Adding garlic to a recipe can be a touch confusing at times, especially if you don’t know garlic conversions off the top of your head. What’s the clove of garlic to tsp conversion? What about garlic powder to cloves, or dried minced garlic to cloves?
Get all the answers you’re searching for in this complete garlic guide! You’ll find a garlic conversion guide for all the garlic substitutions you could ever need, all in one place.
Pin and save for later… that way, you’ll never find yourself wondering how to convert these measurements again!
Garlic is one of those things that seems so simple when you’re glancing at a list of recipe ingredients, right?
But then, before you know it, you’re gathering ingredients and you decide to really read your recipe card for that delicious pasta dinner. (We’ll imagine it’s Braised Beef Ragu, because it should definitely be what’s for dinner tonight…)
It calls for three fresh minced garlic cloves. While I generally try to include the fresh clove of garlic to tsp conversion, sometimes the internet doesn’t readily offer that information to you.
That’s where this garlic measurement conversion guide comes in oh-so-handy! Find everything you need when it comes to garlic substitutions and measurements, in addition to some great basic info about fresh garlic, uses, benefits and storage methods.
First, let’s take a brief look garlic itself. Garlic is celebrated in a wide variety of cultures, known for its deeply pungent flavor in seasonings and condiments around the world.
Garlic is native to Asia and Iran, with a known record of thousands of years of human consumption and use. Even ancient Egyptians used garlic – and it’s long been used for both food and medicine.
Is garlic an herb or a vegetable? Technically, garlic (Allium sativum) is very much a vegetable. It’s a part of the onion family, along with chives, shallots, and leeks.
Check out this guide to How to Stop Water from Boiling Over – it’s so handy for pasta and potatoes!
The garlic powder to clove conversion is much more complex, because garlic powder is so fine and concentrated. Use just 1/8 of a teaspoon for every clove of garlic requested in your recipe.
While the process of dicing and mincing might be similar, the difference is tremendous! Minced garlic cloves are cut into very tiny pieces, whereas diced garlic can be as large as 1/8” each. This is quite important to the final result of any recipe! The smaller the pieces of minced garlic, the more of your dish is exposed to the pungent flavor. It also takes significantly longer to cook diced garlic because of the larger pieces.
Garlic is known to have many health benefits. It is thought to lower blood pressure, inflammation, cholesterol and more, along with boosting immunity and antioxidants.
Try using shallots, onions, or garlic chives in place of fresh garlic if you don’t have any garlic on hand or simply cannot consume.
It’s a great substitute, but the flavor is not quite the same as fresh minced garlic cloves. Be sure to pay attention to conversion charts for accuracy, too, as jarred minced garlic is not quite as pungent as fresh.
One clove of fresh garlic equals 1/4 teaspoon of granulated garlic powder. The same conversion applies to dehydrated or freeze-dried garlic, or even minced refrigerated garlic. If you don’t have plain garlic powder by itself but you do have garlic salt, you can go ahead and reach for that.
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Pin and save for later… that way, you’ll never find yourself wondering how to convert these measurements again!
While the process of dicing and mincing might be similar, the difference is tremendous! Minced garlic cloves are cut into very tiny pieces, whereas diced garlic can be as large as 1/8” each. This is quite important to the final result of any recipe! The smaller the pieces of minced garlic, the more of your dish is exposed to the pungent flavor. It also takes significantly longer to cook diced garlic because of the larger pieces.
Is garlic an herb or a vegetable? Technically, garlic (Allium sativum) is very much a vegetable. It’s a part of the onion family, along with chives, shallots, and leeks.
First, let’s take a brief look garlic itself. Garlic is celebrated in a wide variety of cultures, known for its deeply pungent flavor in seasonings and condiments around the world.
Garlic is one of those things that seems so simple when you’re glancing at a list of recipe ingredients, right?
“It’s so integral, at least in Black cuisine,” Washington Post writer and recipe developer Aaron Hutcherson tells me. “It’s sort of omnipresent.” After Hutcherson wrote a story on garlic powder and the respect it deserves, he received emails and comments from readers who claimed they would never use the ingredient. “I think it comes down to this idea that fresh is better,” Hutcherson says.
Like Beard, Julia Child had no patience for garlic powder. In 1995, Child described the seasoning as “despised, and abominated among cooks in the know” in her book In Julia’s Kitchen With Master Chefs. And the Moosewood Collective, known for their revolutionary vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca, NY, disparaged garlic powder in two of their cookbooks. “We never use dried or powdered garlic in any form,” they wrote in 1990’s Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. By 1994, in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, they claimed that garlic in dried form lacked “full fragrance” and had an “unpleasant aftertaste.”
Asked what she would tell someone hesitant to try garlic powder, Loupy pauses. “I would just tell them to give it a chance. It’s come a long way.” If you’re looking for something to provide your meals with additional umami or simply want to streamline your weeknight cooking, swap out your old jar of garlic powder for a fresh one and taste the difference. Shake that garlic powder straight onto popcorn, into your salad dressings, and your mashed potatoes. It will taste milder and rounder than that freshly grated clove, but that’s not always a bad thing.
According to The Complete Book on Onion & Garlic Cultivation With Processing, most industrially manufactured garlic powder is made by passing garlic bulbs through rollers, which breaks each head into individual cloves without crushing them. The skins are removed before the cloves are sliced or pressed into garlic flakes, dried, and ground up with a mill.
Garlic powder is especially handy if you’ve forgotten to add garlic to a soup or stew that’s already bubbling away, if you’re pinched for time, or if you simply don’t feel like separating and peeling several cloves of the allium. “Despite my vocal love of garlic,” Eater senior reporter Bettina Makalintal tells me, “sometimes I just don’t feel like using it. Sometimes I don’t want to peel any cloves.” Like Kim and Rosner, she relies on garlic powder for much of her cooking, so much so that she purchases it by the 10.5-ounce container.
The Best Substitutes for Fresh Garlic
FAQ
How much garlic powder equals 1 tsp dried minced garlic?
How much garlic powder is equal to 2 minced garlic?
Is garlic powder just dehydrated garlic?
What is the ratio of dried garlic to fresh garlic?
Can you use garlic powder instead of minced garlic?
Furthermore, it can be incorporated into spice blends and rubs, such as for BBQ or roasted meats. In most cases, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder can replace one clove of fresh minced garlic, ensuring that your dish is not overpowered by the garlic flavor. So next time you are out of dried minced garlic, remember that garlic powder can save the day!
How should one take powder garlic?
Garlic powder can be used in the preparation of foods such as broths, soups, chicken, fish, meat, beans, pates, sauces and in the most varied types of recipes.
What can I substitute for minced garlic?
Substitute 1/8 teaspoon powder for every clove of garlic called for in the recipe. Garlic powder is a good substitute for minced garlic, so if you’re out of minced garlic while cooking, pick up a jar of powdered garlic and incorporate it into the recipe. Although they come from the same bulb, they yield different tastes, textures, and flavors.
What can I substitute for garlic powder?
But it can be a perfect substitute if you don’t have fresh garlic at home. Minced garlic can be a great substitute for garlic powder. You can even make it at home. If you don’t have garlic powder you can substitute with the same amounts of minced garlic or one medium-sized fresh garlic clove for every 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder.