How To Mince Garlic Cloves: Easy Tips from an Expert Chef

Before we learn how to chop garlic, let’s look at why you should skip the store-bought jar and use fresh cloves.

The Flavor Benefits

Fresh garlic has a bright, spicy, and sweet flavor. Jarred garlic often sits in water and preservatives for a long time. This makes it lose its natural bite and taste flat or metallic. When you learn how to prepare garlic yourself, your meals will taste much fresher and more delicious.

The Health Benefits

Garlic is not just a tasty ingredient; it is also nutritious! Calorie for calorie, garlic is packed with vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, vitamin B6, and manganese.

The biggest health benefit of garlic comes from a special sulfur compound called allicin. Allicin is what gives garlic its strong smell and medicinal powers. It is known to help boost your immune system to fight off colds, and it can even help lower blood pressure and protect your heart.

Here is the catch: allicin is only created when garlic is crushed, chopped, or chewed! The compound is highly unstable and disappears quickly. This means jarred garlic has almost no active allicin left. To get the maximum health benefits, you must chop or mince it fresh right before you cook!

• A fresh head of garlic
• A wide-bladed, sharp chef's knife
• A sturdy wooden cutting board

Follow these easy steps from Chef Mehdi to learn how to peel, chop, and mince garlic easily and safely.

Step 1: Separate the Cloves

Take a whole head of garlic and place it on your cutting board. Using the heel of your hand and your body weight, press down firmly on the top of the bulb to smash it. This will easily break the bulb apart and separate the individual cloves from the outer papery skin. Move the loose skin aside.

Step 2: Cut Off the Stem End

Place a single garlic clove on the board. Take your sharp chef's knife and carefully slice off the hard, woody stem end of the clove.

Step 3: Crush to Remove the Peel

Using a wide chef's knife to crush the garlic is very helpful here. 

Chef Mehdi says: “You want to make sure you're using a very wide, wide chef's knife…. It's excellent because when you go to smash it, you have a wide base, and it makes it really easy to remove the skin.”

Place the flat side of your knife blade directly over the garlic clove with the sharp edge pointing away from you. Use the palm of your hand to firmly whack or press down on the flat of the blade. This cracks the clove and makes the tight skin slip right off!

Step 4: Slice and Chop the Garlic

Now you are ready to learn how to chop garlic.

1. Curl your fingers inward like a claw to hold the garlic. This protects your fingertips from the knife blade. Keep your thumb tucked safely behind your fingers.
2. Slowly and carefully glide your knife back and forth through the clove to create thin slices.

Step 5: Mince into Fine Pieces

To turn your chopped garlic into minced garlic, gather the pieces into a small pile on your board. Place your non-dominant hand flat on the top tip of the knife blade to hold it steady against the board. Using a rocking motion, move the handle of the knife up and down, sweeping across the pile of garlic. Repeat this rocking motion until the garlic is broken down into very tiny, uniform pieces.

Now, your freshly minced garlic is ready to bring delicious flavor and heart-healthy benefits to your favorite recipe!