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Making Garlic Powder: A DIY Recipe!

Garlic powder in a wooden spoon, next to garlic cloves
Image Credit:
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Written By: Celeste Longacre Gardener & Astrologer

The flavor of homemade garlic powder is unbeatable—it truly tastes like garlic that has just been picked from the garden (and nothing like that prepackaged stuff). Plus, it’s ready to be used all year long! See how to dry garlic to make your own garlic powder.

Reasons to Make Your Own Garlic Powder

A lot of commercial garlic powder is pretty bad in terms of quality; it doesn’t even smell or taste like garlic and can have an unpleasant aftertaste. Some producers don’t even bother removing the skin, plus there isn’t FDA regulation around commodity spices, so it’s difficult to know what’s truly inside the bottle. Unless you buy local garlic, many of the garlic bulbs sold in stores have gone past their peak (rubbery or soft) and have lost much of their medicinal value.

Truly fresh garlic is pungent, white, hard, and full of a juicy liquid. One way to maintain not only garlic’s flavor but also its healing powers is to dry it and make it into garlic powder. There are so many ways to use garlic powder, from shaking the seasoning into salad dressings and soups, to putting it on potatoes, to sprinkling it over popcorn.

Dried garlic powder has a different purpose than raw garlic; it’s mellower and milder to enhance flavor versus the sharp taste of garlic in a main dish. Ideally, you could grow your own garlic, as it’s easy to plant your own bulbs in the fall. Otherwise, we recommend buying local garlic bulbs for the freshest flavor.

For those who wish to garden, garlic bulbs are popped into the soil in the fall and harvested in the summer once the leaves turn yellow-brown. See how to prepare your soil in our Garlic Growing Guide.

Making Garlic Powder in the Dehydrator

At harvest, I generally pick about eight bulbs of garlic at a time, bundle them tightly together, and tie them with string. I then hang the bundles for 2 to 4 weeks in a shady, airy place to begin to dry.

1. Separate Cloves

Whether you grow your own or buy your garlic cloves, the first step to making the powder is to separate all of the cloves. This can be a messy job, so do it all at once!

garlic cloves in a bowl

2. Peel Garlic

After separating the cloves, I cut the tops and the bottoms of the cloves and try to tear a strip or two of the skin.

garlic cloves on cutting board

3. Dehydrate the Cloves

Placing these cloves in a dehydrator tray, they are put at a low temperature (below 115°F/46°C) overnight. This will help to loosen the peels and aid the next process.

garlic cloves on a dehydrator tray

4. Chop the Cloves

After the cloves have been slightly dehydrated, you can remove the rest of the peels. Then chop the cloves slightly. I like to use a food processor to make little chips of garlic.

garlic cloves in a food processor

5. Dehydrate the Garlic

Back into the dehydrator they go for 6 or 7 days. Again, keep the temperature below 115°F/46°C, as this will help the garlic to maintain its healing properties.

dehydrator

Once the chips have cooled, they can be put in a tight jar until you have time to complete the process.

dehydrated garlic chips

6. Powder the Garlic Chips

When you are ready to make the powder, put the chips in a blender (not too many at a time) and hit the “chop” button. Wait about a minute after processing before opening the blender, as there will be lots of powder floating at first. I then put the powder through a strainer so that the ultimate product is fine. The larger chips just go back into the blender to repeat the process.

garlic powder in a strainer

7. Seal Into Jars

Place the powder in jars and seal them. The flavor of the resulting powder is unbeatable—it truly tastes like garlic that has just been picked from the garden. But now it is ready to be used all year long!

homemade garlic powder in jars 
 

Making Garlic Powder in the Oven

You can also make garlic powder in your oven. To do so:

  1. Preheat your oven to 175°F.
  2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then place sliced garlic on top.
  3. The garlic is ready after anywhere from 1 to 2 hours. Test it by seeing if a piece “snaps” when you break it in half.
  4. After this, you need to let the garlic cool completely.
  5. Grind it into a powder by using a high-speed blender or coffee grinder.

Of course, garlic powder not only adds flavor to your meals but has some glorious health benefits too. Learn more about the healing benefits of garlic.

Cooking & Recipes

About The Author

Celeste Longacre

Celeste Longacre

Gardener & Astrologer

Celeste Longacre has been growing virtually all of her family’s vegetables for the entire year for over 30 years. She cans, she freezes, she dries, she ferments, and she root cellars. She also has chi...

Read more from Celeste Longacre

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Comments

<span>Cindi</span> Tue, 01/24/2023 - 21:19
Thx CW: it’s less a matter of expense & more a matter of countertop or cabinetry “real estate” & how much I’d use it otherwise. I hoped there is a way to dry the garlic w/ things like ovens that everyone has
<span>Cindi</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 19:29
Celeste, will you please address if garlic can be oven dried & if so, how?
<span>P. Dyer</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 10:00
Hi Cindi ! This is something so easy to do during the summer or on a pretty warm day. I rinse off my fresh herbs, remove the stalks (since they retain a lot of moisture), carefully pat them with paper towels to remove more of the moisture, let them air dry for 30 minutes on a paper towel, and then place them onto a metal cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil. Last step, put them in a hot car with the windows rolled up. The herbs usually dry up pretty well within 2 days and they look beautifully green and fresh. All you have to do is crush the leaves and store in airtight jars. I refill previously purchased jars that have had herbs in them and they already have labels. I have done this with parsley, oregano, basil leaves, and celery leaves. It works great ! Did you know that you can also bake cookies in your very hot car ... only do this on a very hot day with no humidity.
<span>Cindi</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 10:10
Hi P. Dyer & thank you! I definitely live in a hot, dry summer climate, & while I could see doing the car-dry w/ more fragrant herbs, trying that w/ garlic over several days might be too much “fragrance” for a car. Do you think just setting the garlic on a sheet pan outdoors for several days in a dry heat would work?
<span>Esther</span> Sat, 01/28/2023 - 17:56
I believe you can create your own dehydrator with some vented trays or racks, a hundred watt incandescent light bulb and a foil tent from your own household materials. DO NOT USE HALOGEN, FLORESCENT OR L.E.D. BULBS!! SAFETY FIRST!! Look up instructions on Google or other search engines for better directions. If dehydrating is not something you do frequently then you can disassemble after drying your garlic. NOTE: timing is the key to success in drying garlic. P.S. I only planted garlic once - it continues to come back to my garden every year, spreading to other beds, even after trying to eliminate it because I have so MUCH!!
<span>Theresa</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 09:10
I am not from almanac.com, but have you thought of putting your oven on the lowest setting, leaving it cracked and slowly roasting it? Granulated, roasted garlic would be heavenly.
<span>Cindi</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 09:16
Thx so much, Theresa. I wondered if it would be same to just use oven but I’m not sure I have a setting less than 175. I was hoping there was a modification for a regular oven or even a toaster oven but again, I’m not sure either has such a low setting. I’ll have to check when I get home from work
<span>Nicole</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 10:23
Hi Cindi! Maybe try in your oven with only the oven light on. I’m not sure it will be hot enough, but it’s worth a shot. I proof my bread this way.
<span>Rick</span> Thu, 07/06/2023 - 15:16
I was here to make this same comment. My oven has halogen lights, and with just the light on, it gets to about 120 degrees F inside. You could also set it at the lowest setting and leave the door cracked a bit. Or if you're really committed, you could turn the oven on every once in a while, let it start to heat up, and then turn it back off, just to keep it warm. Dehydrating in the oven is a lot easier for things like jerky that can take a bit more heat. With garlic, I would imagine that too much heat would give it more the flavor of roasted garlic rather than fresh, raw garlic. Which would also be lovely, but might not be what you're going for. If I wanted to do this and didn't have a dehydrator, I'd probably put thinly sliced garlic on parchment paper in the oven with the heat off but the lights on and let it stay there for a few days until it was nice and crispy. I think you'd be successful with that. Of course, you were asking this question over 5 months ago, so you have probably already experimented. Maybe you will come back and say what your experiences were!
<span>Cindi</span> Mon, 01/23/2023 - 11:56
Thx so much Nicole! I will give it a try!