There are plenty of perks to adding fresh garlic to your meals. It’s been shown to boost immunity, banish inflammation, and improve heart health—not to mention make your meals taste amazing. The only problem is peeling garlic can be a pretty time-consuming process. But that’s where this garlic-peeling hack comes in.
In a virtual cooking class for Intuition, Vanessa Kahen, a New York City-based health coach, demonstrated a technique where she uses a chef’s knife to crush the garlic, making it easier to peel. “It’s the best way to peel garlic. You’ll see that it kind of cracks open the peel so it peels off really, really easily,” she says. “It even crushes the garlic, giving it a little bit of pre-chop. I can’t even remember what I used to do before this trick.”
If you’re not comfortable using this chef’s knife trick, there are also some other options that can help get rid of the peel. You can put the garlic cloves in a container with a lid and shake it for 10 to 20 seconds until the peels start to fall off. Loud, but effective. Or, use a silicone garlic peeler tube, which removes the peel as you roll it back and forth on the counter.
Here’s how to use Kahen’s garlic-peeling hack at home.
The Easiest Garlic-Peeling Hack
- Remove your garlic clove from the bulb.
- Lie the flat side of your clove down on your cutting board so it doesn’t roll around.
- Hold your chef’s knife parallel to the surface of your cutting board with the flat side on top of the garlic clove, and the sharp edge facing away from you.
- With the knife resting on top of the garlic clove, smash the knife with the bottom of your free palm.
- The peel of the garlic will crack open, making it easy to remove.
