Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

What is garlic scape? God, I feel so stupid.

You can make a compound butter. Just chop them up and throw them in a food processor with some butter and salt (and maybe some lemon zest would be good). So delicious on crusty bread, melted onto fresh veggies, or used to sautee some shrimp. Yum!

You can grill them!

Orchidgirl (sexy name btw) beat me to it: coat them with some olive oil and a little salt and throw them on the grill. You can also roast them in the oven like you would red peppers if you are grill-less. They get a little bit of char on them, and they sweeten up a lot, they lose the sharp garlic bite and get tender and mild and delicious.

You can treat them as you would asparagus, by quickly blanching and ice shocking them, and serving with a homemade lemon mayo, miso butter, or anchovy butter, and poached egg.

Other uses are in soups. Here is a garlic scape Vichyssoise:

4 potatoes, preferably Yukon gold, peeled, pitted of eyes and diced
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cups chicken stock (vegetable stock may be substituted)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 pound garlic scapes, chopped

Simmer the potatoes and onion in the chicken stock and cream until tender. Puree and allow to cool completely.
Blanch the garlic scapes in a pot of boiling water, remove and immediately transfer to a bowl of ice water to preserve color. Puree with the buttermilk and fold into the cooled soup base.
The soup can be garnished with garlic roots. Dust in cornstarch. Shake off the excess and drop into a pan of hot oil until crispy.

Here's a variation without potato:

1 1/2 cups garlic spears, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the garlic spears and the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until vegetables are soft. Add the thyme at the end. In food processor, pureé the vegetables and add chicken stock as needed to make a smooth paste. In saucepan, heat the vegetable mixture and add the remaining chicken broth. Bring to a simmer and add the cream. Adjust the seasoning to taste.

I have been using mine in a few different dishes in place of regular garlic. Most recently, I sauteed some diced onions in olive oil until glassy then added the scapes and cooked for a few minutes before adding radish tops and cooking until the radish top greens had wilted. To that, I added roasted radishes (tossed w/olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper with a little diced up garlic since I wasn't sure how the scapes would stand up to roasting and roasted in the oven until wrinkly) and a sprinkle of lemon juice. The scapes were slightly crunchy, which gave the dish overall a really delightful texture...radish tops are a little bitter and peppery so the garlicky flavor pairs well as do the sweetened, juicy radishes.

I have a few leftover which I plan to saute in olive oil and toss with pasta, summer squash and zuccini.

I use them in place of green onions whenever I can get them.

Thanks Laurelie for the compound butter suggestion. I have a few scapes leftover that will now be turned into butter for topping some delicious steaks and potatoes. Great idea!

Thank you for all the great ideas...I certainly do appreciate your input.

I like to pickle mine in rice vinegar and Korean chili powder, and eat it over congee