Oven-Roasted Garlic: Simple Method for Rich, Sweet Flavor

This simple guide to roasting garlic in the oven produces soft, buttery cloves with a caramelized, mellow flavor. Make a few heads for tonight or roast a larger batch to freeze for quick meals and easy flavor boosts all year.

Be warned: roasted garlic is addictive. Once you try this method you’ll want to add those spreadable, sweet cloves to bread, sauces, mashed vegetables, dressings and more.

Oven Roasted Garlic

Ingredients you’ll need

1. Fresh whole garlic bulbs
2. Extra virgin olive oil
3. Salt and black pepper
4. Aluminum foil and a baking dish or sheet, or a small high-sided baking dish with a tight-fitting lid
5. Optional: sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme

How to Choose Fresh Garlic

Inspect each head: the papery skin should be tight, the bulb should feel heavy for its size, and the cloves should be firm and snug against the stem. Avoid heads that feel light, soft, hollow, or have discolored, loose skin.

Buying garlic from local farmers in season and storing it properly lets you keep a supply through the winter.

How to Store Fresh Garlic

To keep whole garlic heads fresh, store them unpeeled in a cool, dry, dark place with good air circulation. Practical storage ideas:

1. Drop heads into pantyhose legs, tie between each bulb, and hang in a cool, dark spot.
2. Keep garlic in mesh bags in a cool pantry or cabinet.
3. Hang mesh bags from a hook or beam in a basement or cellar.
4. Store in a mesh bowl under an overturned clay pot in a cool place.

Store garlic properly — avoid these mistakes:

1. Do not refrigerate whole garlic bulbs. Cold changes the flavor and can make cloves soft. If you have leftover chopped garlic, wrap it tightly and use within 24 hours.
2. Avoid freezing raw garlic. Freezing ruins the texture. Roasted garlic, however, freezes very well.

How Long Does Fresh Garlic Last

Stored unpeeled under the conditions above, whole garlic bulbs can last up to six months.

If you roast extra heads, you can freeze the cooked cloves for longer-term convenience. Roasted garlic keeps its texture and flavor in the freezer much better than raw garlic.

Roasted garlic becomes sweet, mellow and spreadable with much less of the pungent bite of raw garlic. Use it many ways: stirred into dressings, whipped into dips, folded into mashed potatoes, spread on warm bread, mixed with butter for garlic bread, or blended into soups and sauces.

Here are some popular uses: whipped feta with roasted garlic, cauliflower puree, artichoke and goat cheese fondue, spinach alfredo lasagna, and rustic sourdough boule. You can also portion roasted cloves into teaspoons, tablespoons, or ice cube trays for easy use later.

How to Roast Garlic in the Oven

Follow these simple steps to roast garlic.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Trim any dry bits from the root end of each garlic bulb and brush away loose papery layers without separating the cloves so the bulb remains intact and stands steadily.

Lay a bulb on its side and, with a sharp knife, slice about 1/4 inch from the flower end to expose the tops of the cloves.

Line a small baking dish or sheet pan with a piece of aluminum foil twice the size of the dish. Place the garlic heads, cut side up, in the prepared dish. If you prefer not to use foil, use a snug high-sided dish with a tight-fitting lid.

Drizzle olive oil evenly over the exposed cloves and sprinkle with kosher salt and cracked black pepper. Add a sprig of rosemary or thyme on top if desired.

Bring the foil up around the garlic and crimp it closed, or secure the lid on the baking dish. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour (larger batches may take longer) until the cloves are deep golden and very soft.

Allow the garlic to rest a few minutes until it’s cool enough to handle. To extract the cloves, invert the head and squeeze from the root end toward the cut end— the roasted cloves should slide out easily like toothpaste.