The Best Way To Roast Garlic When You're Short On Time

There is no defined list as to what the seven wonders of the food world are. Contenders range from honey and salt, to cacao and tomatoes. But we reckon there's one ingredient that should most definitely have a place there: garlic. With over 700 species of garlic in the world, this aromatic vegetable has been used for centuries. Its delicious flesh enhances dishes across all genres of cooking, from simple pasta with garlic butter to complex and layered meat dishes. And one of the absolute best ways to cook your fresh garlic is by roasting it. 

Roasting encourages the astringent bitterness of the garlic to mellow out, and enhances the buttery sweetness that is so good in other food. You can roast the whole head of garlic as it is, with a drizzle of olive oil, wrapped in a tin foil pouch — but while this is a wonderful way to roast your garlic, it's not the quickest. This is because the heat starts off on the outside and has to penetrate all the way through to the inner cloves. This can sometimes leave the outside ones a tad dry, while the small inside cloves are still a bit raw. Also, it can take over an hour, including prep and roasting time.

If you're short on time but have to have that garlicky goodness in your dish, luckily there's a much quicker way. All you need to do is separate the cloves and roast them in their little skins. It delivers all the flavor, but without any fuss — and it's so easy to do.

Roasting garlic cloves with the skins on is significantly faster than doing it whole — it takes only around half an hour rather than an hour or so. All you need to do is break your bulb of garlic apart into its separate cloves. Remove the tinier ones — or if you want to roast those with the batch, just keep a close eye on them during the roasting process. But be sure to keep the little skins on the cloves. Exactly the same as with the whole bulb, the skins provide a protective layer that keeps the moisture in while allowing the cloves to soften and roast without becoming dry.

To roast them, toss the cloves in a little bit of olive oil, and pop them onto a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper. Pierce each clove once to allow steam to escape, then put them into a preheated oven of 350 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 30 minutes. Depending on their size, the cloves could even be done in as little as 15 minutes, so be sure to watch them so they don't burn.

When they're done, you'll find that the skins slide off the individual cloves quite easily, leaving you to squeeze the soft and buttery inside out into whatever dish you're adding them to. Try adding the roasted garlic to sauces or dips, or use it to make a rich garlic butter.