An Easy and Efficient Way to Process and Preserve a Ton of Garlic: How to Make Your Own Garlic Powder at Home from Fresh Garlic

Ever since I discovered making my own garlic powder, I almost look forward to the end of Fall, when I can dive into making my own homemade garlic powder out of all the leftover fresh garlic. 

We always have pounds of garlic left over, after planting our garlic in the fall and selecting what we want to keep for fresh use.  

Given my love of adding garlic powder to every single savory dish I create, making garlic powder with all the garlic that we have left over, just makes sense!  

That way, none of it goes to waste. 

I usually have a large amount of garlic left, since we regularly grow upwards of seven hundred bulbs of garlic per year. 

This is an excellent way to preserve all that garlic from last year that

you know you won’t be able to use up before it sprouts! 

This method is efficient and works for processing a large amount of garlic, quickly. 

It doesn’t take me very long to peel the garlic, using my special method, (Watch the video here) and mincing it goes very quickly with the Cuisinart food processor. This is what I use, but you should be able to use any food processor option that you have.

Whatever way you want to mince or chop up the garlic is fine.

The drying time, is just going to happen in the background, so you don’t need to pay any attention to that until it’s been drying for a while! 

I usually save the powdering part for a day that I can spend a little time in the kitchen, and I can go through everything that I dried.  

You could always do the powdering task in smaller time chunks and not powder it all at once like I tend to do. 

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links’. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

Watch the Video!

How to make your Own Garlic Powder at Home 

• Break the bulbs apart into a large bowl. 

• Run warm water over the cloves filling the bowl until the cloves are all submerged. 

• Let them sit for 5-10 minutes. 

• Peel the cloves. (Easiest peeling method that I love to use)

• Rinse the cloves off. 

There’s no need to trim the root end off of the cloves, unless you really want to. I never do. It won’t hurt you to leave them on and you won’t notice them once they are dried and powdered up with the rest! 

• Mince/chop the cloves in a food processor in batches, until it is all minced. 

• Evenly spread the minced garlic onto the dehydrator trays. (I’ve linked the dehydrator that we have, but any option that you already own will work great.)

• Dehydrate at 125 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-12 hours, or until the garlic is “rattling” dry. (This refers to the sound it will make when it is off the trays and in a bowl being stirred around.) Watch for larger chunks and check them for dryness. If they aren’t dry, they will still have a little “squish” to them. 

Important! The garlic can have a VERY strong smell when drying.  

The first time I made my own garlic powder, I made the mistake of thinking that having the garlic drying in the main part of the house, would be wonderful for our immune systems, since we would be smelling the garlic while it dried.  

It wasn’t long before we discovered that the garlic was filling the house with an extremely heady smell that was giving all of us headaches.  

So, I suggest that you put the dehydrator in a room that you aren’t using a lot.

We use our dehydrator in the utility or laundry room. You could also do it in the garage, the basement or even on your porch, if your weather isn’t too cold for that. 

• After collecting all of the dried garlic off of the dehydrator trays, you can store the dried garlic chunks in sealed containers until you are ready to spend a little time making the powder.

I use a large Tupperware bowl and cover it with plastic wrap, since the lid that came with it doesn’t seal anymore. 

• When you are ready to make the powder, put about a ½ cup off dried garlic into a glass jar blender and blend until the garlic has been powdered up.

I recommend using a blender with a glass jar, since the dried garlic can scratch up the plastic sides of other blenders.

Sometimes I have to turn it off, let the dust settle before opening the lid, and use something to loosen up the stuff in the bottom of the blender jar, before blending some more. 

Key to remember, is that you need to let the dust settle, before opening up the blender, or you will have a cloud of garlic powder everywhere! 

After turning off the blender, tap the top and sides, then give it a minute to settle. 

It is now ready to pour into your jars! 

Use a canning funnel to cleanly transfer the garlic powder into your jar. Once again, use something to loosen the powder that tends to pack into the bottom of the blender jar. I like to use a butter knife. 

• Repeat the steps, until you have blended all of your dehydrated garlic. 

The powder will keep very well in sealed jars and can be used however you wish! 

I use it for so many recipes! I just love to sprinkle it onto chicken, into my basic seasoned meat, and even put it into scrambled eggs in the morning. 

We also use the garlic powder in gelatin capsules as a supplement when we need to take garlic, to fight a cold, sore throat or anything else, but the fresh way isn’t an option because of taste or because the stomach isn’t happy about using fresh. 

There’s nothing like the feel of using something that you made yourself. You will love having your own garlic powder and using it while making meals for your family. 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know! I do keep an eye on all of the comments and look forward to hearing from you!