This Garlic Hack Saves Me Time in the Kitchen on Busy Weeknights

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This may not be a shared feeling with other young professionals, but I don't find cooking relaxing. I'm always looking for shortcuts to make meals a quick affair. This tendency started when I always had my college days booked back-to-back, so meals were brief occasions between classes, extracurriculars, and assignments.

Although I now have much more time to enjoy cooking, I'm still a fan of those kitchen shortcuts that make my life even the tiniest bit easier. Among all kitchen tasks – aside from cutting onions – peeling garlic may be my least favorite food prep step.

I always struggle to peel garlic and spend too much time fighting the cloves to get them fully peeled. Maybe I'm just having operator error issues but at any rate, I found a method that's 100% easier and more fun.

The next time you need to peel some garlic, skip peeling the cloves by hand and throw them into any food storage container, then shake it like a shake weight from the early 2000s. A time-saving hack and arm workout all in one? Yes, please.

You'll notice that bits of the garlic shell will start to come free from the clove and after a few seconds you should have peeled cloves. It's such a simple concept that delivers every time. The best part is you can peel as many cloves as you need at once. Just be sure to choose a container big enough for all the cloves to be shaken evenly. Garlic should be an ingredient that you measure with your heart, so you might as well add a few extra cloves to your recipe.

Pent up frustration from a long week? Just shake a container of garlic for an easy way to relieve stress and fix dinner at the same time.

And if you aren't already using a garlic press, it might be time to start.