Garlic-infused oil substitutes

Warm ½ cup olive or neutral oil with 4 thinly sliced garlic cloves over the lowest heat for 10 minutes, keeping it barely shimmering so the garlic goes pale gold and never brown, then strain and discard the solids. Tastes essentially identical to the bottled version because it is the same thing. Browned garlic turns the oil bitter, so pull it early.

Best for

low FODMAP cooking, pasta aglio e olio, stir-fries, finishing drizzle, salad dressings

Not shelf stable. Garlic sitting in oil at room temperature is a low-acid, oxygen-free environment where Clostridium botulinum can grow, so refrigerate the strained oil and use within four days, or freeze it in cubes for up to three months. Only commercially bottled garlic oil is acidified for shelf storage.

If you are not avoiding FODMAPs, this is simpler and tastes better. Slice or grate the garlic into the cold oil, bring it up gently, and carry on with the recipe. The difference is that you now have garlic solids in the pan, so the dish is more pungent and slightly sweeter as the garlic cooks, and you get little browned bits rather than a clean perfume.

Best for

everyday cooking, sauces, sauteing, soups

Not suitable for low FODMAP cooking. The fructans that cause the problem are in the garlic flesh, and here you are eating the flesh.

The classic Indian answer and the standard low FODMAP workaround. Warm the oil, add the powder, and it foams and turns from acrid to something remarkably close to cooked onion and garlic in about twenty seconds. It is savoury and alliumy rather than fresh and sharp, so a pasta aglio e olio made with it tastes rounder, more like a soffritto and less bright. Raw asafoetida smells awful, which alarms people. It must be cooked in fat.

Best for

curries, dals, low FODMAP cooking, vegetable dishes, soup bases

Check the label. Most compounded hing is cut with wheat flour, so buy pure asafoetida if you need it gluten free. A little is plenty; too much tastes soapy.

The green parts of spring onions, leeks and chives are low FODMAP while the white bulbs are not, so this gets you a gentle allium note the safe way. Much milder and grassier than garlic, with none of the sulphurous punch, so a dish made with it reads as fresh and oniony rather than garlicky. Best combined with asafoetida oil, which supplies the depth the greens lack.

Best for

low FODMAP cooking, stir-fries, dressings, noodle bowls, finishing

Wilt them in the warm oil for a minute rather than boiling them, and strain if you want a clear oil.

This works if you simply want garlic flavour and do not have fresh cloves. Dried garlic tastes flatter, slightly toasty and a bit dusty compared with the clean perfume of an infused oil, and it will not dissolve, so the oil goes cloudy and can taste gritty in a dressing. Fine stirred into a marinade or brushed on bread, poor as a finishing oil.

Best for

garlic bread, marinades, roasting vegetables, seasoning blends

Not low FODMAP. Dried garlic still contains the fructans, and powder is concentrated, so it is worse for that purpose than a fresh clove.

Honest answer for the many recipes where garlic oil is one flavour note among several. In a big tomato sauce, a soup or a tray of roasted vegetables with herbs and lemon, leaving the garlic out costs you a background savoury layer that most people will not miss. Where you will absolutely notice it is in a dish that is mostly garlic oil, meaning aglio e olio, garlic noodles, garlic bread or a bare dressing. There, use one of the options above.

Best for

tomato sauces, soups, braises, heavily spiced dishes

Add a little extra salt and a squeeze of lemon. Both make a dish taste more complete when you have removed a savoury element.