Aussie mum's 'genius' kitchen trick for prepping garlic will save you time and money

Stop wasting time chopping individual cloves of garlic while cooking.
Stop wasting time chopping individual cloves of garlic while cooking. Photo credit: Facebook/ Budget Friendly Meals Australia.

If you're anything like me, no matter what you're cooking, garlic has to be one of the top ingredients. 

It doesn't matter how many cloves of garlic a recipe calls for, I'm putting in about three times that amount - or sometimes an entire bulb. 

But that can mean lots of chopping and faffing about before cooking, and of course garlic smell all over my hands for days. 

Now one mother has shown her game-changing hack for prepping garlic in advance - and all you need is masses of garlic and an ice cube tray. 

Posting in Facebook group Budget Friendly Meals Australia, Aussie woman Robyn McMillan shared the trick which she says saves her both time and money. 

"When garlic is cheap, I like to buy a lot of it then pop it in a food processor and blend until fine then add oil and blend until smooth," she explained.

She then separates the garlic mix into ice cube trays, freezes them, then stores them in a container or ziplock bag.  

The Aussie mum separates the garlic mix into ice cube trays, freezes them, then stores them in a container or ziplock bag.
The Aussie mum separates the garlic mix into ice cube trays, freezes them, then stores them in a container or ziplock bag. Photo credit: Facebook/ Budget Friendly Meals Australia.

Then whenever a recipe calls for garlic, just pop one of the cubes into the pan. 

"Perfect straight from freezer to pot," McMillan added. 

As the cubes stay fresh for months, it's also a far less wasteful option than buying a new bulb and only using half the cloves.

Robyn added that you can also utilise the trick with ginger, chilli and herbs you can suspend in water.

The post racked up hundreds of likes and comments from impressed fellow home cooks dubbing the idea "genius". 

"What a great idea, thanks for sharing!" one person wrote. 

"This is great - I also do this with tomato paste," wrote another.