How To: Dehydrated Garlic

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Learn how to dehydrate garlic easily at home to make sliced, minced, and garlic powder. This easy step by step guide will teach you how to prepare, store and use your dehydrated garlic.

We cook with garlic. A LOT of garlic.

My guacamole has garlic. Our brisket rub has garlic. My smoked salsa has garlic. Those delicious sous vide potatoes are poached in garlic butter. The dill pickled carrots have garlic.

I think you get the picture!

Being that we are heavy garlic consumers, it became obvious a couple of years ago that it was time to "harvest" our own garlic and preserve it for use throughout the year. I suck at growing things but am pretty ok at cooking. For us, "harvesting" garlic was buying a bulk bag at the local store.

This how to guide is dedicated to garlic in everything.

Jump to:

• Tips + tricks
• Ingredients
• How to make
• How to store
• How to use
• Recommended tools
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Tips + tricks

No. 1--> When slicing the garlic, keep the slices a uniform size as much as possible. Keeping the garlic somewhat similar in size will help keep the dehydrating uniform, less chance of under-dried garlic mixed in with the perfectly dried garlic.

No. 2 --> Keep the temperature on the dehydrator low. We want dried garlic, not browned/cooked garlic. Trust me, one year we tried to dehydrate the garlic too warm and it turned brown and bitter.

No. 3 --> If you can, put your dehydrator in the garage or outside in a protected area. The smell of dehydrating garlic will float through your whole house. You'll emanate the smell of garlic for a long time!

Ingredients

This one is not hard. There's only 1 ingredient!

• LOTS of garlic

How to make

1. Start by peeling the papery skins off the garlic. Discard all of the papery peels. Then break apart the cloves of garlic from the bulb.
2. Chop both ends off of the garlic cloves. Most people only recommend to chop the bulb end off, but we've learned that chopping both ends off makes for a much easier peel.
3. Peel each clove of garlic. Get rid of any and all peels.
4. Slice the garlic cloves in a uniform width. If you are doing dehydrated sliced garlic stop here and skip to step 6.
5. Mince the sliced cloves. I love to use my little chopper for this, it makes quick work of a mundane job.
6. Spread the prepared garlic on the trays of your dehydrator, aiming for as close to a single layer as possible. The less the garlic touches, the better.
7. Dehydrate the sliced or minced garlic at 105f until it's completely dry. The garlic is ready when it snaps when folded. This can be up to or more than 12 hours.
8. Remove the dehydrated garlic from the trays of the dehydrator. Allow them to cool to room temperature before preparing them for storage.

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How to store

There's a couple ways to store your dehydrated garlic:

Glass Jar

You can store your sliced or minced dehydrated garlic in a clean glass mason jar with the lid tightly screwed in a cool dark cupboard for up to a year. It works great, and this is how I store my garlic.

If you want to go the extra step when making a large batch, you can use your Food Saver Jar vacuum seal attachment to suck out any excess air. This will keep your food fresher even longer!

Freeze It

You can put your dried garlic into a mason jar or other freezer safe, air tight container, and place in the freezer indefinitely. It should keep frozen for over a year.

How to use

Using dried garlic is almost as easy as using fresh.

Garlic powder

A great use for dehydrated garlic is garlic powder. To make your dried garlic into garlic powder, simply run the mince or slices through your blender, spice grinder, or mortar and pestle.

Use this garlic powder exactly the same as any other!

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Fresh Garlic

If you need fresh garlic and, shit! you're out? Dehydrated garlic can easily be subbed in!

Simply soak the desired amount of dehydrated garlic in a small bowl of hot water for 10 or so minutes, until it reabsorbs the moisture, then mix it into your recipe as required. I've done this with my Loaded Guacamole more times than I care to admit!

Dehydrated garlic

Using dehyrated garlic in place of fresh garlic in cooked recipes could not be easier. Got a pot of soup going? Throw some dehydrated slices in there. Need some minced garlic in chili? Save the mess and throw a couple spoonfuls of minced dried garlic in the pot.

Garlic Salt

You can easily turn your homemade garlic powder into garlic salt. To do this, simply blend 1 part garlic powder with 3 parts salt in the blender. For example, 1/4 cup garlic powder + 3/4 cups salt into the blender and pulse a few times to get them well combined!

Recommended tools

There are a few tools used in this project that will make your life a lot easier.

Dehydrator

I use this Excalibur dehydrator I bought in like 2014. It's a 9 tray model, with a timer, adjustable thermostat (between 105f and 165f). I love this little machine, it works great. I've used it to proof bread, make yogurt, dehydrate citrus wheels. It's a beast and hasn't hiccuped once.

Chopper

If you're mincing a tonne of garlic (or anything), for the love of Jim, get a chopper! Trust me, it's soooo much easier than hand mincing.

Blender

If you're wanting to whip up some garlic powder, a good blender is a great tool to have. I used my Vitamix for this job, and again, after 10 years of pretty steady use, that thing still pumps out some silky garlic powder.

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