Use This Easy Garlic Peeling Hack To Save Time In The Kitchen
It’s an arm workout and kitchen hack all in one.
Not everyone finds cooking relaxing. When balancing school, work schedules, and a houseful of hungry people, we're always looking for shortcuts to make meals a quick affair. And among all kitchen tasks—aside from the tear-inducing task of dicing onions—peeling garlic might be the least favorite of our food prep steps.
Peeling those papery skins off of each individual clove with our fingernails can be a struggle, so we're a fan of any kitchen shortcut that will make life even the tiniest bit easier. Good thing we've found a garlic-peeling method that's easier, faster, and more fun.
How To Peel Garlic With This Easy Hack
The next time you need to peel some garlic, skip peeling the cloves by hand, pull out a food storage container, and follow these steps:
Separate the cloves you need from the bulb.
Throw them into the food storage container and put on the lid.
Shake the container like crazy until the peels come off.
You'll notice that bits of the garlic skin will start to come free from the cloves and after a few seconds you should have peeled cloves. It's such a simple concept that delivers every time. The best part is you can peel as many cloves as you need at once. Just be sure to choose a container big enough for all the cloves to be shaken evenly. Garlic should be an ingredient that you measure with your heart, so you might as well add a few extra cloves to your recipe.
Now you've got a time-saving hack and arm workout all in one. Pent up frustration from a long week? Just shake a container of garlic for an easy way to relieve stress and fix dinner at the same time.
Other Garlic-Peeling Hacks To Try
While we've found the container method to be incredibly easy, there are other methods of peeling garlic you can use depending on the results you're trying to achieve. Each of these garlic-peeling hacks will affect your garlic bulbs in one way or another, while the container-shaking method leaves them mostly intact.
Crushing With A Knife
If you need to produce minced or smashed garlic cloves for your cooking, this is a quick and easy way to get the process started. Set a clove on the counter, place a large chef's knife on top with the flat side facing up, then press down firmly with the heel of your hand. The skins will separate from the clove when you smash the garlic.
Softening In Hot Water
Place your garlic cloves in a small bowl, then fill it with with hot, just boiled water. After 30 seconds or up to a minute, remove the cloves. The skins should pop off or peel off more easily. This method will soften your garlic slightly, so it's not the best method for recipes that use raw garlic.
Alternatively, some cooks report success from placing the garlic in a bowl of water, then microwaving the bowl for 30 seconds.
Using A Garlic Press
If you aren't already using a garlic press, it might be time to head to the kitchen store. There are garlic presses that allow you to pop in your cloves, skin and all, for processing into minced garlic. This method has the advantage of saving you a lot of time chopping up cloves, but also tends to mash the garlic, a quality that can be a mistake in some recipes.
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