Roasted Garlic

You may remember a little while back I attended a Middle Eastern cooking class. One of the recipes highlighted in the class was Hummus, which is a staple in our house. While we enjoy an array of Hummus variations, especially recipes with roasted red peppers, pine nuts, and/or cilantro, it is important to start with a solid, classic Hummus recipe.

Whether you are making a classic version or a jazzed up version of Hummus, you need roasted garlic. It is a must! Well, that's not true...you could toast the garlic instead. We talked about that here. Either roasting or toasting will do, we just don't want raw garlic.

Here is a standard roasted garlic recipe from The Pioneer Woman. Don't forget to throw in some extra heads of garlic if you anticipate making Garlic Mashed Potatoes or Garlic Bread in the next few days!

INGREDIENTS:

6 garlic heads

Olive oil

Kosher salt

Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut off the top of each garlic head, exposing all of the garlic cloves.

2. Drizzle pan with 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Place garlic heads in pan and drizzle exposed garlic cloves with another 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil.


3. Season generously with Kosher salt and ground pepper.

4. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes. Remove from oven, uncover, and allow heads to cool.

5. When heads are cool enough to handle, gently apply pressure to bottom of bulb to release cloves. The cloves should easily slide up and out of its head.

You can always use a fork to get out any of the stubborn cloves that want to just stay put.

6. Continue the same process with each garlic head, and wha-la, with very little effort you have a pile of roasted garlic just waiting for you to add them to Hummus, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, or Garlic Bread.