How to Roast Garlic
Roasted garlic transforms pungent raw cloves into sweet, soft, and buttery gems perfect for spreading, mashing, or flavoring any dish.
Ingredients
- 1 head garlic
- olive oil for the drizzle
- sea salt
- freshly ground pepper
- minced rosemary or lemon zest optional
Instructions
Prepping the Garlic
- Start by removing any loose layers of skin from the whole head of garlic. Don't take too much off; you don't want the cloves breaking off.
- With a sharp knife, carefully cut off the top ¼ of the head so the cloves are exposed. Then, you can toss the part you cut off and reserve the rest of the head.
- If you are only roasting one or two garlic heads, tear off one or two sheets of aluminum foil large enough to wrap the entire head of garlic.
- If you are roasting multiple heads of garlic, place the heads, cut side up, in a small roasting pan or baking dish large enough to accommodate the number of heads you are roasting.
- Drizzle a little olive oil onto each head and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. If you want to play around with some different flavors, try to experiment by adding a little minced rosemary or lemon zest to the seasoning. Again, the number of options is huge.
Roast the Garlic
- If you are using aluminum foil, tightly wrap the garlic head in foil and place it directly onto the oven rack. This works great when roasting another ingredient because the garlic takes up very little space.You can even use this method when firing up the barbecue to grill vegetables, steaks, or chicken. Depending on the temperature of the oven or grill, it should take about 40 - 45 minutes for the garlic to turn a golden brown as they soften up.
- If you are roasting a bunch of heads in a baking dish, place the pan into the oven uncovered and roast for 30 - 35 minutes until the garlic turns golden brown and the cloves become tender. If they are not softened enough, just put them back in the oven for 5 - 10 minutes more.
After The Garlic Is Roasted
- No matter what method you use to roast the garlic, let them cool down after removing them from the oven before handling it.
- Then, when they are cool enough to handle, unwrap them from the aluminum foil or remove them from the roasting pan and squeeze out the garlic from the bottom of each clove with your fingers.
- Yes, it's messy, but please resist the urge to overeat the garlic while squeezing. The aroma of roasted garlic is so intoxicating that you will have to use all your willpower to keep yourself from eating too much.
Notes
If you are roasting the garlic for a meal you are cooking that day, use what you need and store the rest in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. If you don't have a recipe calling for roasted garlic later in the week, try substituting in any recipe calling for garlic or just spread some on a slice of Italian bread for a quick snack.
This is an easy cooking technique and if you do it while roasting something else, it really doesn't add that much time or effort to what you are cooking but it really makes a big difference.