Homemade Medicinal Garlic Sauce
Text and Photography by Juliet Blankespoor
In our kitchen, we almost always have a batch of this sauce on hand. We store it in the refrigerator and pull it out as needed. It is delicious spread onto toast or bagels and topped with fresh tomatoes and chickweed. This sauce is a convenient way to add fresh garlic to dishes just before serving. Baked fish, home fries, and roasted roots are all enhanced by this tasty sauce.
Homemade Medicinal Garlic Sauce
Yield:
1½ cups (360 ml)
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup (60 ml) garlic, finely minced (about 1 bulb)
- 1 cup (240 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) sea salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) nutritional yeast
Directions:
You can substitute grated Parmesan cheese for the nutritional yeast if you’d prefer, and omit the salt. Mix all ingredients by hand and refrigerate. Use within one week.
Note that we recommend refrigerating the sauce. This is to reduce the chance of bacterial contamination, namely the botulism bacteria (Clostridium botulinum). Oil infusions create an oxygen-free environment where botulism spores will thrive if given a chance, and the water contained in fresh herbs can introduce these bacterial spores. Nonetheless, some people prepare culinary oils with fresh herbs, but we caution against it because the results can be deadly. More on fresh herbs and the risk of botulism.
Meet the Green Mastermind Behind Blog Castanea:
JULIET BLANKESPOOR is the founder, primary instructor, and Creative Director of the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, an online school serving thousands of students from around the globe. She's a professional plant-human matchmaker and bonafide plant geek, with a degree in botany and over 30 years of experience teaching and writing about herbalism, medicine making, and organic herb cultivation. Juliet’s lifelong captivation with medicinal weeds and herb gardening has birthed many botanical enterprises over the decades, including an herbal nursery and a farm-to-apothecary herbal products business.
These days, she channels her botanical obsession through her writing and photography in her online programs, on her personal blog Castanea, and in her new book, The Healing Garden: Cultivating and Handcrafting Herbal Remedies. Juliet and her family reside in a home overrun with houseplants and books in Asheville, North Carolina.
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Ray says:
If not used within a week, is the risk that the oil goes rancid or higher chance of botulism even in the refrigerator?
Christine Borosh says:
Botulism can thrive in an anaerobic environment like within oil, even in the refrigerator. We recommend using up the sauce within a week to be cautious due to this safety concern.
Linda F Ballinger says:
I want to try this garlic recipe to add to my immune arsenal. Another that is sweet and spicy is garlic honey. two of my favorite healthy foods. Thank you for the recipe.
Melissa Quercia says:
You’re welcome, Linda. Garlic honey certainly is delicious. We hope you love the garlic sauce!
Aj says:
What a fantastic recipe! I love garlic for its antioxidant and antimicrobial properties but struggle with taking garlic tincture. I definitely will be giving this a go! Thanks for sharing 🙂