Easy method for Quick Roasted Garlic Cloves! Perfect for when you want that roasted garlic flavor but are short on time - I love this for using up those smaller cloves leftover from a whole bulb of garlic too!
Today I'm gonna show you how to make Quick Roasted Garlic Cloves - I love this for using up those last smaller cloves at the center of the bulb!
Many of the most epic sauces, soups, and spreads owe their depth of flavor to one thing - roasted garlic cloves! Dried garlic powder is great in a pinch, but nothing compares to the taste of oven-roasted garlic. There’s just no substitute for that caramelized and complex flavor.
When I first started making roasted garlic, I used the classic whole bulb method – where you slice off the top, drizzle with oil, wrap in foil and pop into the oven. But it's nice to have a method for doing just a few cloves at a time, or getting a whole bulb done in less time.
In my experience, a whole bulb of garlic needs about 1 hour to properly roast and soften. The heat needs all that time to penetrate the tightly clustered cloves that are bundled together in that dense bulb.
But most of the recipes I make don’t account for an extra hour to prep just one of the ingredients involved. So I set out to experiment with the other methods out there – of which there are MANY. Like whoa. Lots and lots of methods to choose from. Everyone’s got their preferred way of doing it, a quick google search will reveal a plethora of techniques for the *best* way to roast garlic. Peels on, peels off. With salt, without salt. This oil, not that oil. Foil wrapped or open on top of a foil lined sheet tray. Medium or high oven temperature.
So I decided to try out a few to see what worked best for me and my kitchen routine.
And while I wouldn’t dare to claim that my method is the best-ever method, I will say that it is guaranteed to save you lots and lots of time! And that it will get you the coveted flavor and soft texture that you’re after. Every. Single. Time.
It’s so simple and straightforward, which makes it the ideal choice for busy folks.
I tried roasting the whole bulb at a higher temperature, but it didn’t turn out the same. Maybe it was my oven or maybe it was the size of the bulbs I used, but that method wasn’t coming out as a winner for me. And it shaved off only 10-15 minutes at most from the cook time.
Then I tried roasting peeled cloves, but didn’t love having to pick off the paper thin peels from each clove beforehand. It was messy and added extra time + hands-on labor -- the exact opposite of what I was hoping for. Plus the naked cloves were in contact with the foil and occasionally got stuck or a little overly cooked for my liking.
Finally, I saw Rachel Ray (the queen of 30-min meals) roast the individual cloves with the skins still on. Which spurred another virtual flurry of internet searches. As it turns out, a lot of people were totally on board with this technique. Everyone was raving about how much time it saved them and I was stoked to give it a try myself at home.
I gave it whirl, and was so happy to see that it produced results pretty darn similar to whole bulb roasted garlic. I’ve been sold on it ever since.
A whole head of garlic is encased in several layers of a thin white peel. But so is each and every clove contained within it. So roasting the smaller cloves for half the time produces pretty similar texture and taste results, with the clove encased in its own skin being shielded a little bit from the direct heat. Concentrating all that flavor inside the peel. I love that this method doesn’t force you to compromise on taste in order to save on time.
The peels pop off so easily after roasting (many of them cracking and bursting open towards the end of their cook time) making clean up a breeze. They come off like a shell, usually all in one piece instead of in multiple wispy strips. No more thin peels stuck to my fingertips or pungent garlic oil getting stuck under my fingernails. Hallelujah.
I don’t know about you but 30 min feels pretty manageable to me. It means I can pop the cloves in the oven and then start making and cooking the rest of the recipe. The entire time I’m chopping, sautéing, seasoning, stirring, or simmering the other recipe components – those little flavor bombs are getting good, gooey, and golden in the oven. By the time I’m ready to add them in, they’re ready to be used.
The one downside of this technique is that the little, thinner, skinny cloves that sit bundled at the very center of the bulb will get overcooked if you leave them in the oven for the full 30 minutes. So you can either remove these and just roast the juicy, plump ones (saving the little ones for chopping or grating up into stir fries or dressings). Or you can check on them after 15-20 minutes and pull them out before they burn. I included a picture here of the finished cloves (both the big ones and the little one) to show you how dried out and tough the small ones will get if left in the oven for too long.
Make sure you pierce each clove with a small knife before roasting to allow the air to escape (we've had some readers share with us that not doing so resulted in the cloves bursting and we'd hate for you to have a messy oven to clean up!).
You can use roasted garlic cloves in sauces, soups, spread on toast, blend into hummus…and the list goes on. I like roasting several bulbs of garlic at once. Then I can save them in a sealed container in the fridge for future cooking - saving me even more time later on. I store them in a glass lidded jar with a little more oil drizzled on top to keep them moist and protect both the flavor and texture.
These quick roasted garlic cloves are an irreplaceable addition to some of my absolute favorite recipes. I don’t make it every week but I find that when I do, it really brings a little extra somethin-somethin to my dishes. A little sneaky special quality.
Pin + save this recipe for later!
QUICK ROASTED GARLIC CLOVES
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 tbs avocado oil*
Instructions
- PREHEAT OVEN TO 350 DEGREES: And prepare a baking sheet with a small piece of foil.
- LOOSEN AND SEPARATE CLOVES: Use your hands to break up the head of garlic into individual cloves. Don’t peel the cloves of their skins but use your thumbs to remove the looser paper thin outer layers, just until you can see and easily break apart the cloves. If the cloves in the center are particularly small, consider setting them aside to grate as fresh garlic into pan-fried dishes (they may burn or overcook in the oven instead of softening). If you really want to roast these smaller ones, then you will need to keep an eye on them and take them out earlier - they will be done in about 15-20 minutes.
- PIERCE EACH CLOVE WITH A KNIFE: Make sure you pierce each clove with a small knife before roasting to allow the air to escape (we've had some readers share with us that not doing so resulted in the cloves bursting and we'd hate for you to have a messy oven to clean up!).
- ROAST GARLIC CLOVES: Place cloves (skin-on) onto the baking sheet and toss with avocado oil. Roast for 30 minutes, or until softened. You can press the back of a spoon (if cloves are very hot to the touch) or quickly and carefully press your finger onto a clove to see if it yields to the pressure and has softened enough. It should press down easily and stay pressed. You’ll also see that the papery skins have cracked open and you can easily pull them off.
J says
Success. My first attempt to roast garlic cloves was to use four garlic cloves that were close to the same size. I left the outside peel on each clove. Yet I did cut off the very bottom of the cloves so they could breathe (and not explode in the oven). I put the cloves on aluminum foil which was then on a baking sheet. And I coated each clove with olive oil. I roasted the cloves (my oven has a roast setting) at at 3:50° for a half hour. The result was the outside of the cloves were toasted with insides being squishy soft. I used the soft insides for a sauce.
Lauren Kenson says
Hi J! Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us! I'm so glad you enjoyed them, roasted garlic would be so delicious in a homemade sauce!
Rosie Feeback says
The instructions should have said to pierce each piece because they exploded in oven😩
Louise Richards says
I found that roast garlic, the whole bulb, cutting off the tops, smeared with butter, then wrapped in foil and then finally tossed on a bbq works best, and it only takes 1/2 hour...this is absolutely the best way to roast them. The butter adds a certain taste and enough salt to sweeten the garlic...give it a try, next time you use your bbq.
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Louise,
Thanks so much for sharing these tips with us, always love hearing what works for you at home!
Also makes me wish my HOA still allowed us to use bbq's! I miss all-things grilled!!
xo, Lauren
Louise Richards says
I hear ya...I don't, at least right now, don't have a bbq either. I use my oven, takes longer tho
Kristi says
First, thanks for sharing how you roast a few cloves, I was pretty sure it could be done easily but we all know how that goes in the kitchen! 😂 I usually roast a whole head at a time, but only have 1 and needed to divide it between 2 recipes , (1 using roasted and 1 not roasted)
Second, did I read your comment correctly that said you can’t bbq where you live? Oh my! I think that would ge a deal breaker for me if I had to abide by that! Hoping you have great friends that share their bbq!
Once again, thanks for sharing your tips!
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Kristi, so glad you found this helpful! I often find myself using just a few cloves here & there (for soups and stir fries during the week) and it's nice to have extra options to put the rest of the cloves to good use!!
And yes, we could only have very small (think: car camping) grills in our complex due to regulations for apartments so we sold our big grill. But we just bought our first home and having a grill again is definitely something we're looking forward to this summer!
Vicki Santa Maria says
Thank you, this was much faster. I used this recipe to get rid of sprouting garlic, and it took only a few minutes, closer to 15 minutes.
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Vicki!
I'm so glad you found this method helpful, thank you so much for taking time to share your experience here with us.
If you enjoyed this how-to post, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a star rating. 5-star ratings help me know what you'd like to see more of and helps other people find what they need too.
With thanks,
Lauren
Emily says
This didn’t work for me at all. The cloves all ended up dried out and I found it impossible to separate the skins to get to the good stuff. I even cooked it for less time and took them out when they were soft smooshed under a spoon. Bummer!
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Emily!
I'm so sorry this method didn't end up working out for you, and so appreciate your feedback.
Happy to help troubleshoot with you if you want to send me an email at [email protected] - would love to learn more about your experience with this & what happened. This many years into sharing recipes, I know that what works for me in my home may not always work for 100% of others in theirs. Let me know if you're open to it!
xo, Lauren
Rosie Feeback says
I agree with Emily! Not only did the garlic explode in the oven (should have pierced them)
they were dry and it was difficult to separate.
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Rosie, you're right I should've specified those directions in the recipe card - I've now added them to clear that up. Thank you so much for taking time to share your experience with us so we can help people have better success with this one going forward!
Heidi says
Can you freeze the roasted garlic? I had a ton of fresh garlic that I didn’t want to go bad so I just roasted it per your recipe 😊 Thank you!
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Heidi!
You absolutely can freeze roasted garlic - such a good idea to have easy flavor to add to dishes later on too!!
I recommend removing the papery skins first from the cloves. And then freezing the whole cloves on a small tray first before adding them all to a freezer-safe bag for long-term freezer storage
xo, Lauren
Joanne Pendowski says
Thank you for exactly what I was looking to do with a few cloves. It is summer and I’m not keen on heating up my whole house, have you ever tried doing this in a toaster oven. Next weeks menu has an attempt at homemade hummus and was going to split the batch between roasted garlic and plain to make everybody happy.
Thanks
Lauren Kenson says
Hey Joanne! It's been such a hot summer, I know what you mean!! Chilled roasted garlic hummus sounds perfect
I haven't tried this yet in a toaster oven (ours is a bit on the fritz) but if you end up trying it out, please pop back here and let us know how that goes for you! I know other readers would love to know
xo, Lauren
Barb Vogel says
Do you refrigerate in the sealed container or leave on the kitchen shelf?
Lauren Kenson says
Hi Barb - I refrigerate my roasted garlic! I just store it in a sealed glass container in the fridge. Does well for up to a week or so. Highly recommend storing it by drizzling some olive oil on top (bonus: it ends up infusing your olive oil with all that garlicky goodness, which is so good drizzled on pasta or in dressings!!)
-Lauren