Garlic Scape Butter with Herbs

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This Garlic Scape Herb Compound Butter is so very tasty and couldn’t be easier! It enhances the flavor of fish and seafood, vegetables, potatoes, pasta, just about anything you can imagine!

I am so excited about this post! Not because it’s anything terribly special or clever but because Garlic Scapes are my new, favorite food on the planet!

I have always been afraid to try planting garlic because we have very heavy, clay soil. Garlic prefers well drained soils, which we do not have here!

Every year I would go to the garlic festivals in August and just wish. Last year I got my husband on board (because he loves garlic too). So we got 3 or 4 bags of sand from the garden center. We also used peat moss, pea stone and some topsoil I had leftover from spring planting. He got out the backhoe and went to town.

How to Plant Garlic

Any excuse to get out the heavy equipment and he is in! I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before!!

So I planted 18 cloves from the garlic I got at the garlic festival; a variety of cultivars, just to see which ones liked our soil best!

I was so excited when I saw them come up this Spring! I watched for garlic scapes (the stalk of and flower bud) carefully. They can not flower or the flower will take the nutrients from the bulb and the bulbs will be smaller. So you cut off the buds and stalks.

Too my further delight, in mid June the scapes finally appeared. I have been looking at other bloggers’ posts with envy every year with all the garlic scape recipes. I have never found them at the farmer’s market. Apparently, the farmers don’t know there is a demand for them.

What are Garlic Scapes?

Garlic Scapes are the flower bud and the stalk of the flower of the garlic plant. If the garlic “scapes” are not removed from the leaves, the flower will take nutrients from the bulb, so that the bulb of the garlic will be very small. Therefore, it is important to break or cut the garlic scapes off, before they flower.

Anyhoo, enough about garlic planting.. on to my Garlic Scape Herb Compound Butter! Garlic Scapes have a very mild flavor. No bitterness to be found! Not exactly like roasted garlic, but reminiscent. It couldn’t be easier to make either.

Making Garlic Scape Butter

Let your butter come to room temperature. Chop the garlic scapes fairly small, both the buds and the stalks. Saute the garlic scapes for a few minutes in just a tad of olive oil, just to soften. You don’t want them to brown or lose their glorious color! Then let them come to room temperature. Chop a bit of parsley, basil and chives. Oregano, sage and thyme would be great too, depending on the flavor profile you are looking for.

Culinary Uses for Garlic Scapes

Use the Garlic Scape Herb Compound Butter on fresh vegetables, here on mixed summer squash. It is also great on fish, seafood, meats.

Quick and easy variation of bruschetta or garlic bread is also great! Check out my friend Laura Tobin’s post from Your Guardian Chef, for a great tutor on bruschetta!

You also might like these other awesome recipes I’ve made with garlic scapes! Chicken Florentine Pizza with Garlic Scape Pesto, Garlic Scape Pesto, Shrimp Pasta Salad with Garlic Scape Pesto.

Due to my background in horticulture, I had several readers request a tutorial on Vegetable Gardening. So if you have interest in the subject, these posts are packed full of information about how to get that big harvest by the end of the season! Don’t miss my How to Start a Garden Series! The first part is Planning Your Garden! Second is Preparing the Garden Site. The third is Choosing Plants and Planting Your Garden. The fourth is Garden Maintenance, and the last is Harvesting a Garden and Preserving the Harvest, this post has over 100 FREE recipes for preserving your harvest!

I hope you enjoyed the post today! Leave a comment below and let me know if you have used garlic scapes and what your favorite recipes for garlic scapes are!

Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy! And have fun cooking!

Tools I Use to Make Garlic Scape Butter

Contains affiliate links, for full disclosure, see FTC Disclosure, here.

• Cutting board
• Pots
• Herb Scissors

Recipe

Print Pin

5 from 8 votes

Garlic Scape Herb Compound Butter

This Garlic Scape Herb Compound Butter is easy with a beautifully mild garlic flavor!

Course Condiment

Cuisine American

Keyword garlic scape butter,, garlic scape recipes, herb compound butter,

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Servings 32 tablespoons

Calories 3402kcal

Author Beth Neels

Ingredients

• 1 lb unsalted butter, softened to room temperature.
• 1/2 c garlic scape, buds and stalks, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 1 splash olive oil

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• Soften garlic in olive oil over medium low heat, watching carefully. Garlic should just soften, not brown. Once garlic has softened, allow to cool to room temperature.
• Add butter, garlic and herbs together. Mix thoroughly. Wrap in wax paper or plastic wrap. Cool in refrigerator or store in freezer to prolong shelf life.

Nutrition

Calories: 3402kcal | Carbohydrates: 31g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 369g | Saturated Fat: 233g | Cholesterol: 975mg | Sodium: 3258mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 242.3% | Vitamin C: 47.4% | Calcium: 28.9% | Iron: 11.5%

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