Three home chefs share how green garlic can be used this season

With green garlic or leela lasan flooding the market, three home chefs tell us how to make the most of this seasonal ingredient

Keema-baida-lasan

With runny eggs, green garlic on top and piping hot ghee, Andheri-based food chronicler Shanti Petiwala’s first encounter with leela lasan, served by her mother-in-law 10 years ago, was love at first sight. Typically found in the city from November, December is when the prices of this younger, greener counterpart of garlic — harvested before the cloves mature — come down, and it fills the bhaji markets, especially those near Gujarati and Bohri neighbourhoods, shares the home chef at Riot of Flavours.

The ingredient is heat-inducing and quite pungent. The best part: one can use the tendrils, whites, and greens. “Its tenderness — of the greens and the white part — and strong flavour are its main characteristics,” says Petiwala, cautioning that it spoils quickly. Dry completely, chop it up and store in an airtight container in the fridge, and use within a week. 

Shanti Petiwala

Use green garlic in a way that allows it to shine, she recommends, for instance, in an omelette. Among other ways to use the produce, she suggests adding it while grilling corn cobs with butter, flavouring a simple dal, with prawns, in parathas or dehydrating to get a powder. 

Ingredients
. 1/2 kg mutton keema, washed and drained thrice
. 2-3 tbsp oil (preferably mustard oil)
. 6 black peppercorns . ½-inch cinnamon stick  
. 1 large bay leaf . 2 cloves. 1 green cardamom 
. 1 black cardamom  . 1 tsp jeera . 3 medium onions, minced 
. 2 tbsp ginger, garlic and green chilli paste 
. 1 large tomato, finely minced. 1/4 tsp haldi powder 
. 1 tsp chilli powder . 1 tbsp dhania-jeera powder 
. 1 tsp garam masala powder 
. Freshly chopped coriander and mint 
. 2 tbsp kasuri methi 
. Salt to taste 
. 1 tbsp ghee 
. 2 green chillies 
. 4 eggs . 3/4 cup ghee 
. 1/2 cup finely-chopped green garlic 

Method
Heat a kadhai and add oil. Let it smoke well and cool down a bit. Add all the whole garam masalas and let them bloom. Then, put in jeera. Add onions and sauté well on medium heat until light golden. Tip in the ginger, garlic and green chilli paste. Sauté again and then tip in the dry masalas. Mix well; then, add the tomatoes. Let them all come together. Add the keema. On a low flame, let the masala and keema mix well before adding salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add water to adjust consistency. In a tadka pan, heat ghee, and add halved green chillies. Let it blister and turn golden before pouring it all into the keema. Top the keema with dried kasuri methi, chopped coriander and mint. Now, heat the 3/4 cup of ghee on a medium flame. Layer the keema in a wide bowl or a shallow plate and make four indents. Crack the eggs gently into the indents. Generously sprinkle leela lasan in a uniform layer over the eggs. Gently pour piping hot ghee evenly over the garlic, egg and keema combo. Ensure the eggs get a direct hit of the ghee. Serve hot with pav. 

Green garlic pickle

Sangeeta Khetan, founder of Sang Sang Foods, who remembers being smitten by a green garlic chutney she tasted in her hometown Raipur, suggests adding it to saag in winters. “Green garlic’s smell comes across as more flavoursome. It is rich in fibre and helps in digestion, too.” To enjoy it beyond the season, make a pickle out of it. “It can be paired with roti, parathas, pav bhaji or dal-chawal,” she says.

Sangeeta Khetan

Ingredients
. 50 g green garlic
. 50 g green chillies
. 50 g ginger 
. 25 g fresh turmeric roots 
. 1 tsp fresh lemon juice 
. 1 tsp mustard oil 
. 1 tsp salt  
. 1 tsp achaar khada masala mix

Method
Wash garlic, chillies, turmeric and ginger. Peel and cut into fine long pieces. Let these dry for three to four hours, and assemble in a bowl. Add salt and achaar khada masala mix, along with lemon juice. Heat mustard oil for one or two minutes, let it cool down, and then add it to the achaar. This will help to preserve it for longer and add freshness. Refrigerate it, so it can be used for 20 days.s

Green garlic thecha

Ingredients
. 5 to 6 green garlics
. 2 tbsp raw peanuts
. 2 green chillies
. 1 tbsp oil
. Salt to taste
. 1 tsp lime juice

Kalpana Talpade

Method
Sauté chopped garlic, peanuts and chillies lightly in oil. Grind coarsely on a mortar-pestle and combine the ingredients; don’t use a mixer. The thecha is ready. 

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