suggested using a litre / 4 cups of stock but this is an inexact science. You may need more, you may need less depending on your rice. Keep tasting towards the end of cooking and stop once the rice is cooked with just a little bit of bite left. It will take around 20-25 minutes.
Season with sea salt towards the end (you might not need much if your stock is salty).
Just before you add your final half cup, throw in the peas and let them cook in the risotto.
Once all the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked, add the grated parmesan and butter. Stir, turn off the heat and let the risotto rest for a few minutes.
Just before serving, stir in the wild garlic.
Dietary restrictions
Wild garlic bagels - the dish is vegan and naturally nut-free. You can use a gluten-free flour to make it gluten-free too.
Roast lamb - the dish is naturally gluten-free and nut free. You can make it vegetarian/vegan by swapping out the lamb with one of the suggestions below.
Risotto - the dish is naturally gluten-free and vegetarian. Make it vegan by omitting the butter and using a vegan cheese alternative (or omitting the cheese entirely).
The wild garlic
This is, of course, a wild garlic week but if you can’t get any, you can always swap out the wild garlic in each of these recipes for another green leaf such as spinach or kale. You can also add normal garlic to each of the dishes to get that garlicky flavor.
The lamb
If you want a vegetarian/vegan alternative, the asparagus and potatoes would be great on their own or you could fry a flat mushroom such as portobello.
The risotto
Swap out the peas for other green vegetables like asparagus, broad beans or spinach.
You could throw in some cooked roast chicken.
Cherry tomatoes are great in this dish - chop them in half, fry them separately, and add towards the end of cooking.
Squeeze in a little lemon juice for some extra acidity.
Top with other cheese like feta.
If you have leftover wild garlic, chop it up, put it in a sandwich bag, and freeze it to be used at a later date.
Add wild garlic to the following TCP recipes:
Stewed Chicken with Aubergine, Chickpeas, Dates and Ras El Hanout
Croatian chicken “gregada” (also good for using up leftover potatoes)
Use up leftover asparagus in one of last week’s asparagus recipes.
Yes! I love wild garlic - even had a wild garlic omelette for breakfast