Dealing with garlic peel has always been my least favorite part of peeling garlic. They either stick to my fingers or float in the kitchen, carried by a gentle breeze, before settling on random appliances. But I don’t get angry with them anymore, dear ones, because they turn out to be a damn broth.
I saved long onion skins for broth and I don’t know why I didn’t do the same thing with garlic. The outer, more papery pieces don’t have much flavor, though they can help color your broth, but the stuff you pull right off the clove – the sticky paper sticking to your fingers? -, that stuff is coated in goodness of garlic.
Although I’d read about adding garlic peel to broth before, I was initially skeptical that they would do so much in terms of taste, so I gathered a couple of these (a couple of onions) and added them to a saucepan with a couple of cups of water.
After only 10 minutes of simmering, my kitchen was filled with the faint, earthy and pungent aroma of garlic. After 15 minutes – and after sifting out the bowls – I had a golden, fragrant liquid that tasted decidedly garlicky and quite tasty.
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Of course, this means that you should Keep garlic peels in your “storage bag”. (along with all the other wonderful vegetable scraps you hoard for such a purpose) but don’t turn down the idea of a plain broth with only garlic peel. This stuff is insanely flavorful, lasts a quarter of an hour, and can be used to add the goodness of garlic to a wide variety of dishes. Use it instead of water if you can Make rice, stir it into sauces and saucesor – the hell – sip it when you have a cold.
This story was originally published in August 2017 and was updated on March 2, 2021 for clarity and to reflect Lifehacker’s current style guidelines.
