Has this ever happened to you? You see a recipe that looks awesome, and set about gathering your ingredients, only to discover that one of said ingredients is roasted garlic. What the what? Now you’ve just added 45 minutes to the cooking time. Plus you are out of garlic. Sigh.
Never again! I’ve got a great method to share with you to roast garlic in bulk and freeze it for use in recipes later! And away we go………..
Garlic. Just look at it. All those cloves threatening your love life with their breath-busting power. We will roast you into sweet savory submission, garlic!
And lo, I say unto you, wrap each head of garlic in a piece of foil and place it on a baking sheet. Place said baking sheet in an oven preheated to 375 F. 45 minutes later, roasted garlic deliciousness will be yours for the freezing.
What once was pungent and biting is now soft, mellow, and oh so tasty.
And now to remove the garlic from its papery sheath. Most instructions call for lopping off the top of the bulb with a knife to expose the cloves and push them out. But I like to go against the grain and decided to try cutting off the bottom to expose more surface area, thinking the garlic would come out easier.
Turns out? It doesn’t matter. It’s sticky, squishy, and messy, no matter which way you go about it. But kind of fun!
Into the freezer with you, garlic! Each bulb fills one cavity in a standard ice cube tray. I’ve also had my eye on this jumbo one from Amazon, because it’s well, jumbo. And apparently it makes ice cubes for cocktails that are really slow to melt (a good thing). Not that I can have cocktails right now (all about that baby). I’m just telling you it’s an option. And do you want to hear a confession? I’m pretty sure that Michael bought one for me a year ago, but I don’t know where it is. Who wants to bet I’ll find it before I break down and buy another one?
Once the garlic has had some time in the freezer to firm up (an hour or so is all it takes), you can pop them out and freeze them all together in a zip-top bag. Then, you can have roasted garlic any time you want! I already need to roast more because I think I only have one or two cubes/heads left. Cubehead? Headcube? Bulbcube? I don’t know. Whatever makes you happy.
So now you know how you too can have all of this delicious roasted garlic on hand just waiting to be used in a tasty dish. What are you waiting for? Go roast some heads! That sounds weird. But you should still do it.
How to Roast Garlic (and freeze it!)
Ingredients
- 6-12 garlic heads (or however many you have!)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Wrap each head of garlic in foil
- Roast for 45 minutes
- Let cool, then squeeze the cloves out of the husk
- Pile the cloves from each bulb into an ice cube tray (one bulb per cube)
- Freeze for one hour or longer, then pop out the cubes and store in a zip-top bag in the freezer.
I still am amazed that an entire head is one cube! I really need to do this, because roast garlic is just THEE best (actually, take that back…roast *anything* is just THEE best :P)!! And I love the easy convenience of frozen ready-to-use ingredients. 🙂
Wow, I’m impressed. I would never have thought to do that, but I’m excited to try it now! I’ve always dreamed of being in a world where garlic wasn’t so intense, and you’ve opened up that reality for me. Good luck with finding the jumbo tray. Probably just buy a new one.
That is such a great idea that I’ve never considered. Putting this on my kitchen projects list. Thanks!
Ya you are right for this jumbo one. I don’t think this is so easy to cook but you are the one who can make it easier. The roasted garlic are delicious…
Roasted garlic is a great addition to many recipes and having it available at a moment’s notice out of the freezer is very convenient. How long should one expect the frozen roasted garlic to retain its qualities in the freezer? Does the roasted garlic initially lose some of its quality upon freezing?