How To Roast Garlic

If you’re a garlic lover, you’ll love this. If you’re not a fan, you may just be converted by this technique, which turns a head of garlic into a buttery smooth, rich, yet mellow condiment that you can spread as-is on crusty bread or crackers, or use in your favorite recipes.

You can roast garlic and freeze it for future use. Spread a thin layer in a Ziploc sandwich bag for easy portioning later. Then, just break off as much as you need, let defrost at room temperature (this will only take a few minutes), and add it to your favorite recipes in lieu of fresh garlic.

Roasted garlic also tastes amazing as-is on crackers, slices of baguettes, or mashed potatoes. You can add it to hummus, soups, eggs, softened butter for garlic bread, or anything else you come up with. Experiment away!

Steps for Success

1. Buy a fresh, whole head of garlic (or 3! Extras freeze well).
2. Preheat the oven to 400*F.
3. Peel away the papery extra skin of the garlic, but leave the last layer, which connects all the cloves, intact.
4. Using a large sharp knife (chef’s knife is best), cut about 1/4″ off the top of the head of garlic, being sure that all the cloves are cut and exposed. If needed, cut individual cloves using a smaller paring knife.
5. Place the head(s) of garlic in aluminum foil, each head in its own piece of foil.
6. Drizzle olive oil (1-2 tablespoons, but you don’t have to be exact) over the top of the garlic.
7. Close up the aluminum foil around the garlic, making a little packet.
8. Roast the garlic for 40 minutes.
9. To see if more roasting time is needed, carefully open the packet (be careful of escaping steam, so don’t stick your nose in it!), and use a paring knife to pierce the center clove. If it is super soft and gives way easily, it’s done.
10. If you’d like a deeper, more caramelized color/flavor, continue roasting the garlic for 10 more minutes.
11. Let the garlic cool for 10 minutes.
12. Use a butter knife to spoon out the soft garlic from each clove. Alternatively, you can push the garlic out of the paper from the bottom of the clove.