How To Roast Garlic And Delicious Ways To Use It

Fall is harvest time on the farm and most importantly fresh garlic time!  

I know I'm excited and so are many customers, too.

But to be honest, garlic is a love-hate relationship for me. 

The taste is amazing, especially roasted, but...

Last year I wrote a blog post on the ways that helped me overcome my biggest barrier to using garlic in the kitchen. Dealing with PEELing the darn things!!!

(If that resonates with you, here's a link to that if you missed it! They really do help!)

But, as everyone is aware, eating more garlic is a great natural way to boost your immune system for the cold and flu season ahead of us.

And this year this is as important as ever, right?!

If you're a garlic fan or if you're not sure, but still wanting to eat more garlic for health reasons, I've got a question for you:

Have you ever tried roasting garlic?

Why roast garlic?

Roasting garlic is an amazingly easy way to completely change the flavor of a favorite veggie and enhance the interest in your meals!

• It's unbeatable flavor:
  When roasted, garlic becomes sweet and surprisingly mellow, with a nice hint of smokey/roasted flavor that can't be matched by any other way of cooking garlic. It gets rid of any harshness that you may not like in raw garlic.
• It's easy:
  You can roast a whole head in the oven at once and you don't have to deal with peeling and mincing! When it's done, it's easy to squeeze it out and use it.
• Its texture is a dream:
  When roasted, the garlic cloves become soft and squish out of their skins easily like butter! It's a way to make it creamy and easily blended into things when minced would not work as nicely.
• It's healthy for you and more easily tolerated than raw garlic (for me at least!):
  Garlic has numerous health benefits. But, for some, like me, raw garlic is tough on the tummy. So I like it cooked! And with the roasted flavor I can practically eat it squeezed out of the skin after it's roasted! It's that good!

How to roast garlic

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees (actually anywhere between 350-400 works if you're already roasting something else)
2. Chop off the top tips of the garlic heads leaving the cloves exposed. Do not break apart the garlic cloves individually. Don't cut off too much to waste the garlic, but a little bit so it can be squeezed out later and get all roasty toasty! I aim for ¼ to ½ inch-ish.
3. Clean any outer layers of skin or loose paper off of garlic heads.
4. Place garlic heads cut side up on baking pan. Lined with foil is optional.
5. Drizzle a little olive oil over the heads. Sprinkle with salt. Cover with foil is optional.
6. Roast until soft, 30-45 min. Can roast up to 1 hour if you like it very soft and roasted tasting.
7. Squeeze out garlic inside or peel away peel depending on how soft it is.

Tip for storing roasted garlic: If you’re not going to use the roasted garlic immediately, store it in an airtight container with just enough olive oil to cover the cloves in the refrigerator for up to a week. Or, freeze mashed garlic or whole roasted cloves.

Delicious ways to use roasted garlic in recipes

First I'll start with a recent favorite recipe that's adaptable to any fall green you might have around.  It's delicious!

Sauteed Greens with Roasted Garlic

• 1 Tablespoon cooking oil
• 1/4 cup sliced onion
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, or kale, or 1/2 lb spinach, or any other fall green works well here, stems removed and reserved if edible (like Swiss chard or pac choi) and greens chopped into bite sized pieces
• hot chili flakes or fresh minced hot pepper, optional, to taste
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 to 1 head roasted garlic flesh, chopped or mashed depending on consistency
• balsamic vinegar, to taste

Heat oil in skillet on medium-high.  Add onion and Swiss chard stems or other stems from greens (because they take longer to cook).  Saute stirring until softening about 7 minutes.  Add chopped leafy greens, hot pepper if using, salt and pepper.  Saute until greens are tender, 5 mins approximately.  Add roasted garlic flesh, stir to incorporate for 2 minutes.  Turn off heat.  Drizzle on balsamic vinegar to taste.  Serve warm.

Here are some other ideas for using your roasted garlic with a few links to some of our family's favorite recipes:

• Mashed potatoes: check out my Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe here 
• Spread on bread: Toast bread and spread roasted garlic and a light sprinkling of salt on it... Mmmm!
• In sauces: Try making a homemade tomato sauce and adding roasted garlic. So good!  Or add it to a tahini sauce.  
• In soups: check out my Roasted Garlic and Buttercup Squash Soup recipe here 
• In homemade dips: try my Carrot Hummus (has roasted garlic in it) recipe here 
• In sheet pan meals: I'm obsessed with these and if you're making one throw on a head of garlic!
• In pasta dishes: mmm garlic and pasta, what could be better?  Roasted garlic and pasta! :)
• In everything! From stews to meatballs to lentils to salad dressings, the possibilities are endless and I have yet to try every way!

Please share with me your favorite way to use roasted garlic!

Comment below and let me know. I definitely want to try it!