Garlic sprouting can you eat

But even though the flavor is a little less than ideal, sprouted garlic is fine to eat. TBH, if you're just incorporating one or two cooked cloves into a larger dish, you probably won't notice a difference at all.

We wouldn't recommend using sprouted garlic in a dish where garlic is the star of the show—think garlic bread , chicken braised with whole heads of the stuff , or garlic fried rice —but otherwise you're probably fine. If you're really concerned, you can slice the offending cloves in half lengthwise and simply pull the green sprout out, but honestly we don't bother unless we're using the sprouted cloves raw, like in a salad dressing, which is where you're most likely to taste the difference.

You want only the best garlic when using it raw, so remove the sprout if you're grating for Caesar dressing.

The main reason people choose to chuck them is because they have a less pungent, sometimes bitter flavor, as opposed to the clove's mildly sweet taste. According to Oldways , it may also have a more fibrous texture. If you work in a five-star restaurant, by all means cut the sprouted garlic off. If your food must be perfect, throw out that green sprout. But for home cooking, it probably doesn't make a big difference in flavor or presentation.

Ultimately, it's a personal preference — but rest assured, there is little health risk from eating cooked garlic that has sprouted. That's not the case with all sprouted foods, however. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the warm and humid conditions required to sprout seeds, such as alfalfa, and beans can also foster the growth of germs, such as salmonella, E. Eating raw, fully sprouted seeds and beans can increase the risk of food poisoning.

Your overgrown garlic doesn't pose as much of a problem. Just to be on the safe side, though, don't chow down on raw garlic shoots. But then why would you? If you do decide to throw the sprouts and all into the pot, you may reap additional health benefits. Researchers of a study published in the Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry in February tested the hypothesis that sprouting raw garlic would promote production of powerful phytochemicals that can improve health.

The researchers compared the antioxidant activity of unsprouted raw garlic and raw garlic sprouts for five days and found that the sprouted garlic exhibited significantly greater activity in lab testing. Sampled on their own, raw sprouts tasted herbal and grassy, while the cloves they came from tasted fiery and sharp compared to raw cloves that hadn't sprouted.

These findings make a lot of sense. Though garlic can last up to a year in storage, it dries out as it ages. By the time a clove produces a sprout, it has lost considerable moisture and much of its sugar has been used to grow the sprout, so it tastes not only more intense but also less sweet. In recipes, we found that removing the sprouts from older garlic cloves didn't matter, since the strong taste of the cloves overpowered that of the sprouts.