This easy oven-roasted garlic is incredibly versatile and delicious. We love to add it to soups, stews, butter, dips and sauces.
You know when you’ve made a dish and it’s just crying out for a burst of flavor? Sure, you can add salt and pepper, but that can only elevate a recipe so much. Roasted garlic is one of the most delicious foods and I love to keep some on hand in the kitchen. It’s much softer and flavorful than raw garlic (which is a pain to chop, anyway).
This roasted garlic becomes sweet and sticky, where raw garlic can be sharp and have some bite to it. That’s not to diminish the power of raw garlic. It has its place in several of my recipes. You know I love a garlicy recipe, like my garlic rolls, so perhaps I’m not exactly impartial. But that said, I love to roast a bit of garlic to change up the flavors of my meal, and it’s just so easy to do.
Ingredients
This simple and flavorful recipe using just two pantry staples:
- 5 heads of garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil
How to Make Easy Oven Roasted Garlic – The Steps
Step 1: Heat the oven to 350°F.
Step 2: Use a sharp knife to cut the tops off the garlic heads to expose all the cloves.
Step 3: Place the garlic in a cast iron skillet and drizzle with the olive oil, brushing the oil all over so the garlic is coated.
Step 4: Cover the skillet with foil and place in the middle of the oven to roast for 30 – 40 minutes or until you can feel that the garlic is oozy and soft.
Serving Suggestions
You can serve this easy oven-roasted garlic with anything you like. I love to spread a little on some warm, crusty bread (yes, it gets that soft). You can also mash this garlic into some garlic butter and serve it with a flank steak, mix it in with some mashed potatoes, or incorporate it into any recipe that calls for garlic. It gives such a unique flavor profile to any dish, which is why I always make a little extra.
Tips For Making The Best Oven-Roasted Garlic
- When you’re roasting your garlic, keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t overcook. It would take something like 2 hours to really scorch it, but if you do, it’ll be bitter and rendered useless.
- You can add some optional ingredients to your garlic before roasting in the oven. A little melted butter over the top, seasonings of your choice, or herbs can add incredible flavor to your oven roasted garlic.
- Be gentle with the garlic when you chop the tops off. Any excess skin should be peeled away lightly, but don’t go overboard. We’re roasting them whole to preserve all of that flavor inside. Enhance the taste even further by pairing it with dishes like roasted chicken and vegetables or baked potatoes with garlic herb sour cream.
FAQs
I like to just squeeze out the gooey cloves from their casing, but sometimes it is nice to have the cloves whole. If you have roasted the heads for long enough, you can take a blunt knife and slide it between the casing and the clove, and it will pop right out.
Absolutely, this recipe is easily scalable. You can make one or twenty heads using the same method and cooking time, as long as the garlic is in a single layer in the skillet.
You can wrap the garlic straight into the foil without using any pans, or you can use a baking tray.
How to Store Easy Oven-Roasted Garlic
With this much garlic, it’s unlikely that you’ll use it all in one go. To store it, remove the garlic from its skin and place the cloves into a mason jar or Tupperware container. Pour some olive oil over the top until the cloves are completely covered (this will keep them from drying out), and keep them in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
You can also freeze the cloves (without the olive oil) in a Ziplock bag. Just defrost the cloves ahead of time before you incorporate them into your next recipe.
Easy Oven-Roasted Garlic
Ingredients
- 5 heads of garlic
- 2 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F
- Use a sharp knife to cut the tops off the garlic heads to expose all the cloves.
- Place the garlic in a cast iron skillet and drizzle with the olive oil and brush the oil all over so the garlic is coated.
- Cover the skillet with foil and place in the middle of the oven to roast for 30 – 40 minutes or until you can feel that the garlic is oozy and soft.