Earlier this year, I made a list of five items to DIY this year, you can check out that list here. On that list, I wrote that I was excited to make my own garlic powder at home, and now that I have tried it, there’s no going back.
First of all, this homemade garlic powder is WAY more flavorful, so you can use less while cooking. Second, it’s a super easy project to complete. You will need three tools:
- A chef’s knife. This knife is made by Victorinox, super shape, and holds a great edge.
- A dehydrator. Any dehydrator will do, even the stackable tray ones. I prefer the dehydrators with fans in the back, they dry more evenly, and no need to rotate the trays. My dehydrator is no longer available, but this one is similar and has great reviews.
- A blender. Any blender works, I happen to have this Nutribullet.
Now it’s time to get started! I used 2lbs of garlic bulbs for this project, which made about a pint of powder. The most time-consuming part is peeling and slicing the garlic. To save some time, you could use a container of pre-minced garlic. Now you can lay the garlic slices on your tray and get dehydrating, if using pre-minced place parchment paper down on the tray first. Now that you have your trays prepped, set the dehydrator to 125 F and check at 8 hours, every four after that. I use this Dehydrator Cookbook to find temperatures and times for dehydrating.
Make sure that your garlic is completely dry, you do not want it to mold on you. Once the garlic is completely dry, you can pulse it in the blender until it is a fine powder. Store in a mason jar and use as needed.