It’s wild garlic season

Every spring, it starts again. The white blooms creep out from shaded woodland floors, the scent hits your nose before your eyes have had a chance to adjust to the dappled light, and suddenly it’s everywhere. Wild garlic season.

Menus across the country sprout with it. Pesto, butter, mayonnaise, oil. Paired with burrata, folded into duxelles, spooned onto eggs, swirled through soup.

Every year, like clockwork, chefs lose their minds. “We make sure wild garlic appears on our menu every spring to celebrate its return,” says Clare Coghill of Café Cùil on the Isle of Skye. “It holds huge sentimental value to me from picking it as a child with my mum on spring walks by the shore.”

The question is: what are the rest of us meant to do with it? For something that’s become such a seasonal signifier, wild garlic still feels surprisingly elusive for home cooks.

You might recognise it by scent. You might spot it on a menu. But do you know what to do with it beyond blitzing it into pesto?

Let’s fix that.

So what actually is wild garlic?

Also known as ramsons, bear’s garlic or allium ursinum, wild garlic grows abundantly in damp, shaded woodland from March to early May. Its long, flat leaves and star-like white flowers are as photogenic as they are pungent. But despite the name, its flavour isn’t quite the same as the garlic bulb we know and love. It’s fresher. Lighter. Gentler.

“Wild garlic has a recognisable garlic flavour, but with a more earthy, gentle twist,” says Amy Elles of Stocks Kitchen in Kinross. “It’s less sharp than cultivated garlic, offering a fresher, subtler taste. This makes it perfect for adding depth to a variety of dishes.” Alan Keery of Nàdair in Edinburgh agrees, calling it “a much more rounded garlicky flavour”. It also “has a slight sweetness and minerality to it … Despite its pungency, wild garlic has a nice aroma to it and mellows out when cooked.”

Niall Munro of Birch Coffee in Fort William gets straight to the point: “It tastes like garlic and spinach had a baby.”

Why chefs go mad for it

Wild garlic is one of the UK’s great seasonal flexes. It’s free, it’s fragrant and it’s fleeting. “It’s the time of year it comes at,” says Keery. “After months of bleakness and miserable weather, the first signs of wild garlic give relief for warmer climes ahead.” For chefs, it’s a creative reset button. For diners, it’s a promise: spring is coming.

“It marks the beginning of all the good things to come,” adds Elles. “It’s like a breath of fresh air during the hunger gap, bringing excitement and flavour to the season.”

And yes, there’s a bit of chef posturing, too. Wild garlic’s brief season and foraged exclusivity make it perfect for specials boards and Instagram stories. But that doesn’t mean it’s just for show. “The joy of wild garlic is its full-on flavour,” says Keery. “Don’t be shy with it – eat it with gusto.”

The pesto problem

Pesto is the gateway drug. Everyone makes it. Everyone loves it. It’s easy, familiar and requires no cooking – which is ideal, as cooking wild garlic too much can destroy both its colour and flavour. “If you’re cooking the wild garlic in heat – ie into a soup or sauce – you can cook it for too long, which loses its flavour and vibrant colour,” warns Coghill. “My best advice is to use it raw for best results.”

But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to only be pesto. “Wild garlic can definitely take centre stage if you want it to,” says Elles. “Like in wild garlic soup or a wild garlic frittata. It’s all about balance, though, since its garlic flavour can be quite strong – you don’t want to overdo it. There aren’t any hard and fast rules with wild garlic – experiment and find what works for you at home.”

So what can I actually do with it?

Glad you asked. The beauty of wild garlic is its versatility. The chefs we spoke to use it in butters, oils, chimichurri, mayonnaise, vinegars, ferments, tortillas and more.

“Use wild garlic in any situation that calls for regular garlic,” says Henry Dobson of Moss in Edinburgh. “It’s super versatile! It’s a welcome addition to leaf salads, it’s fantastic blended into dressings, cut into chiffonades and sauteed in butter as a base for a sauce. Simply substitute regular garlic for wild garlic and see how you get on.”

Elles goes further: “Wild garlic mayonnaise goes with just about anything! It’s perfect with cooked prawns, ham, frittatas, tortillas, jacket potatoes, or inside any sandwich. It’s also great with egg mayo, cold rare roast beef, sausages, roast vegetables, lamb koftas – there are no limits.”

Dobson also points out its preserving potential: “You can also infuse oils and vinegars with it, dehydrate it and make salts with it or even use it to make kimchi paste.”

Keery adds: “I infuse it into vinegar for a base for dressings, or make big batches of wild garlic butter to have on hand in the fridge. It’s great for tossing through pasta or cous cous or simply wilted to serve with asparagus or sauté potatoes.”

And when the season peaks? “I like to make butter with excess wild garlic,” Keery continues. “It keeps for ages in the fridge and is great for cooking steak, tossing through freshly cooked pasta or roasting chicken. All you do is melt some butter, let it cool slightly and either chop some wild garlic to mix through or blitz the two together in a blender.”

At Café Cùil, Coghill pairs wild garlic pesto with burrata and stewed venison chorizo on toast. “The punchy flavour of the tomatoes and chorizo cuts through the creamy burrata, then the zesty wild garlic pesto on top elevates the dish to make a perfect brunch combo,” she says. Her secret? Taste regularly and use the highest quality of produce possible. At Nàdair, Keery serves gnocchi fried in wild garlic butter, wilted wild garlic leaves and “lashings of cheese”.

Munro offers a vibrant spring brunch dish: smoked cheddar scrambled eggs on sourdough, topped with wild garlic duxelles, capers and chive oil. Elles keeps it elegant with wild garlic mayonnaise served alongside blanched asparagus and radishes. Calum Munro of Scorrybreac, meanwhile, makes a Scottish tortilla using mashed potatoes and blue corn flour, layering it with mushroom duxelles and wild garlic pesto.

Want to keep the flavour going? Ferment it. “Fermenting wild garlic is my favourite way to store it,” says Dobson. “Simply macerate with salt, seal in an anaerobic environment and age until fermented. Then store in the fridge (almost) indefinitely.”

Foraging? Read this first

Wild garlic is easy to identify – and easy to mistake. “It’s always tempting to stop and pick a few, but be careful not to confuse it with the poisonous lily of the valley,” warns Elles, “which doesn’t smell like garlic and only has two leaves sprouting from a shoot, unlike wild garlic, which has many.”

Look for it in damp, shady woodlands, often near water. “You’ll smell it before you see it,” says Coghill. “When it’s in full bloom, you’ll see beautiful white flowers shooting out from the green.”

And forage responsibly. “Always take just a few leaves from each plant to ensure it keeps growing,” says Elles. “Never dig up the roots, or it won’t grow back.”

The Independent