How to Freeze Garlic

Freezing freshly minced garlic is a great way to save some time in the kitchen. Frozen garlic is nearly as good as fresh garlic. It’s significantly better than the jarred minced garlic you can buy in the store, but offers the same level of convenience. For everyday cooking, having some frozen garlic ready to go will save you a lot of time (and mess)!

Why freeze garlic?

Save Time

Saving time in the kitchen is the most obvious reason to prep some garlic in your freezer. If you cook with garlic regularly, you know the task of peeling and mincing garlic will add about 5 minutes to your dinner prep, not to mention cleaning up the sticky mess. 5 minutes may not sound like a huge amount of time, but when you’re trying to get dinner on the table after a long day, skipping this task is a relief.

Convenience

Prepping a huge batch of minced garlic for your freezer will keep you stocked up for a long time, so it’s one less thing to worry about having on hand when you cook. Before I started stocking garlic in the freezer, I was buying heads of garlic on almost every grocery trip. Now I’ll grab a head of garlic to mince fresh for special occasions, but for my everyday cooking, the convenience of frozen garlic is hard to beat.

Surprisingly High Quality

Convenience is often something that trades off with quality. Commercially available jarred minced garlic is similarly convenient, but most cooks will agree it’s not a true substitute for freshly minced garlic. The main downfall of jarred minced garlic is the other ingredients that are added to act as preservatives, mainly an acidic component which affects the taste of the product. This frozen garlic is *just* garlic, so there’s nothing else in there to mess with the flavor.

I’d argue that the quality of this frozen garlic is nearly as good as freshly minced garlic, and that most people would not be able to taste any difference in a finished dish. The frozen garlic may lose a little bit of its pungency over time, but I honestly haven’t noticed much decline!

Save Money, Waste Less

Stocking up will keep you from constantly buying heads of garlic which may go bad. I also personally always end up mincing more than I need which often goes to waste. With this process pretty much 100% of the garlic I buy ends up actually being used.

Less Mess

My least favorite part of chopping garlic is the cleanup. I always end up with sticky garlic residue on my hands, the knife, and cutting board. If the dishes arent cleaned right after, and the residue has time to dry, its even more of a pain to clean. When I pull out my frozen garlic to use there is essentially no mess, which is one of my favorite perks.

Where to Buy Peeled Garlic

You certainly don’t *need* to buy pre-peeled garlic to prepare lots of minced garlic for the freezer, but it will make the job much easier. Bulk peeled garlic can be a little tricky to find in stores in the US. Some major grocery stores do stock small packs of peeled garlic, but I’ve found these to be surprisingly low-quality. The garlic in these packs is often going bad and has an off smell, not to mention that the price is pretty high for the quantity you get.

The best option I’ve found is to purchase bulk peeled garlic from an Asian grocery store. I’ve seen high quality peeled garlic for sale in most Indian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese markets in the produce section. The garlic used in the batch for these photos came from a Korean market. You can also sometimes find a vendor selling bulk peeled garlic at a local farmer’s market.

Suggested Equipment

For Mincing – The bare minimum you’ll need is a knife and cutting board, but if you have a food processor the job will go much quicker. Food processors can get pretty pricey, but mini food processors are quite a bit more affordable and perfect for a task like this. I’ve had this mini food processor for years and I love it! It’s also nice to have a small silicon scraper for working with the minced garlic.

For Freezing – I like to use a 1 tbsp size cookie scoop to easily make my 1 tbsp blocks to freeze. You can also use a normal 1 tbsp measuring spoon, it’ll just be a little more difficult. You’ll also want a large cookie sheet or tray and parchment or wax paper to line it for the initial freeze.

Process – How to Freeze Garlic

Peel the garlic.

Skip this step if you’re starting with pre-peeled garlic!

Remove the root tip from each clove.

Grab a large bowl, knife, and cutting board. Cut the root tip off of each clove (the hard, often brown, end of the clove). As you do this, look at the rest of the clove and make sure there aren’t any bad spots that you want to remove. Toss the clove into the bowl and keep going until you’ve processed all of it.

Give it a quick rinse.

If you peeled the garlic yourself you can skip this step, but if you started with pre-peeled garlic, this is a good time to give the cloves a quick wash. Rinse them in the bowl, agitating to remove any loose debris. Drain the bowl, but don’t worry about getting the garlic completely dry.

Mince the garlic.

Mince the garlic to your desired consistency, in a food processor or by hand. Depending on the amount of garlic you’re mincing, you may need to work in batches in a small food processor. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the food processor a few times to ensure there are no large chunks.

Portion out & freeze.

There are a few different effective ways to freeze minced garlic, but my favorite is to make portions that are a known size. To do this, you want to portion out the garlic and allow it to freeze without touching, then once frozen transfer it to a freezer bag for long term storage.

Line a large cookie sheet or platter with parchment or wax paper. Portion out the garlic in piles which are not touching each other. I use a 1 tbsp sized cookie scooper to make this easy, but you can use any size measuring spoon you like. I typically cut my 1 tbsp blocks in half after freezing (discussed in the next section). Use a silicon spatula (or similar) to clean up the piles, so they freeze into solid chunks. Another option is to do this in an ice tray, but I haven’t tested that method!

Freeze until completely solid (I usually leave them overnight, or for at least a few hours).

Package up after freezing.

Once frozen, remove the blocks from the sheet and transfer them to a freezer safe zip bag. If desired, you can cut these blocks smaller with a sharp knife. My typical process is to freeze 1 tbsp blocks, then cut them in half at this step.

How to Defrost & Use

The frozen minced garlic will defrost pretty quickly, just sitting on a small plate or cutting board as you prep other ingredients. I typically pull out what I need right when I start cooking, and it’s ready to use once I need it.

If you need to use the garlic ASAP, you can quickly defrost it in the microwave on a low setting. Just be careful that you don’t start to cook it. It usually only needs ~15 seconds on a low power to soften.

When should I use this minced garlic?

You can use this garlic is pretty much any recipe that calls for minced garlic, especially when you want to save time on a busy day! Try it out with some of my favorite recipes, like my Garlic Eggplant & Crispy Tofu, Coconut Lime Chicken & Pasta, Creamy White Bean Soup, or Korean Beef.

Send me pictures of your creations — it’ll make my day! Message @CraftyCookbook on Instagram or tag me in a post! Please note, tagged posts are only visible to me if your account is public. Did you make any interesting changes or substitutions for this recipe? Tell me about them in the comment section below!
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