Soft, savoury and utterly delicious wild garlic scones, fresh from the oven and best eaten warm.
Yesterday’s walk was fresh and full of promise. The ground still damp from a burst of April showers, the trees just beginning to green up. Then the wild garlic, bright and abundant, carpeting the woodland floor.
I came home with a small bag of leaves and made these scones straight away. Soft, green-flecked and gently garlicky, they are best split and eaten with a little vegan butter melting into them.
If you’re new to making scones, you can find all my tips and a more flexible base recipe in my vegan savoury scones.
Wild garlic season is short. This is a very good way to make the most of it.
Why You’ll Love These Wild Garlic Scones
- Ready in under 30 minutes
- Soft and fluffy, never heavy
- Packed with fresh, seasonal flavour
- Completely vegan with no fuss
- A brilliant way to use wild garlic while it’s in season
What is Wild Garlic?
Wild garlic, also known as ramsons, is a hedgerow and woodland plant which makes its appearance in early spring. Its lush green leaves begin to carpet woodland as the days lengthen, followed by delicate white flowers which rise above the leaves like a cascade of stars.
It has a fresh, mild garlic flavour which works beautifully in simple savoury dishes.
Foraging Wild Garlic
I always carry a foraging bag folded up in my shoulder bag or stuffed in a coat pocket. I’m lucky enough to live in a rural area where there is often treasure to be gathered, but wild foods can be found both in and on the edge of our urban spaces.
I found this week’s wild garlic in a small scrap of woodland on the edge of a market town in Dorset, just a very short walk from the bustling town centre.
It’s not difficult to find, the smell gives it away before you even see it. If you’re unsure, crush a leaf. That unmistakable garlic smell confirms you have the right plant.
Do be careful not to confuse it with lily of the valley, which looks similar but is poisonous. It doesn’t have that telltale scent.
As with all foraging, pick responsibly and leave plenty behind.
The leaves are at their best before the flowers appear, though both are edible.
Why Wild Garlic Works in Scones
We look forward to the next wild garlic season as soon as the current one is over and the one recipe we all want first is this one because:
- The soft allium flavour works brilliantly in baking
- It adds a fresh seasonal lift to a simple bake
- They pair deliciously well with spring soups and casseroles
These are a simple seasonal variation on my classic vegan savoury scones, made with fresh wild garlic.
Ingredients for Wild Garlic Scones
Self raising flour, salt, vegan butter and soy milk form the base of this simple savoury recipe, with English mustard powder, black pepper and fresh wild garlic bringing all the flavour.
How To Make Wild Garlic Scones
For full measurements and detailed instructions, see the printable recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven and line two baking trays.
- Mix the dry ingredients, then rub in the vegan butter.
- Stir through the chopped wild garlic.
- Add the plant milk and bring together into a soft dough.
- Gently pat out and cut into rounds.
- Brush the tops with a little soy milk.
- Bake until risen and golden.
Tips for Light, Fluffy Scones
My three top tips for a light, fluffy vegan scone are:
- Handle the dough lightly, don’t over work it.
- Press the dough into a round rather than using a rolling pin.
- When cutting out, press the cutter down and lift. Don’t twist or you will lose the rise.
Serving Wild Garlic Scones
These scones are delicious warm from the oven and pair beautifully with seasonal soups or a simple savoury spread. Take them out on a spring picnic with a flask of soup for the best end to a revitalising walk.
Storing and Freezing
Wild garlic scones keep well in an airtight tin for up to three days or freeze them for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Scone Recipes
For step-by-step savoury scone tips and troubleshooting, see my Vegan Savoury Scones.
More Wild Garlic Recipe Ideas
Wild garlic can be used in all sorts of savoury dishes. Here are a few ideas to try:
- Add a handful to a spring vegetable risotto
- Finely chopped in sandwiches with chickpea mayonnaise
- Stirred into Leek and Potato Soup
Wild Garlic Scones
Equipment
- 7cm/3" round pastry cutter
- 2 baking trays
- large mixing bowl
- Baking parchment
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 500 g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tso English mustard powder
- 125 g vegan butter I use Flora baking block
- 50 g wild garlic or more to taste. Up to 75g. Chopped.
- black pepper
- 125 ml plant based milk I use soya
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180Fan/200C/390F and line 2 baking trays with baking parchment.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and mustard.
- Chop the cold butter into cubes and add to the flour mixture. Rub in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Stir through the chopped wild garlic and a good grind of black pepper.
- Gradually add the plant milk, mixing to form a soft but not sticky dough.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and gently pat to about 2–3cm thick.
- Cut into rounds and place on the prepared tray. Gather any scraps together gently, press into a round again and cut as many scones as you can.
- Pop the scones onto the prepared baking sheets, brush the tops with a little milk and bake them for 15 - 20 minutes until well risen and golden brown.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- Dough should be soft, not dry
- Avoid overworking for best texture
- Best eaten fresh but can be frozen
Nutrition
This recipe was originally published in 2013 and has been fully updated with a vegan version, new photos and improved instructions.
Photo from 2013
What a lovely day and those scones just look amazing! I have a bit of a silly question though, which part of the wild garlic do you eat? The leafy bits or flowery bits?
Both! Not a silly question at all, it’s like chives you eat the bits above ground (leaf and flowers).
those scones look amazing! I don’t think I even know what wild garlic looks like…I need to rectify that soon!
It is SO easy to spot Helen…you just follow your nose!
Need to find a walk with a river so we can start practising building dams with my wee man! Sounds like so much fun. Those scones look rather appetising!
You do! We had such a lovely time. Little rivulets emptying on to beaches are good for damming too 🙂
Ok these scones sound AWESOME
Love the idea of foraging just not that confident of what to look for..
Wild garlic is an easy one too start with because you really can just follow your nose. Look it up on google images it is quite obvious when you’re in woodland and you can do the nose check just to be sure.
What a wonderful post. Sounds like a perfect walk followed by delicious food which is my idea of a perfect day. Wild garlic pesto sounds divine, we need the recipe for that.
It’s a very beautiful place 🙂 It looks a bit like something from the Lord of the Rings 🙂 Scones – definitely a must try.
Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow. Now, can I buy this garlicky stuff in Waitrose? #citygirl 😀
I love days like that. What a beautiful place and those scones look delish!
They really were, I’m going back for more as soon as possible. Bonus Boy would be there now if everyone else wasn’t doing ‘stuff’!
I would never think to use wild garlic but the scones look delicious!
Over from Country Kids.
That post sent me off exploring your blog to see if I could find out whereabouts you live! Thanks for the info in the “About” section. Specific enough to assuage my curiosity.
We have lots of wild garlic in the hedgerows and how stupid, I have never thought to use it in cooking! I shall be borrowing this scones recipe, as yours have risen to perfection. Your special waterfall really reminds me of the babbling brook at Coombe Mill, the children here spend hours making dams in it in the summer, this has made for such a lovely post of enjoying nature in every way. Thank you for joining me on Country Kids.
Ooh, loved building dams in the local stream when we were kids. Looking forward to taking my son on trips like yours when he’s a bit older.
Lovely photos and post, looks like loads of fun finished off with some great scones – must try out your recipe it sounds delicious.
Just stumbled across this, far too early for lunch and my mouth is watering!
Hoorah! My work here is done! 😉
Oh gosh those scones look incredible!!
The scones look wonderful and I’ve just copied and pasted. I also love the Dingly Dell! We have a woodland walk behind our house that is thick with wild garlic every year, but I had no idea you could use the leaves like chives!! I shall collect some leaves this very weekend! x
Hoorah! I LOVE that this post has made so many people set off to forage! 🙂
The scones look lovely! And the waterfall is beautiful! I love hedgerow foods, tastes so much better knowing it was free!
Oh my goodness they look delicious! And what gorgeous gorgeous pictures! It looks like a beautiful place! 🙂
Perfect for this linky, Chris! Thank you for joining in!! x
You’ve got me signing wistfully here – what I wouldn’t give for some time in the Dingly Dell! Looks like a fab family walk, and what a bonus to find all that garlic. Lovely 🙂 x
Having foraged this afternoon for some wild garlic for this recipe I can confirm that these are the best scones ever. I’m having them for tea with some tomato soup, simple but pretty much perfect, thank you so much for the inspiration!
The walk looks lovely and the calcified leaves so interesting. Those scones look very enticing too. I made some wild garlic scones yesterday and reckoned they were the best savoury scones I’ve ever eaten.
Great Recipe
These are, perhaps, the most beautiful scones I’ve ever seen. Wild garlic is a lovely gift from nature, and it’s ever so nice for it to be honoured in your post. I will attempt to make these at some point. Thank you! PS: Love foraging and foragers!
What a lovely comment! Thank you so much!