8 Handy Methods to Chop and Mince Garlic – Mishry

Wondering what are the different methods to chop and mince garlic? Which tool is the best to get a finely minced result? And which one is better for a coarse chop? 

Are you confused about which is the ideal tool for your garlic chopping and mincing? Team Mishry tested eight different  methods, traditional and new, to chop and/or mince garlic. Our list tells you the type of cut the tool gives us, and what it is best suited for.

Related reading – Benefits of garlic

What were we looking for?

There is abundance in the market when it comes to tools and gadgets specifically meant for chopping and mincing garlic. We were looking for different methods/tools meant for various types of cuts of garlic and which is the easiest, fastest and most effortless way to do so.

For manual tools, we checked for grip as well. 

Ease of cleaning, maintenance, sturdiness and space required to store the tool were also considered.

How did we test these? There isn’t a winner or loser in this review. Yes, we have preferences based on how good the grip is or how well the tool performs overall, but every tool has its own job. Some are meant for chopping bulk quantities of garlic, some meant for small portions of mince, while some are best suited for coarse cuts.

We peeled, chopped and minced over 30 garlic cloves to understand the mechanism, functions and motion of the specific tool and what they are best suited for.

This was the quickest way to mince garlic. From the smooth, non-slippery handles, comfortable grip to the sturdy structure – everything worked well for this press.  The cavity to keep the garlic clove is deep and all the parts are in place and do not wobble. At a time, 2 to 3 garlic cloves can also be placed and crushed.

The result is a batch of evenly minced garlic. There is a small, thin piece remaining at the end which you can add directly to the dish as it’s not significant in size.

Do note that this has not been purchased from IKEA India. This is a garlic press that has been a part of our review lab for a long time. This is an old tool bought years ago from a different country.

We chopped 4 cloves of garlic in the Ganesh Vegetable Chopper. The motion is smooth and effortless, as all you need to do is pull the thread. The results are small, mostly evenly chopped pieces of garlic (see picture). It is meant for small-medium quantities of garlic.

This is a manual chopper that is priced at Rs 620/-, but make sure you check out the price/deals before purchasing. Online shopping portals have attractive deals on choppers and handy tools. You can also check out our detailed review on manual choppers.

It’s a given that electric choppers have an advantage of speed, but what about the results? Just like all our contenders, we chopped 4 cloves of garlic in the Borosil Electric Chopper too. The cuts of garlic are primarily medium-small chunks which when pulsed further would only make the chop finer and not mince it completely. This isn’t very even, and there’s a mixed bag of tiny, medium, and big sized pieces of garlic. 

This is definitely the quickest method to chop garlic in bulk!

We used the grater attachment on the Ganesh Multipurpose Vegetable Chopper and here are our views about using it for garlic. We used this because it was already a part of our review lab, you can use any grater available in your kitchen. It’s quite easy and effortless to use when you want a pod or two for your dish, like a dip or a marinade. The part of garlic that cannot be grated further becomes so small that you can directly add it to the dish as well. This is a good method to mince garlic for small batches of cooking or tadkas when you’re in a hurry.

Be it a modern or traditional one, a mortar pestle is ALWAYS there in an Indian kitchen. It is a fast, fuss-free and most easily available method to crush garlic.

We added 4 cloves of garlic to this and smashed the pieces for 30 seconds. The effort is definitely much higher than the choppers (manual and electric). The texture/fineness of mince can be adjusted as per your need. The more effort you put in, the finer the result. Curries require a finer mince, but chutneys can be made with coarsely smashed ones. This is easy to clean and maintain.

A small tip for washing – Make sure you wash them immediately so that the garlic doesn’t dry up and stick to the surface.

Place cloves on a chopping board/working surface and place this press on top. The swing motion is what will mince the garlic. The sieve on top is where the minced garlic gets collected and you can transfer that into the pan, but it is not easy to take out the collected garlic. The motion of this garlic press is quite smooth and doesn’t require too much effort. But what doesn’t work is the blade sharpness and time required. 

The end result is tiny pieces of garlic. It takes an ample amount of time to crush a single garlic pod. Leftovers include thin garlic pieces which can be just thrown into the cooking pan along with the chopped garlic.

This is how a traditional garlic press works. You add peeled cloves of garlic in the cavity and the small press on top helps mince or crush it. The motion of the top panel going into the cavity should be smooth and the grip comfortable.

We do not highly recommend this particular garlic press for its design and motion. Although the results are a small batch of minute chopped garlic, there are a lot of undone bits and pieces as well. Moreover, you can only place 1 pod in the cavity at a time. 

Another reason this does not get a thumbs up from us was because the motion of the tool is not smooth. The top panel gets stuck again and again and doesn’t directly go into the cavity on its own. You have to adjust it every time which ultimately leads to a lot of energy and time wastage.  

When we reviewed this earlier, our rating was a bit higher. But, in a comparative situation, we felt that this isn’t as efficient a method to chop or mince garlic. The chunks of garlic get stuck in the blades, the process is slow and the chopping is uneven. Amongst all the methods and tools we tested, this felt the most cumbersome as we had to continuously remove chunks of garlic from the blades and one pod also remained undone. Moreover the clean up is a bit tedious and could cause a finger cut, if not done carefully.

Here are some interesting FAQs on methods to chop and mince garlic.

We tested 8 different methods and tools to mince, chop and crush garlic. Some designs are well suited to mince, while some excel to chop.

After testing all the above designs and tools, we chose the one by IKEA as the best overall pick for mincing garlic effortlessly. For bulk chopping, the electric and manual choppers work equally well (barring the initial cost of the electric chopper).

Some perform poorly and are not efficient additions to your kitchen workspace. 

Which tool do you use to mince and chop garlic?

Our reviews are unbiased and all samples used during the reviews were paid for by us. Read our entire ethics statement here.