Wild garlic has exactly six weeks in the year. From mid-April to the end of May, then the season is over. Anyone who makes wild garlic butter with the Thermomix® now and freezes it in portions will still have fresh wild garlic flavour on their bread come August.
The quantities are in the recipe card. What it does not say is this: the Thermomix® chops the herbs at speed 10 in 6 seconds finely enough for everything to blend evenly into the butter. You can do this by hand too, but never as uniformly. Anyone who freezes the butter later will notice the difference. Too coarsely chopped herbs go watery when thawed and leach out. In the Thermomix® they are chopped finely enough for the butter to hold all the aroma.
Wild Garlic Butter with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 6 ✓
- 1 lemon unwaxed, organic
- 15 g wild garlic fresh
- 10 g chives fresh
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 150 g butter at room temperature
Instructions 0 / 4
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1
Prepare the lemon.
Wash the lemon, grate approximately 1/2 tsp of zest and add it to the mixing bowl. Squeeze the juice and add 2 tsp of juice.
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2
Prepare the herbs.
Wash and dry the wild garlic and chives, add to the mixing bowl along with salt and pepper, and chop for 6 sec / speed 10. If the herbs are not yet finely chopped, push them down with the spatula and repeat.
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3
Mix in the butter.
Cut the butter into pieces, add to the bowl, mix for 4 sec / speed 7, push down with the spatula, then mix for a further 4 sec / speed 7.
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4
Serve.
Transfer the wild garlic butter to a small bowl and serve, or cover and store in the fridge until needed.
Tip: This butter goes beautifully with dark rye bread, baguette, or grilled meat and vegetables.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Room temperature is not a minor detail
The crucial point with herb butter is the temperature of the butter. We always take the butter out of the fridge at least one hour before mixing. Butter that is too cold does not blend properly with the herbs: the green pieces stay visible rather than being evenly distributed. The result spreads poorly and tastes uneven. Room temperature means: you press a finger lightly into it and leave an impression, but the butter does not run away.
We mix the butter in two passes. That is enough. Mixing for longer makes the butter creamy and soft, but the wild garlic flavour becomes milder because the essential oils are lost through heat. The exact settings are in the recipe card.
Freezing: keeping April wild garlic through to autumn
Butter is an excellent preserving medium for herbs. The fatty acids protect the aromatic compounds from oxidation, better than oil or salt alone. We roll the finished wild garlic butter in cling film into a log, freeze it, and then slice off individual rounds. In the freezer it keeps for three months with no loss of quality. A slice placed directly on a hot steak or vegetables from the Varoma melts on top and releases the aroma evenly.
If you are not freezing the butter, it keeps in the fridge for one week, tightly sealed. Leave it out at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving so it is spreadable.
The wild garlic cluster
Anyone who has fresh wild garlic to hand should make two more recipes in one session: wild garlic cream with the Thermomix® as a bread spread with a cream cheese base, and wild garlic pesto with the Thermomix® for pasta and grilling season. All three from one shopping trip for wild garlic, all three suitable for freezing.
What others do differently
Goes well with: Baguette.
We looked at the top results for wild garlic butter with the Thermomix® and noticed three things we consciously do differently. First: many recipes only use half a teaspoon of salt. We go with a full teaspoon, because frozen butter noticeably dulls the perception of saltiness. Second: others portion everything into a single cling film roll. We fill half into an ice cube tray so we have individual portions right through to August for jacket potatoes and steaks. Third: Cookidoo and similar recipes often work with butter straight from the fridge. With us, the butter needs two hours at room temperature to soften, otherwise the wild garlic stays in coarse flakes rather than distributing evenly.
