How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

People may naturally crave garlic in autumn for relaxation and transition to a more inward-focused winter hibernation. Cooked garlic is a useful sleep aid in garlic milk. It is also an aphrodisiac and awakens desire. Raw garlic is pungent, cleansing, has a laxative action, and may cause gas in some individuals.

For cleansing properties, raw garlic is more potent than cooked, especially the green shoots in the center of the garlic clove. In western medicine, garlic is used to prevent high blood pressure, perhaps because it is a blood thinner and stimulant, dilates blood vessels (vasodilator), increases sweat (diaphoretic), and increases urine (diuretic). These circulatory properties may also underlie garlic's secret in preventing heart disease, atherosclerosis, and high cholesterol.

Garlic is a warming stimulant used as an aphrodisiac. However, it also causes bad breath and smelly sweat due to a compound called allyl methyl sulfide. Cooking garlic with milk reduces bad breath and offensive sweat. Mushrooms and basil may also reduce the odor.

The laxative and circulatory qualities of garlic are useful in cleansing regimens. It is also an expectorant. Its antifungal and antibiotic properties have been used to speed recovery from strep throat. Garlic mixed with honey has been used for rheumatism.

Garlic is considered to stimulate and warm the body and to increase one's desires. For this reason, monks in India avoid garlic.

About Garlic

Regarded as both a force for good and evil, folklore and superstition abound when it comes to this little but poignant member of the onion family. A garland of garlic kept evil spirits and vampires away in the west. In an eastern Islamic myth, garlic arose from the left foot of Satan as he stepped out from the Garden of Eden. Whether you love or abhor it, few are ambivalent about garlic, or "stinking rose" as it is sometimes called. The entire plant is edible.

Buying & Preparation

Garlic cloves should be firm to the touch. Reject garlic that is soft or moldy. To peel, smash the garlic beneath the flat side of knife. The skin will crack open. With proper chopping techniques (knife to thumb knuckle) you can quickly prepare cloves and cloves of garlic!

Recipes with Garlic: Velvet Beet Puree with Chopped Yam

Cooking Garlic

Keep careful watch when cooking garlic; it burns quickly. Straining and using garlic oil gives a rich garlicky taste without the side effects of bad breath afterwards.

Raw garlic has a sharp pungent flavor. Cooked garlic is mellower. Fresh green garlic is less intense than dried older garlic.

The pungent, spicy flavor and distinct aroma of garlic is a fundamental component of culinary repertoire in nearly every continent. In the west, garlic is used in garlic bread, pasta dishes, and oil infusions, and often paired with onion, tomato, butter, and parsley. It may be roasted in an oven with olive oil.

Ajoblanco, from Spain, is a combination of bread, crushed almonds, garlic, water, olive oil, salt and sometimes vinegar. The thick, Greek sauce known as Skordalia combines crushed garlic with a pure of potatoes, walnuts, almonds, or stale bread that has been soaked. This mixture is then beaten with olive oil to make a smooth emulsion. Aioli is a sauce made of garlic and olive oil.

In East Asia, garlic is often combined with ginger and onion to form "tri-root." In Korea, heads of garlic are fermented at high temperature, making a sweet, syrupy product known as black garlic.Browse Recipes