Roasted Garlic Spread

The power of transformation. We, just as we do with food, can transform ourselves into whatever we desire. If there are things in our life that we don’t like, good news! We can change that. We have the power to be as great as we would like, as awesome as we can imagine and as incredible as to even help make a positive change in others. Believe that you are strong enough to leave the comfort zone, let’s not be shackled by fear. I trust in the power that I have to say no and change what needs to be changed. I am strong enough to kick the negative voices out of my head and work on becoming a better me. Do you want to change something in your life? Take action, add heat to your heart and look up into the sky; help is coming.

Talking about adding a little heat and transforming into a better you, take a look at this garlic transformation. We are going to take raw, spicy, solid garlic, add 400° of heat for 45 minutes and it will become a smooth, sweet and incredibly good spread.

Start by chopping the top of the garlic bulbs. Add olive oil, salt and pepper. Cover with aluminum foil and bake.

Look at this beauty all transformed.

The garlic will come out soft as butter. You can pick it out with a fork or squeeze it out with a knife.

If you have not tried this before let me tell you, the garlic transforms into a sweet, flavorful paste that can be eaten as is without the spicy taste of raw garlic.

This is a very versatile idea as you can use the roasted garlic to add to butter for your garlic bread, you can spread it as is on a toast, add it to sour cream for your potatoes, flavor pasta, rub on a steak. Ooooh the infinite uses of roasted garlic.

Ingredients

3 garlic heads (or as many you would like)

Olive oil enough to drizzle and cover the heads

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Peel the outer layers of the garlic bulb skin, leaving the skins of the individual cloves intact.

Using a knife, cut off 1/2 inch of the top of the bulbs, exposing the individual cloves of garlic.

Place the garlic heads in a oven safe container.

Drizzle a couple teaspoons of olive oil over each head, massage with your fingers to make sure the garlic head is well coated.

Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper to lightly cover the top.

Cover oven safe container with aluminum foil.

Bake at 400°F for 45 minutes, or until the cloves feel soft when pressed.

Use a fork or a knife to pull or squeeze the roasted garlic cloves.

TIP

To store and reuse roasted garlic you can either:

  • Squeeze the cloves  out and once cooled place them in a air tight container with olive oil (enough to cover them). They will keep for 2 or 3 weeks max in the fridge and you will be able to use the garlic infused olive oil too.
  • Make compound butter. Mash the cloves and combine them with salt and softened butter. You can form it into a log, wrap it with plastic wrap and put in the freezer.

You can use the cloves, oil and butter to add flavor to any dish.

Category : Appetizers, Spreads
Tags : , , , , ,