How to Make Roasted Garlic

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Roasting garlic makes the sharp taste that garlic is infamous for completely mellow out. The garlic caramelizes and becomes mild and sweet. This recipe is a basic roasted garlic recipe, but once you have the technique down I encourage you to try different flavor variations.

Maybe you could drizzle some honey to accentuate the sweetness, or perhaps drizzle some balsamic vinegar (the aged syrupy stuff would be amaze balls). Or you could season it with savory spices and maybe sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it when it comes out of the oven. I’m drooling.

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Preheat your oven to 400F.

Then grab a nice big head of garlic and chop of a little bit of the top of the garlic. Just enough to expose all of the cloves.

Place the head of garlic in an oven safe container. I used a little cast iron skillet but if you’re roasting more than one head (of garlic, of course) a muffin pan works well.

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 Drizzle, (that’s my fav culinary term.. drizzle me baby ..eww) some olive oil on the exposed cloves.

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Here is your chance to let your imagination run wild. I used plain ol’ S&P but try any flavor you think would work well. The garlic flavor is going to really mellow out so you can go in lots of different directions. Don’t be scared. 

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Cover and pop it in the oven for 45 minutes. 

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That’s how it looks when it’s done. However, I think it could go a bit longer if you want more caramelization. Next time I will keep it in the oven for an hour and see how it turns out.

Once the garlic has cooled down enough to handle, squeeze the uncut end of the head of garlic and the cloves should all spill out easily.

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Spread on toast, use in salad dressing or mashed potatoes. Or you can use them to flavor sautéed spinach like I did. 

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