How to Re-Grow Garlic Scraps

Re-growing kitchen scraps is an easy money saving cheat because you re-use food that you already purchased.  And unlike growing food from seed, it takes less time to reap the benefits! 

I regularly use garlic in my cooking.  I make a lot of Italian themed foods (pesto spaghetti, eggplant parmesan, etc) and garlic is a wonderful addition!  By planting a clove of garlic, the greens will regrow several times over and over, much like green onions.  These greens can be used in cooking, much like your garlic cloves, they just aren’t as potent.  I prefer to use garlic greens because they are less potent, no one will accidently get a large chunk of garlic in their spaghetti sauce! 

The first time I tried to re-grow garlic, I had too many cloves and decided to put them in water.  After a couple days, they started growing!  The issue with using the entire clove was that now I couldn’t use the close.  I have since been able to re-grow garlic from the base of the clove, so I get even more out of one clove of garlic.

To start re-growing garlic scrap, you need a clove of garlic!  You can use a whole clove like I started out, or just the bottle part of a clove (see how I cut mine below) and use the other part in your cooking!  Either way, it the same process.

To get the roots to start growing, you need to put the base in some water.  I use a small glass dish with just enough water to cover the base and lean my clove bases along the sides.  Sometimes they land entirely in the water, and that’s okay too, you just want to check on them to make sure they are not rotting.

In a day you will see roots forming, and in about two days you will see the garlic greens starting to form. After about a week, you will have solid roots, and a significant amount of garlic greens!

When the garlic has significant roots, it can be planted.  I found this cute little cup and saucer pot at my local garden center (on sale) and thought it would be perfect for my kitchen garlic!  I filled my pot with potting mix and watered it to make it moist.  Trying to plant small items in completely dry soil is not easy, so soak your soil and let it drain first.

Next, I cut off the current garlic greens to use in a recipe, then made five small holes in the soil and planted my garlic cloves.  These garlic cloves will regrow greens several times and use in any recipe that calls for small amounts of garlic or scallions.

Once the greens no longer keep growing, it is time to toss the soil and garlic root.  You cannot reuse the garlic root at this point, but you can compost it in your compost pile or bin.

I hope this “how to” has inspired you to regrow your own kitchen scraps!  Have you ever tried to regrow kitchen scraps before?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments!