Homemade Garlic Powder and Onion Powder in Air Fryer

Homemade Garlic powder, onion powder, and ginger powder using an air fryer is a quick and easy way to prepare these powders.

Drying herbs and storing them in powdered form is a great way to add flavoring to your favorite dishes. You can of course add fresh herbs but then you need to have a stock of all these in your pantry.

Also, when you need any of these herbs in a little quantity then these powders are so convenient to use, so why not make them and ease your life in the kitchen?

You can keep garlic, onion, beetroot, ginger, spinach etc easily in powdered form by dehydrating them and then grinding them.

How to Make Garlic Powder at Home?

Making garlic powder at home has three steps, namely:

1. Chopping
2. Drying
3. Grinding into fine powder

Let us see these in detail.

How to Peel Garlic Easily

Peeling garlic is a tedious task and youtube has n number of videos showing how to do this. As I hardly use onion garlic in my cooking, so it is all the more troublesome for me. And when I had to chop roughly 250 g garlic then I turned to my house help, Seeta’s husband who is a cook in a restaurant, to seek some hack for doing this.

And what he told me was something totally new, nowhere on social media. Though his method sounded very appealing to me still I gave his method a try with just one garlic.

Overjoyed with the results then I went ahead with the rest of my 250g garlic just for his post 🙂

So no more suspense let’s see how to do it.

1. For this, after rinsing the garlic in freshwater, wipe it dry with a cloth.
2. Now, chop it roughly in a food processor or some chopper or with a knife. Yes, do not peel, just chop it. I used a food processor as the quantity was more. You can chop it the way you like.

1. One chopped, mix some cornflour or arrowroot powder or rice flour in it. I mixed rice flour in it.

1. Now rub it with both hands and you will be amazed to see that the peels get separated.
2. Put this mix in a colander. As you sift, the flour will get sifted and the peels will be separated from the garlic pods too.

1. Simply pick up the peels and remove them.
2. Repeat the process of sifting a few times and your peeled garlic is ready without any flour.
3. Lastly, using the blowing method also you can blow away the remaining peels as well.
4. What you are left with is chopped and peeled garlic. So, how’s it? Do share with me in the comments section.

How To Dehydrate Garlic

• Sunlight: You can spread this chopped garlic on a plate or tray and keep it in the sunlight for 3 to 5 days depending upon how bright the sunlight is. Take care to cover it with a net cloth to protect it from dust etc.
• Air Fryer:
  • Take a steel plate or bowl that fits into your air fryer.
  • Put chopped garlic in it. It’s better to use a plate otherwise small pieces of garlic may go into the base through the air fryer basket.
  • Air-dry it at 180 degrees C for 5 minutes.

• • Swirl the plate and if any pieces are stuck to the plate, release them.
  • Tip: If you use the cornflour method discussed above then garlic will not stick at all. So, even if you chop it using any other method, my suggestion is that just dust it with little cornflour/rice flour and sift it.
  • Thereafter, reduce the temperature to 100 degrees C and continue air-drying for 40 to 50 minutes.
  • Move the pieces using a spoon after every 10-15 minutes.
  • After switching off the air fryer, let the plate with garlic in it only as there is a lot of heat.
  • Soon they will be completely dry and turn hard like pebbles. When you shake the plate, the sound itself will tell you that these are completely dry.

250 g of garlic dehydrated in less than an hour. Isn’t it cool!

• • Take them out and let them cool completely.
  • Do not grind when warm otherwise they will turn soggy.

How to Make Garlic Powder

• Once the air-dried garlic granules are completely cool, put them in a grinder and make a fine powder. Blitz the grinder after turning it off after every 15 seconds or so.

Tip: Do not run the mixer continuously till the powder is formed otherwise the garlic powder will clump due to heat produced in the mixer.

• Once powdered finely, spread it on a plate and let it dry completely. And then store it in a glass bottle.

Tip: Never fill it in the container immediately after grinding, otherwise it will clump together due to heat and moisture in it.

• 250 g of fresh Garlic gives roughly 50 g of garlic powder.

How to Make Onion Powder At Home

Using the same method as in garlic, you can make onion powder too. The steps would be as follows:

• Peel onions as you normally do. Peeling onion doesn’t require a hack 🙂
• Chop it or slice it finely. I sliced it using a slicer.
• Put it directly on the air fryer basket and air-dry for 5 minutes at 180 degrees C. (Pic 1)
• Lower the temperature and air-dry these 80 degrees C  (at the lowest temperature) for 40 to 50 minutes. (Pic 2)
• Always dehydrate onions at the lowest temperature as it burns very quickly.
• Some of it may pass through the basket but no worries.
• Once it is almost dry then you can cover it with a steel mesh to avoid blowing it all over.
• Once completely dried, powder it in the grinder. (Pic 3)
• Your onion powder is ready. (Pic 4)
• If making Birista for Biryani then you may toss the sliced onions with very little oil before putting them in the air fryer.

How to Make Beetroot Powder, Natural Red Color?

• Peel and chop beetroot finely. I used a chopper.
• Put it in a bowl and keep it in the air fryer. (Pic 1)
• Dehydrate it for 15 minutes at 180 degrees C.
• Thereafter for 15 minutes at 160 degrees C. (Pic 2)
• And lastly, again for  15 minutes at 150 degrees C.
• Air fry it, till it is completely dried and it moves freely on a plate. (Pic 3)
• We reduce temperature gradually, as we want to retain the color.
• Powder it in the grinder. (Pic 4)
• Use it to give bright red color to your Pasta sauce or Pav Bhaji or make colorful Idli/Dhokla etc.
• You may pass it through a filter before adding to whipping cream for making red-colored cream.
• 250 g of beetroot is dehydrated to just 20 g of powder.

Uses of Garlic Powder/ Onion Powder/ Beet Powder

• Add it in Pasta Sauce, Spinach Pasta, Garlic Naan, or any other gravy.
• Beetroot powder is an excellent natural red color. Add it where ever you need to have bright red color, like in Pasta Sauce, Pav Bhaji, red-colored cream for cakes, Idli, Dhokla etc.

FAQs

Q) Why do I need Garlic powder?

• You can add it to your various dishes like Pasta, Potato wedges, sauteed vegetables etc for instant flavoring.
• Peeling, chopping, and mincing garlic is a time-consuming job. If you are in a hurry while cooking then this powder is a boon.
• In families where onion-garlic are used occasionally, like in Jain families, these powders are a great way to add flavors.
• If you do not like garlic pieces but like their aroma and taste then this powder is perfect as no chance of biting a piece while eating.
• When your stock of fresh garlic is over and visiting the vegetable market is not possible for whatever reason then this powder will be a big relief to you.

Q) Garlic powder is not as effective as fresh garlic? Why?

• Garlic powder is nothing but dehydrated garlic. To make it as effective as fresh garlic, you need to dissolve it in little water and then see its aroma.
• This is because, garlic’s flavor-producing enzyme, alliinase, is water-soluble. And once the garlic is dehydrated, this enzyme lies in a dormant state. Therefore we need to wake up this enzyme and this is done by adding little water to it.
• If you add garlic powder directly to oil/butter and heat it then this enzyme is killed and thus no matter how much you add it, its flavor is gone. (Source)

Q) What is the shelf life of this garlic powder?

• It remains good for up to a month easily at room temperature.
• It tends to clump together due to moisture so once in a while just shake the container

Q) My garlic didn’t dehydrate in the time given in this post?

It will dehydrate, however, time may vary due to any of the following reasons:

• • as each air fryer is different
  • the quantity used to dehydrate
  • size and thickness of chopped garlic etc
  • temperature settings.

Q) How can I dehydrate garlic, onion, ginger, beetroot, etc?

• There are many different ways to do so like sunlight, dehydrator, oven, and air fryer.
• In tropical countries like India, we prefer to dry our vegetables directly in the sunlight. But even in peak summers, it takes a minimum of 2 to 3 days to dehydrate these completely. And at times it takes up to a week.
• Some people like to use dehydrators.
• These can be dried in ovens.
• But we can do this job much easily and quickly in an air fryer.

Q) I do not have an air fryer, then how to dry these?

• No worries!. In peak summers, you can dry these in sunlight.
• Or, use an oven. Spread the chopped garlic/onion/ginger/beetroot etc on the baking tray and let them dry at the lowest temperature in your oven.
• Keep the baking tray in the middle rack and turn both the rods ON.
• Remember to shuffle the pieces after every 15 to 2o minutes.

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