I can always count on my roommate’s mom to send me fun recipes or articles on the latest it foods. She’s been a Sprout & Pea follower from the start, and I’ve always appreciated her support, interest and fun emails! Last week, I woke up to an email from her entitled Black Garlic. The body of the email simply read, “Have you heard of it?”. I hadn’t. So, I immediately leaped out of bed and onto my computer (and then back into bed with my computer. It was early, and a Saturday). As I snuggled in for a relaxing morning and started googling, I became fascinated and eager to try this mysterious black garlic for myself. I discovered that I could purchase it at a local store, so that Monday, I picked some up right after work. Immediately, the aroma reminded me of chicken broth (bare with me here). I think this is because growing up, when I was sick, my mom always made me chicken broth with garlic (and other secret germ-killing ingredients). Not surprisingly, it didn’t taste like chicken broth. In fact, black garlic is a little bit sweet, with the flavor of roasted garlic more than raw garlic, and it has the texture of what I would describe as a mushy date. So what is black garlic? In short, it is garlic that is fermented and aged. Many sources say that it has double the amount of antioxidants than fresh garlic and can help fight cancer and infection thanks to a compound called S-allylcysteine that is found in greater concentrations in black garlic.

I purchased quite a bit of this stuff and I’m still thinking up some recipes to incorporate it into, but Black Garlic Cheesecake With White Balsamic Reduction is definitely looking like a contender. The night I came home with this mysterious garlic, I couldn’t wait to toss it into something, so I sauteed some in a little olive oil and mixed it into my favorite pasta dish, Spaghetti Al Limone. The result was a really interesting added sweet bite. Thank you, Wiiiing (nickname for my roommate’s mom) for introducing me to this fascinating superfood!