Garlic is one of the most versatile cooking ingredients in the world. From mashed potatoes to hamburgers to premium steaks, garlic can go with almost any combination of foods to help create a delicious meal. With such a wide variety of recipes that use garlic, it’s not surprising that garlic is one of the most popular cooking ingredients in Canada.
In honour of National Garlic Day, let’s look at some of the most popular garlic recipes in the great white north:
1.Garlic Bread
Ingredients:
Bread/Baguette (1 loaf, Italian or French bread)
Garlic (2 large cloves, minced)
Butter (½ cup)
Parsley (1 tbsp, finely chopped)
Parmesan Cheese (¼ cup, grated, optional for this recipe)
Instructions:
Start by turning on your oven and preheating it to 350 degrees. Slice your baguette into different pieces, they can be in long or short slices depending on what you prefer. Next, mix the garlic and butter in a small mixing bowl. Once they are well mixed, get a butter knife and spread the mixture over the bread slices. Try to apply it evenly on each slice.
Get a baking tray and grease it, add cooking spray, or place a baking sheet on it. Once the oven is finished warming up, place the bread slices on the tray, giving them at least 3 inches apart or more if your tray is big enough. Place in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the bread turns golden brown.
When you take the tray out of the oven, you can spread parmesan cheese over the tops of the hot garlic bread for added flavour. Let sit for 2 minutes before serving.
2.Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients:
Russet Potatoes (3 ½)
Garlic (6 cloves, crushed)
Parmesan Cheese (6 ounces, grated)
Water (2 cups)
Salt (2 tbsp)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to preference)
Instructions:
Peel your potatoes and place them in a pot or large pan with the salt. Fill the pot with water, ensuring that the potatoes are submerged. Add a pinch of salt and turn the heat on high. On medium-high heat, bring the water to a boil before reducing the heat and maintaining a rolling boil.
Let the potatoes sit in the water until they are soft. Take a fork and poke one of the potatoes with it, it should fall apart easily. Once the potatoes are soft, move the pot off the heat and drain the water. Place the potatoes in a large mixing bowl.
Before the water gets to a boil, get a pan and add some olive oil. Add the crushed garlic cloves to the pan and set the burner to medium-high heat. Wait until the garlic starts to simmer, let simmer for 1-3 minutes before turning the heat off and moving the pan off the burner.
Add the garlic to the mixing bowl with the potatoes along with the parmesan cheese. Mash the potatoes and stir in the garlic and parmesan. Once thoroughly mixed and mashed, you have garlic mashed potatoes that are ready to serve.
3.Roasted Garlic
Ingredients:
Garlic (1-2 large heads)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (to preference)
Salt (to taste)
Black Pepper (to taste)
Instructions:
Get your garlic heads and with a sharp knife, cut the pointed top to expose the raw garlic cloves inside. Make sure you don’t cut off the cloves. Next, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. While your oven heats up, pour olive oil over the exposed garlic cloves, they should be thoroughly coated. Add black pepper and salt according to your personal preferences.
Get a baking tray with a baking sheet and place the garlic heads on it, evenly spaced from each other. Once the oven is finished preheating, put the tray inside and let it sit for about 40 minutes to fully cook. Let it sit for 2-5 minutes before you handle the garlic. It is now ready to be added to other dishes!
If you are already planning on cooking something in the oven, you can simply add the garlic on a separate baking rack and let it cook alongside your other food, however, it will likely need to be left in the oven longer than 40 minutes to fully cook.
4.Garlic Butter Shrimp
Ingredients:
Garlic (5 cloves, minced)
Shrimp (1 ½ pounds, peeled)
Butter (8 tbsp)
Chicken Stock (¼ cup)
Lemon Juice (equivalent to 1 lemon)
Parsley (2 tbsp, chopped)
Salt (to taste)
Black Pepper (to taste)
Instructions:
Get a large pan and put it over a burner on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, your shrimp, salt and pepper. Stir until pink, which should take around 5 minutes. Once the shrimp turns pink, take place in a bowl off to the side.
Add the garlic to the pan and let it cook until golden brown, which should take around 1 minute. Add the lemon juice and chicken stock, stirring so that they mix thoroughly. Bring the mixture to a boil before reducing the heat. The mixture should simmer until it has thickened considerably.
Once the volume of the mixture has been reduced to half its original amount, add the remaining butter and stir it in to mix. Make sure to add only 1 tablespoon of butter at a time, waiting until the butter is completely melted and mixed before adding more. Once all the butter is stirred into the mixture, add your shrimp back into the pan and stir.
Once the shrimp is thoroughly coated with the mixture, you can turn off the heat. Garnish with parsley and serve.
5.Arroz Caldo
Ingredients:
Chicken (2 ½ pounds)
Chicken broth (5 ¼ cups)
Garlic (2 cloves, crushed)
Lemon (1, sliced)
Rice (1 cup)
Onion (1, diced)
Green Onion (1, chopped)
Olive Oil (2 tbsp)
Fish sauce (1 tbsp and 1 tsp, optional)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Instructions:
Get a large pot and place it on your stove on medium-high heat. As the olive oil warms up, add your garlic and onion and stir for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken, and 2 tablespoons of fish sauce to the pot, stirring for 3-4 minutes.
Next, pour the chicken broth and rice into the pot and let it cook for 10-15 minutes while covered. Make sure to stir occasionally so the rice does not stick to the bottom of the pot. Add salt and pepper according to your preferences and garnish with lemon and green onion before serving.
Find Cool and Delicious Garlic Recipes
If you are like the thousands of Canadians who love eating garlic and want to find new and tasty garlic recipes to try at home, check out HelloFresh.ca. They have hundreds to thousands of unique garlic recipes that are easy and fun to make, and above all, delicious to eat. As the world’s largest provider of meal kits, they have a wide variety of recipes to choose from to suit your personal tastes and preferences.
Whether you are looking to try new recipes, or simply learn old ones, HelloFresh has one of the largest recipe catalogues in the world. You can browse through their online catalogues anytime you struggle to think of new dishes to create and get detailed cooking instructions that walk you through each recipe step-by-step.
They can also deliver meal kits of any recipe you want, with fresh ingredients with detailed cooking instructions being sent right to your door, allowing you to enjoy your favourite recipes in the comfort of your home and without having to do any grocery shopping.
Garlic Health Benefits
Garlic does not only taste good, but it is quite good for your overall health as well. Eating garlic on a regular basis has been shown to decrease your risk of heart attacks and cardiovascular diseases as it helps regulate cholesterol levels in the blood and decrease cholesterol build-up in the arteries. These properties also help lower blood pressure.
Many studies have found that chemical compounds in garlic can inhibit cancer cells from reproducing, helping combat tumour growth and malignancy.
It is not only eating garlic that provides benefits to your health but garlic oil has been documented to reduce swelling and inflammation when applied topically to affected areas of the body. Topical use of garlic has also been shown to reduce acne and even treat fungal infections, including athlete’s foot.
Given all its flavour and benefits to our health, its no surprise that garlic is one of the longest cultivated foods in the world.