Get cooking with garlic

If you've never cooked with garlic before, 40 cloves and a chicken is a great recipe to start with.

As the name suggests you'll be baking up a ton of garlic cloves with your chicken and no mincing or chopping is involved.

Just peel your garlic, whip up this dish, and you're good to go!

Dig up that garlic!

Garlic is easy to grow but you can't see the bulbs in the ground so it can be tricky to know just when to harvest garlic that you're growing.

This quick guide to when to harvest garlic solves that problem, pulling together tips from many different growers to give you a good idea of when to harvest your garlic.

Garlic for hypertension

Numerous studies have show that eating as little as one clove of fresh garlic daily may help to reduce mild to moderate high blood pressure.

The exact mechanism isn't understood but garlic for blood pressure is a low-cost, natural cure that's been used by thousands of years.

The theory is that garlic's broader cardiovascular benefits come from the many organosulfur compounds that it produces, which interact with the human body in a variety of ways.

The amazing world of garlic

Garlic: the super vegetable!

Mashed potatoes, get in my belly

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes - get some!

Perfect roasted garlic

Roasted garlic is one of the most popular ways to cook and eat garlic as it's simple enough to wrap it up in aluminum foil and pop it in the oven.

If you're ready to step up your roasting game, though, take a peek at one of these cast iron garlic roasters. Not only do they guarantee that your garlic gets roasted evenly and perfectly but you'll save on aluminmum foil over time, as you just give them a quick scrub and they're good to go.

You can use these roasters in the oven and on the grill and they'l last forever if properly cared for.

Mmm, garlic scapes

Garlic scapes don't get as much love as cloves of garlic in cooking but the flowering stalks that most garlic plants grow each year can be tasty in a wide array of dishes.

Scapes are milder than garlic cloves so the taste is a little more subtle, such as in this garlic scape soup recipe. 

Bye bye garlic breath

Garlic scape season arrives!

Garlic scapes are a treasured secret of many garlic fans, with the flower stalks of many garlic plants maturing around this time of year.

Growers typically pluck off the scapes to encourage bulb growth, with the scapes a delicious way to get an early taste of garlic each season before the bulbs mature.

Scapes are easy to cook with and can be used in a wide range of dishes and prepared different ways -- slice them in salads, saute them like asparagus, or add them as a pizza topping -- the combinations really are endless!

Mmm, garlic and jelly

If garlic and jelly don't immediately go together in your mind, well, you are definitely missing out. Behold the wonder of hot pepper garlic jelly!

Garlic shrimp and quinoa recipe

Seriously, get in my belly! Now! I'm talking to you, garlic shrimp and quinoa!

Who loves garlic bread?

Yeah, pretty much everyone loves garlic bread.

And what's not to love, especially with an easy recipe like the one above where you simply add garlic awesomeness to a store bought loaf of sourdough or other bread of your choice.

Garlic pasta and shrimp

I'm hungry just looking at that plate of garlic pasta and shrimp; how about you?

It gets even better as it's a quick and easy dish to prepare and calls for just tossing the pasta in olive oil, so it's a great light dish for hot summer nights when you want to spend your time enjoying a delicious meal instead of putting a lot of hot, sweaty time into the kitchen.

What is a garlic clove?

Lots of garlic newbies are confused about the difference between a clove and a head of garlic...with potentially disastrous consequences in the kitchen!

Don't fear...never be confused again about a garlic clove vs. a head of garlic after reading this basic guide.

Banish garlic breath!

Garlic breath is a tricky thing, as it's a love/hate relationship with most people.

You can't avoid it if you eat a lot of garlic and you really don't want to. It's a sign that you enjoy a lot of garlic and it also means that you're getting the full health benefits as well as the sulfur compounds in garlic are only active and in your bloodstream when you have garlic breath.

You can't really avoid garlic breath but you can take some basic steps to reduce its impact if you (or co-workers or family members) are bothered by it.

Garlic as a natural cure for hypertension

Did you know that garlic is a natural way to treat high blood pressure?

Scientists haven't pinpointed the exact mechanism but garlic has proven effective in numerous studies in reducing mild to moderate hypertension.

Plenty of people swear by garlic as a natural cure and population studies have definitely linked diets high in onions and garlic with a much lower incidence of some cancers and high blood pressure.

Peel garlic in less than 10 seconds!

Garlic for Treating Hypercholesterolemia: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

Short version: garlic is good for you!

Purpose: To investigate the effect of garlic on total cholesterol level in persons with elevated levels by conducting a meta-analysis of randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials.

Data Sources: Systematic literature searches were conducted on the MEDLINE, EMBASE, BIOSIS, Cochrane Library, AMED, and CISCOM databases. Manufacturers of commercial garlic preparations and experts in the field were asked about published or unpublished trials.

Study Selection: Selected trials were required to state that they were randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled; use garlic monopreparations; include persons with mean total cholesterol levels of at least 5.17 mmol/L (200 mg/dL); and report total cholesterol level as an end point. There were no language restrictions.

Link to research