How to Make Roasted Garlic
How to Make Roasted Garlic
Roasted garlic is a recent discovery for me. With so much garlic around our house these past years, you would think I would have been making it before now, but it just seemed like too much trouble. I am not like the little chef mouse from the Pixar classic Ratatouille, who delights in gourmet flavors. When you are cooking three meals a day for a hearty-eating family and growing most of the ingredients yourself, the less steps in that process the better. After all, I thought, garlic tastes like garlic, and there is no point going through the extra step of roasting it.
But I was wrong!
Making a soup recipe the other day, I finally decided to try roasting the garlic.
The first thing I discovered was that it only takes a minute to get garlic ready for roasting. It is not time-consuming at all.
The second thing I discovered was that, once roasted, getting the clove out of a garlic bulb is actually easier than trying to peel raw cloves…another time savings.
The third thing I discovered was the….taste! I felt like the Ratatouille mouse for a moment. The roasted garlic added such a new and rich flavor to the soup. Not only that, but the whole family told me it was their new favorite soup recipe. Finding ANY soup that everybody likes, much less loves, sold me on roasted garlic.
Since that experience, I have been roasting garlic for every soup and chili recipe I have made, and am continuing to find more uses. It makes a yummy spread for toast and adds new flavor to Italian-style dishes. You can even eat it straight!
The best was I can describe the taste is a rich garlic flavor without the sharpness of raw garlic, plus a whole lot of other delicious flavors that I haven’t quite identified. Maybe Ratatouille could help me…
Best Varieties of Garlic for Roasting
First, let’s talk about the best garlic for roasting. Garlic falls into two broad categories: softneck and hardneck. Most grocery store garlic (aka Chinese garlic) is softneck. These bulbs are smaller and have anywhere from 10-30 cloves, with the larger cloves arranged around the outside of the bulb and the smaller cloves in the center.
Hardneck garlic bulbs are usually larger. Some varieties have double layers of cloves like softneck, but the overall size of the cloves being larger. Other hardnecks have a single layer of very large cloves, arranged around a center stem.
ANY garlic can be roasted, so definitely don’t hesitate to try it with whatever variety you have. However, my very favorite for roasting are the hardnecks with a single layer of cloves. These have enormous cloves, making it super easy to remove all of the yummy content after roasting. They also have, in my opinion, the richest flavor.
My favorite varieties for roasting include Russian Inferno (pictured in this article), Georgia Crystal, Romanian Red, and Ivan.
Cut the Bulb
To make roasted garlic, cut open the bulb. You can cut it directly in half and roast both sides, or you can cut a “cap” off the top, exposing the inner cloves, and only roast the larger section. For large-cloved bulbs like Russian Inferno, it works best to just cut them in half.
Cutting the bulb can be a little challenging with hardnecks, due to their hard inner stalk. Softnecks are cut more easily. With a sharp knife and a cutting board, however, you can get through the center stalk.
If you are using both sides of the bulb, you may need to cut off the stalk at the top of the bulb, so that both sides can lay relatively flat.
Prepare for Roasting
Place the cut garlic pieces on a piece of foil approximately 10” x 15”. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil onto the open face of the bulbs, using your finger to rub the oil well into the cut face of the cloves.
Roast the Bulbs
Wrap the foil up and over the cut bulb, creating a little packet. It is best to keep the foil from touching the open face of the cloves, where you rubbed the oil, as it can create burned spots on the garlic.
Place the garlic in an oven or convection oven and roast at 375 degrees. There seems to be a lot of flexibility on the roasting time. The bulb has softened and the flavor has mellowed after only about 30 minutes, but I have left it in the oven for 2 hours and longer without it burning. For the first try, 375 degrees for 1 hour is a good starting point, and you can adjust the cooking time and temperature to suit your tastes.
Once the garlic is done, unwrap the foil and let the garlic cool for about 30 minutes. Then use your fingers to squeeze or scrape out the soft, gooey garlic.
Use the roasted garlic in soup or pasta recipes that call for garlic (it will blend into the hot liquid, or you can use an immersion blender). Spread directly on toast or find your own favorite new use!
Reserve your favorite garlic varieties today! Thanks for visiting!