How to Roast Garlic Cloves
You have to know how to roast garlic cloves if you’re planning to use roasted garlic in a dish or as a side with bread.
Roasted garlic is creamy and delicious, and spreads like butter once it’s roasted.
Garlic that has been roasted takes on a new sweeter flavor, too, so you can add it to soups and stews in its roasted form to add extra umami goodness.
I added it to this rosemary garlic bread recipe for flavor you just can’t get without roasting it first. Grape tomatoes with pasta is another dish that improves with roasted garlic. The simple process really improves the flavor.
Did you know garlic is also really good for you? It’s loaded with vitamins like B6, B1 (aka thiamin) as well as Vitamin C.
In addition, you’ll get much-needed minerals like potassium, calcium, manganese, calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium, and zinc. Whew! That’s a lot of minerals.
And a little more good news; though the stinky breath known to follow those of us who love garlic won’t completely go away, the odor is reduced when the garlic is roasted instead of sauteed. So there’s that.
What You’ll Need to Roast Garlic
All you need to learn how to roast garlic is a bulb (or more) of garlic, good quality olive oil, and a little kosher salt.
How to Roast Garlic
Slice off the top of the garlic bulb.
Not sure which is the top?
Slice that top off with a sharp knife.
Peel away some of the outer skin, but not too much that the bulb will start to fall apart.
Place bulbs on a piece of aluminum foil that is large enough to completely cover the garlic bulb, sealing it.
I needed four bulbs for the bread I was making. Yeah, that’s a lot of garlic, and it was so good!
Pour about a 1/2 tablespoon of oil on the bulb, and sprinkle with about a 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.
Roast in a 350º oven for about 30 minutes. It will smell heavenly. Now, what to do with the roasted garlic?
How to Use Roasted Garlic
We added roasted garlic along with fresh rosemary to bread as mentioned above and it was luscious in the morning with eggs and alongside pasta for dinner.
Spread those creamy garlic cloves on bread with a pinch of Maldon salt for an appetizer. Add blistered cherry tomatoes for a quick bruschetta.
Make a batch of hummus and toss a few roasted garlic cloves. Add roasted garlic to your mashed potatoes and any pasta dish. It’s so easy to take easy recipes up a notch.
And have you tried roasted garlic spread from my friend at Edible Mosaic? She has so many delicious recipes and her site is just gorgeous.
You can add roasted garlic to soups and stews for a more robust flavor. Saute or grill vegetables tossing in a few roasted garlic cloves for spectacular flavor enhancement.
How to Store Roasted Garlic
Store roasted garlic in the freezer or refrigerate for up to 3 days. You know those pretty bottles you see in Home stores with garlic cloves in oil? Don’t try to do that! Garlic stored that way can cause botulism.
Raw Storage Tip: I recently bought a big bag of garlic (thanks to one of those superstores that also only had flour in a 25-pound bag!) and decided to go ahead and peel some of the raw cloves and store them in the freezer. This works really well for when you’re making dinner in a hurry.
Grab a few cloves and mince or slice (so easy when they are frozen!) to add to chicken, pork, or even steaks. There isn’t much that doesn’t get better with garlic.
Have a great recipe with roasted garlic? Let me know in the comments and you may see it linked here so others can enjoy it, too. As always, thanks for visiting!
Ingredients
- 1 garlic bulb
- 1/2 T olive oil
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Instructions
- Slice off the top of the garlic bulb.
- Peel away some of the outer skin, but not too much that the bulb will start to fall apart.
- Place bulbs on a piece of aluminum foil that is large enough to completely cover the garlic bulb, sealing it.
- Pour about a 1/2 tablespoon of oil on the bulb, and sprinkle with about a 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt.
- Roast in a 350º oven for about 30 minutes.
