Roast garlic has to be my new favourite item in the kitchen that I can’t do without!
For the past few months, the smell of using fresh garlic bulbs in my cooking was so over-powering, I resorted to using asafoetida – an Indian garlic powder substitute – in my cooking. This is a great to use if you’re allergic to garlic or have stomach issues when you eat garlic.
It got to the point where I didn’t even want to look, smell or touch fresh garlic. The smell was enough to send me into a state! Even if someone had used it in their cooking, I would try it but I found I couldn’t tolerate it. It felt like the smell was with me for the rest of the day! But I adore garlic so much, what was a girl to do?
Sure asafoetida adds the flavour that was needed without the smell and there’s always some in the pantry, to use instead of garlic powder, but it wasn’t satisfying my garlic craving. Finally, I figured it out, why not try roasting the garlic? Roast garlic is a winner as it takes the pungency, rawness and crunchiness away that we relate with fresh, raw garlic. When it comes out of the oven, the garlic will be sweeter, slightly caramalised and delicate flavour, which is just lovely.
WARNING – your house will fill with the most amazing, moreish and mouth-watering aromas that will not only blow your mind but make you wonder why you hadn’t roasted garlic sooner!
So lets get roasting! It’s really simple and you needn’t put the oven on just to roast garlic. Cooking a Sunday roast? Wrap the garlic up and put it in at the same time – perfection!
PREP: 8 minutes COOK: 30-35 minutes MAKES: fills a 320 gram jar
INGREDIENTS:
3-4 heads of garlic
2-3 teaspoons EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
Sea salt
1 small jar
EVOO
Sprig of fresh rosemary
METHOD:
Heat oven to 200°C.
Slice the top off the head of garlic. Slice about 1-1.5 centimetres off the head of garlic to expose the garlic cloves.
Place the garlic heads in foil and drizzle with oil, adding a couple of pinches of salt.
Wrap up the garlic and roast in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
Check the garlic at 30 minutes. The garlic should be soft when gently squeezed. If it needs longer, check every 5-10 minutes. My garlic took 35 minutes. Depending on size, how old your garlic is and the variety of garlic could affect roasting times.
Ensure your jar has been sanitisied. Push the garlic cloves from their skins, squeezing the bottom of each garlic clove with your fingers and place into the jar. Add in the rosemary and cover with oil. Preserved roasted garlic for the win!
TIP – let the garlic cool completely down after you remove them from the oven before handling. The cloves should be soft to touch
Sure, squeezing the garlic is a little messy but definitely worth it.
Whenever a recipe calls for garlic, I just pull my jar of roast garlic out and add in one clove. It’s so much more subtle in flavour than raw garlic but so moreish.
I have stored my garlic in a jar, covered with EVOO* in the fridge.
Give it a try. I think you’ll be really surprised at how easy roasting garlic is and how much flavour can be added to any dish.
Stay tuned for my next post on how to turn roast garlic cloves into your own homemade minced garlic.
*Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Miss Food Fairy 
Great article keep it up. we are looking for another nice stuff.
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Thanks for dropping in Zulfiqar. Hope you find some other recipes or ideas that you may find useful.
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Oh what a terrible situation! I love garlic so much I couldn’t bear not to have it in my life! Glad that roasting helped you out. I love your tip to store the roasted garlic under oil. I’ve never done that.
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I love garlic too but just can’t stomach it anymore. Roast garlic is so much better in every possible way!! Let me know how you go Marcellina with trying the roast garlic in oil – you can even use the garlic oil on bread of in stirfries. The possibilities are endless. Thanks for stopping by, it wonderful having you here xx
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It was really weird! Anyway, roasted garlic tastes so much better! Thinking now about getting out the dehydrator and making garlic powder 🙂 Love having you here x
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Mmm roast garlic is the best!
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How good is it Aria! I’m a big fan now. Thanks for stopping by, love having you here x
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