Roasted Garlic
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Prep Time: 2 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
For thousands of years, cultures around the world have been prescribing garlic to fix health woes. Garlic was even given to the original Olympic athletes to improve performance. Modern day medicine has discovered many of garlic’s health benefits are from sulfur containing allicin, the compound which gives garlic its distinctive (and delicious) smell. Try our recipe for roasted garlic for a delicious and savory addition to your diet.
Why should you add more garlic to your diet? Well first, as you know, it’s delicious, but it’s also been shown to help improve blood pressure, reduce the odds of catching a cold, reduce the length of colds, improve cholesterol, reduce the risk of alzheimer's and dementia… the list goes on and on. If you're sold, try adding two cloves of garlic to your diet a day, which is about the average amount of garlic used in these studies.
In order to get the most bang for your bite, let crushed or chopped garlic sit for 10 minutes before cooking, which allows enzymes to create more health promoting allicin. If you have a stomach (and mouth) of steel, try eating garlic raw. You can also find ways to add raw garlic into your diet, like in salsa, hummus, or salad dressing, or try our recipe below to roast whole heads of garlic. Pop directly in your mouth, add to other dishes like pastas or sauteed greens, or smear over whole grain bread for a delicious snack.
- Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400°F.
Remove the papery outer layers of the whole garlic bulb, leaving the skins on the individual cloves of garlic.
Using a sharp knife, cut about a 1/4 inch off the top of bulb to expose each clove.
Drizzle each bulb with olive oil and use fingers to coat bulb. Wrap each bulb in aluminum foil, top side up
Bake at 400°F for 30-35 minutes, or until cloves are soft when pressed.
Allow garlic to cool until it is comfortable to touch. Use a knife to cut out each clove or squeeze out cloves gently with fingers.
Eat warm straight from the bulb or mash with a fork to add to your meal. This is delicious spread over bread with a bit of butter. Try adding roasted garlic to pasta, soups, baked potatoes or tossed in sauteed greens. The combinations are endless!
