Roasted Garlic – warm soul food
Warm roasted garlic is definitely food for the soul. Add some bread, a glass of wine and life is grand.
Roasted Garlic Recipe
The recent cooling in the weather recently had us craving some of our simple fall favorites. Even now while our weather is yo-yo-ing between warm and cool, our taste buds salivate at the thought of simple roasted food, and freshly roasted garlic heads topped with a flakey salt on slices of a nice baguette sounds like a perfect start to an evening meal.
We take advantage of every seasonal change and even if it drops to a chilly 60 degrees in our area, we’re pulling out the warm fuzzy blankets and cranking up the oven for some warm, roasted food to satisfy the soul.
Watch the video making the roasted garlic. Can you smell it?:
Roasted garlic is an amazingly simple dish that needs only four ingredients, some oven love and dinner is served. Versatile in so many ways, simply spread on some crusty bread is a meal in itself, but taking the roasted garlic pieces into stews, sauces and dressing makes for more remarkable soul food. One clove of roasted garlic can easily add tons of flavor to a dish that needs that little extra kick! The left over oil makes an remarkable dressing, so make sure you save every bit of this oil.
Best yet, filling up the house on a chilly day with the fragrance of warm roasting garlic is one way to stay warm, both inside and out. Add a nice loaf of crusty bread, a lovely bottle of wine and a group of your best friends for the perfect dinner party.
Enjoy,
Diane and Todd
Here’s a great garlic roasted asparagus recipe with crispy ham and Winter guide to squashes.
This recipe was originally published in 2009 and re-published in 2016 with new photos and new video.
Roasted Garlic Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 Garlic , whole heads
- 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil , or as needed
- Flakey Salt , such as kosher salt, Murray River salt, Maldon salt
- fresh cracked Black Pepper
- optional-fresh thyme leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven 400º F.
- Remove extra loose white skin around garlic heads. Place in a baking dish sized to fit all of your heads in a single layer, without too much extra space (small ramekins are great for just a head or two.) *optional - for a pretty presentation you can slice off the top of the head, exposing the individual garlic cloves
- Pour a generous amount of olive oil over each head. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt and black pepper. If using optional fresh thyme, sprinkle leaves over garlic heads.
- Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven. Roast for 45 minutes.
- Remove foil and drizzle a little more olive oil. Return to oven and roast for 15 minutes more.
- Remove from oven. Take garlic out of baking dishes and serve with baguette slices, crackers, etc., or use in whichever culinary dish you'd like. *Once oil has cooled in baking dishes, strain and save for future culinary uses. 😉
I am about to put some garlic in the oven now! I could use a little warm oven love. I frequently roast garlic and keep it in the fridge with the oil. It makes my meals good all week, stirring into pasta or salad dressing or mashing it into a potato or stirring into scrambled eggs. I know that I can always have a really tasty meal on the fly if there is some roasted garlic on hand!
ahh, this stuff is delicious! I can’t get enough of this, even just eating it straight. My girlfriend, however, must be a vampire…
omg my hubs would love this!
I meant our share ‘of’ rain. Sorry.
Helene- Ha! no worries, we’ve known you long enough to know exactly what you meant. Hope your boys enjoy the cookies! xoxo
We are having our share our rain in the Valley also. Need some sun. I’ll try your recipe for roasted garlic. Must smell so good. 🙂
I really don’t know why I haven’t done this yet. It sounds magnificent! 🙂
Hummmm, I can almost smell the wonderful aroma from here:) I also enjoy the tips onthe reply above, thanks!
How long would this roasted garlic keep for? I like the idea of it and wonder if I roasted a few, how would I store them for use over the next week?
Depending on how you want to use them, they will last quite a while. If you want to serve the whole heads, we’d recommend roasting them earlier in the day or maybe the day before for best presentation. If you are only wanting to use the roasted garlic cloves, it will last a long time. Just like how Janice, popped out the cloves then packed hers in a bit of olive oil and froze them, you can do the same but store the garlic in the fridge or even on the countertop (that’s what we do here at home.) You can use the same oil you roasted in or else top with some fresh olive oil. It is a perfect garlic confit.
Thank you so much for your reply. I look forward to trying this.
A classic little treat. We make this all the time – it has so many uses. A have a tiny little mini Le Creuset pot, only about 4 inches across, that is perfect for roasting heads of garlic. It even has a little lid.
Nam nam nam nam nam. Just gorgeous. The pictures are fab! I’m a huge fan of roasted garlic & always have a jar ready in the fridge. Brush some on top of freshly baked bread & you reach sweet garlic nirvana!
Deeba- you said it perfectly “…sweet garlic nirvana! ” Thank you.
That looks awesome.
Well with the weather getting to freezing temperatures already here, this is definitely something that looks delicious! I loved roasted garlic, but have never made it myself…
You can also freeze the roasted garlic. Where we are, the garlic isn’t always the greatest, so when a fresh batch of garlic comes in ( and 1 lb, mesh bags go seriously on sale), I roast up a couple of pounds worth. I just dump them in a foil packet and roast away. After they’re roasted, they are easy to pop out of the skins, and then I pack them up with a bit of olive oil in 250 ml. jars before freezing
Janice- thanks for the tip on freezing the garlic! This sounds like a great option when we get big batches of fresh garlic.
I love using roasted garlic in all kinds of dishes. In fact, I made mashed potatoes with some tonight.
I’m jealous of your cool weather. The temps here are still topping out in the 90’s! Miserable!
yummy. I love garlic. This looks soooo delicious.
I too have been giddy as a school girl the last two days because of this rain. Suddenly thinking of every pumpkin recipe i can..
this garlic recipe would be a great addition to a baguette and some brie…
on the rocks- Brie? what a fabulous idea! Thanks for the great reminder.