How to Roast Garlic - Home Cooking Memories (2024)

When my husband and I were first married, I never cooked with garlic. It’s not because I didn’t want to…it was because Davidcouldn’t handle it. None of my cooking used it. Well, except spaghetti sauce, but David has always been the spaghetti sauce maker in our house and he would use some garlic powder in that. That’s all though.

The reasons for his dislike of garlic was that his grandmother made a baked chicken recipe that used “tons” of garlic powder. He says she made it a couple times a month. I just now verified this with him this one last time:

Me: “seriously, she made it a couple times a month?”

Him: “yes, seriously.”

Me: “did you eat itevery timeshe made it, or did you get to point where you avoided it?”

Him: “I was older, so when I knew she was making it, I just didn’t come home.”

I just started laughing hysterically. I just find that so funny. He told me that he couldn’t tolerate the smell of her baked garlic chicken, so he didn’t even want to be in the house.

See…not all food memories are happy, but I still love hearing his story and our kids find great humor in it all too.

Fast forward to today: it took many years, but David no longer has garlic issues. I can use garlic in pretty much anything and he’s a-okay.

The real test came though when I learned how to roast garlic.

I personally think that roasted garlic is one of the most wonderful things. It’s so simple, but SO good. I can eat roasted garlic right out of the garlic head.

When I started roasting garlic, I asked David to try it. He was hesitant because anytime he has had garlic, it was part of a recipe with lots of other ingredients. Not just a single clove of garlic. But, with all my charm, I convinced him to try it. He did…and he said it was was really good and so much different than he thought it would be. He had no clue that roasted garlic could be so amazing.

Roasting your own garlic is SOOOO easy. If you’ve never done it, you’ll be amazing as how simple it is.

Take a head of garlic, and cut off the top quarter or so of your garlic head.

Set your topless garlic head on a piece of foil that will be big enough to wrap around it. Drizzle the top with some olive oil. I don’t measure, but I would say I use about 1-2 teaspoons of olive oil — just depends on the size of the garlic head.

Wrap the foil up and around garlic head. Be sure to pay attention to keeping the top (cut area) of the garlic head upright. Preheat your own to 400 degrees F, set your garlic bundle right on your oven rack, and bakefor about 35-40 minutes (or until tender).

Remove from the oven and carefully open your foil bundle. Inside, you should have a glorious head of roasted garlic. If you poke the cloves with a fork, they should very soft and tender. You can now squeeze out the roasted garlic or do like I do: I take a small knife or fork and pop out each of the cloves. Discard the skins once you get all of your garlic out of it.

You can eat roasted garlic right out of the garlic head, but I also like it on bread or crackers. My most favorite way of using roasted garlic is in mashed potatoes. Oh yes…amazing.

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