Kitchen Tips: How to make roasted garlic
By Tali Simon | June 25, 2012
Roasted garlic is one of those things — once you start making it, you’ll find yourself putting it in everything.
It’s great in dips and spreads, sandwiches, pasta salads, mashed potatoes, omelets, or smashed onto a piece of toast. So easy to get along with, this roasted garlic.
Plus, it only takes a minute to prepare, if you roast the garlic as a head instead of as individual cloves.
I prefer to take the slightly longer route by slicing off the ends and peeling away the skin of each clove so I can be sure they’re all fresh. (I’ve seen some nasty cloves in my day and wouldn’t want to roast those unknowingly.)
Roasting anything brings out its deepest flavor. That’s why we all love roasted potatoes, roasted carrots, roasted butternut squash, roasted red peppers, roasted eggplant and zucchini…
And roasted garlic is no exception. Stick it in the oven for 45-ish minutes, and magic happens.
Ingredients Directions 1. Preheat oven to 400 F/200 C and position oven rack in the top third of the oven. (Garlic will easily fit in the oven while it’s already on and being used to cook other dishes. Great for multi-tasking.) 2. To roast the entire head: Slice off the top inch of the head to remove stem and expose the tops of the cloves. Brush with a bit of olive oil and wrap in a piece of aluminum foil. 3. If your garlic has been sitting around for awhile, or if you’ve noticed that other heads in the same package contained less-than-desirable cloves, you might want to separate the cloves, slice off the tips, and peel away the skin. “Paint” the center of a piece of aluminum foil with olive oil, then brush the cloves lightly with oil, too. Bring together the sides of the foil to seal. 4. Roast in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes, or until soft, browned, and fragrant. Use with abandon.
3 Comments
Miriam @ Overtime Cook on June 25, 2012 at 10:44 pm.
Looks great! I love garlic.
Yiska Ben Avraham on June 26, 2012 at 2:02 pm.
What would happen if you used another type of oil?
Tali Simon on June 26, 2012 at 10:49 pm.
Canola oil would work just as well since it’s so neutral and works for roasting, sauteeing, and frying. People tend to prefer olive oil for something like this, but canola is a good (cheaper) alternative.
Grapeseed oil and sesame oil might be nice, too (haven’t tried them on this myself, though).