It’s 6:30 am on a Saturday, and the activity I have chosen to do is to roast garlic.
Am I normal?
Please don’t answer that. I stand by my decision with absolutely no regrets, because I now have a whole container of roasted garlic paste to use this week in homemade lemon and roasted garlic hummus, for a quick and easy garlic bread on the side of baked gnocchi, and in a tortellini salad with a roasted garlic and lemon dressing. BOOM. I’ve planned for three quick and easy things to make by putting a little bit of time into roasting garlic this morning! With such a busy schedule during the week, cooking time-consuming things on the weekend is really the biggest reason why I am able to cook delicious meals during the week after our ten-eleven hour work days. Otherwise, we would be getting quite a bit more take-out.
And even though I’ve just described this as “time-consuming,” please don’t be put off. Roasting garlic is one of the easiest things to do ever- it just takes a little time to roast in the oven.
You only need two ingredients: some heads of garlic, and olive oil.
Begin by peeling off the outer skin of a whole garlic head to reveal the cloves. Chop off the tops of the cloves to expose the garlic by cutting at an angle (add the tops you chopped off to scrap vegetables in your freezer for homemade vegetable stock!).
Place the head in aluminum foil and drizzle with about a tablespoon of olive oil. Bunch the foil at the top to close and place in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to cool, and use a fork to remove the cloves from the casing. They should come out very easily, but if you need to give them a boost you can squeeze them from the bottom.
If you LOVE garlic, you can eat these cloves straight up at this point. If you want to make a paste, add the cloves to a bowl and the olive oil that has been left behind in the foil- this oil is full of garlic flavor- and mash with a fork.
Done! Wasn’t that easy?
Add this to pasta, salsa, spread it on toast… I usually use roasted garlic paste in place of raw garlic (raw garlic tends to not sit well with me). For instance, my homemade ranch dressing calls for raw garlic, and this can be easily substituted to create a less intense, more roasted garlic flavor.
Roasted Garlic Paste
Ingredients
- 1 head garlic or more
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil per head of garlic
- kosher salt to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Remove the outer skin from the garlic heads, keeping the entire thing intact.
- Slice off the tops of the cloves to expose the garlic by cutting at an angle.
- Place the heads of garlic on pieces of aluminum foil and drizzle with 1 tablespoon of olive oil each.
- Bunch the foil together at the top to close it up
- Place in a 400 degree F oven for approximately 45 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool; remove roasted garlic cloves with a fork and add to a bowl.
- Mash with a fork until it forms a paste; add the olive oil from the foil packets that has collected on the bottom.
- Season with salt, if desired.
Notes
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Geoffrey
cool attitudes, I enjoyed reading. I have heard of roasted garlic and how easy it is to make, haven’t tried it, but will soon I’m trying to make paste for garlic butter and I was wondering if the roasted garlic would work thanks for clarifiying for me.
Geoffrey
Elizabeth Lindemann
You can definitely use roasted garlic paste in butter!
Mike
I use this method often for pizza…..I take the roasted garlic and add additional olive oil to make quite a liquid paste. This paste is the bottom layer of my pizza, with pasata on top of the paste, followed by cheese. 6 minutes in a very hot oven then add the delicate toppings….prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella, anchovies. 3 minutes additional. I’d like to take credit for this, but stole if from a pizza making class here in Melbourne.
Elizabeth Lindemann
YUM- that sounds like a wonderful base for a pizza! So decadent. Thanks for the tip!
lololo
but 400°C seems a bit too much right?, wont they become coal?.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hah- good catch! I added a F to clarify- they should be cooked at 400 degrees Farenheit (204 C).
Carolyn
400F not 400C
Diane
Does this last or does it need to be used straight away?
Elizabeth Lindemann
It will last probably a week, maybe two in the fridge, but you can also freeze it in portions in an ice cube tray or make a few dollops portioned out on a baking sheet and flash freeze and transfer to a plastic bag to store. Hope that helps!
Diane
It does thanks, I like the idea of freezing and it being available whenever I need 😄
Garry Harvey
I spread it on lightly toasted panini top with goats cheese then grill for approx 3 to 4 mins, serve with a rocket garnish.. yum yum.
Elizabeth
Oh YUM. That sounds like the perfect thing!!