How to Make Garlic Powder

Fresh garlic is an integral part of cooking, as it serves as a condiment or seasoning spice. For adding in dishes, the thin, papery skin is removed and individual cloves are separated. But, it may happen that you don't have time to prepare garlic, or you have run out of fresh cloves.

In such cases, you can always keep ready-to-use garlic paste, powder, flakes, or granulated garlic in your pantry. And instead of purchasing garlic powder from groceries, you can make it a home.

Garlic powder is the dried version of fresh garlic cloves, that have been blended to form powder. Garlic salt differs from true powder, as the former refers to a mixed form of garlic powder and regular salt. 1 tablespoon (8 g.) of this powder is equivalent to 27 calories.

Include this spice and reap the health benefits of garlic. There are some authentic brands of garlic powder in the market. But, you will also come across many products that are not pure. In short, other adulterants are added to improve color and flavor, or just to cut down the cost of production.

This is where, making garlic powder at home comes to the picture. Believe me, the steps to make it are very easy, and except for drying, it takes absolutely no time for making this seasoning agent.

• Take fresh garlic cloves (preferably the finest ones) and remove the parchment like skin to separate individual cloves. For the first try, you can start with a small batch. Later, you can make garlic powder in large amounts.

• Once you are done with peeling, transfer whole cloves in a colander and wash with water. Allow water to drain off, and make thin slices out of the cloves. Or else, you can half the cloves lengthwise.
• The next step is dehydrating the slices. For this, you can use a dehydrator or oven. For oven drying, preheat oven to 500°F for 20 minutes or so.

• Just before adding garlic slices, reduce temperature setting to 125°F. Continue dehydrating them for 6-8 hours, and check whether they are dried completely or not. If garlic slices are crisp and brittle, then only remove from oven.

• Using a food processor or spice mill, blend dehydrated garlic slices until they turn into a fine quality powder. Transfer garlic powder into a plastic container having lid, and seal tightly. You can keep it in a zip lock bag.

• Adding table salt to powder garlic is nor necessary. But, if you prefer making garlic salt, you can mix powder and salt in the ratio 1:4. Store in the same method as earlier.

If you are using garlic powder in your daily cooking, then remember, a fresh garlic clove is added for every ⅛ teaspoon of powder version.