Once you know how to roast garlic in olive oil, your cooking game will be elevated forever!
Simple ingredients cooked at low heat with a little bit of patience can really create something magical.
If you’re cooking for someone who isn’t a fan of garlic, they will likely prefer confit garlic.
The flavors are very mellow, warm, and creamy.
It’s nothing like the sharp, smelly, pungent characteristics of raw, fresh garlic.
While many people make roasted garlic by cutting the head off of whole garlic bulbs, drizzling some extra-virgin olive oil on it, wrapping it in aluminum foil, and popping it in the oven, there is a better way to roast garlic.
The best way to roast garlic cloves is to confit them!
This may sound fancy, but it is one of those easy recipes that can totally transform your cooking.
The good news is that you can prepare and confit the whole garlic cloves ahead of time and have them on hand for whenever you want an extra kick of flavor in your recipe.
Confit garlic would be a amazing topping on our Blue Cheese and Steak Pizza Recipe, as a spread on the bun of our Ultimate Mushroom Swiss Burger Recipe, or as a topping to this easy, yet gorgeous, Puff Pastry Fig Tart Recipe.
We have a Tupperware of them in the fridge for whenever we want to add an additional layer of flavor to our dishes.
Why Confit Garlic is Amazing
We’re calling this garlic confit recipe our hack of the year.
There are so many reasons why we’re obsessed with recipe:
- More Caramelized Flavor – Roasting the garlic in olive creates a warm, mellow, amazing flavor that has less of a pungent bite compared to fresh garlic.
- Smooth Consistency – By cooking the garlic for so long, it completely changes the texture of the garlic cloves. The confit garlic seems to “melt” and the texture of a garlic paste makes it easy to dissolve in sauces.
- Two Recipes in One – You also end up with garlic oil afterwards! Just refrigerate it and bring it to room temperature to enjoy it in your favorite recipes!
Confit Garlic Cooking Process
Here’s a hack: It’s wayyyyy easiest to just buy pre-peeled raw garlic cloves in the prepared produce area in grocery stores.
This method is a bit more expensive, but it will save you so much time having to peel dozens of individual cloves.
If you’re a glutton for punishment (or maybe are just looking to use up some extra garlic heads laying around), consider getting a garlic peeler cone tool to speed up the process of getting the sticky paper off of the cloves.
Once you have peeled garlic, you just need to pop them into a shallow, oven safe dish and cover them in olive oil.
It’s best to have the garlic rest on a single layer and not to have too much extra space in the container so that you’re not having to use too much olive oil to ensure they are fully covered in oil.
A small oven safe baking dish is a great option if you’re making 30-40 cloves at one time. If you’re making a smaller batch, you could also just use small oven safe glass storage containers with airtight lids to make this roasted garlic recipe with a single bulb of garlic. Then you save a dish because you can store them right in the same container!
Ways to Use Confit Garlic
If you’re a garlic lover you won’t be able to get enough of this recipe.
It’s an easy way to add perferly mellow balanced flavor to a number of dishes.
You can typically use more confit garlic in a recipe compared to cooking with raw garlic.
For example, we added fifteen, yes FIFTEEN roasted garlic cloves to our homemade alfredo recipe and it didn’t even seem overwhelming.
There are a number of different ways to incorporate confit garlic in your dishes, but here are a few of our favorite delicious ways to bring this roasted garlic into your dishes:
- Ultimate Mashed Potatoes – Spoon in loads of roasted garlic, add butter, and either sour cream or heavy whipping cream and you’ve got some heavenly taters.
- Pasta – Elevate any pasta dish by adding some of the garlic oil to the noodles or by adding the confit garlic to a cream sauce.
- Garlic Bread – The easiest recipe is to remove the garlic confit straight from the oven and smear a clove on some fresh bread. It should spread just like butter! Add a sprinkle of sea salt and you’ll be transported to Tuscany.
How to Store Confit Garlic and Garlic-Infused Olive Oil
Place the garlic and the garlic infused olive oil in an airtight container and keep it refrigerated.
The garlic should last for a week.
In order to stop any bacteria growth and to eliminate any risk of botulism it is important to note to NEVER store your garlic or garlic-infused olive oil at room temperature, per the USDA.
To safely store this recipe, put it in the fridge.
Note that the olive oil will solidify in the cooler temperature.
When you’re ready to use your garlic olive oil, take a few spoonfuls out of the fridge into a separate container.
Bringing it back to room temperature will transform the oil to its usual viscosity.
We like to use our garlic olive oil in a homemade salad dressing or as a flavorful way to sear meats and veggies.
Have some good crusty bread nearby? You can even enjoy it on its own by adding parmesan cheese, a pinch of salt, and black pepper and serving it as a simple dipping oil for warm bread.
Roasted Garlic in Olive Oil Recipe
Prep Time: 2 Minutes
Cook Time: 2 Hours
Ingredients:
- 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (more or less depending on your vessel size)
- 30-40 cloves of peeled garlic
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Directions:
- Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.
- Place garlic in a shallow baking dish.
- Cover the whole cloves with olive oil until fully submerged.
- Add a few sprigs of thyme to the baking vessel.
- Cook the oven-roasted garlic for 2 hours until the garlic cooks to be golden brown in color.
- Remove the thyme.
- Use immediately or store in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
Note: Garlic is a low-acid ingredient; it can produce a very serious toxin that causes botulism if not stored properly. Homemade garlic confit and garlic oil should immediately be stored in the refrigerator. It’s recommended that you use them within a week. Please use your own discretion.
Roasted Garlic in Olive Oil Recipe
Once you know how to roast garlic in olive oil, your cooking will be transformed. You'll get mellow, caramelized garlic AND garlic olive oil!
Ingredients
- 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (more or less depending on your vessel size)
- 30-40 cloves of peeled garlic
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 250 degrees F.
- Place garlic in a shallow baking dish.
- Cover the whole cloves with olive oil until fully submerged.
- Add a few sprigs of thyme to the baking vessel.
- Cook the oven-roasted garlic for 2 hours until the garlic cooks to be golden brown in color.
- Remove the thyme.
- Use immediately or store in the refrigerator in an air-tight container.
Notes
Note: Garlic is a low-acid ingredient; it can produce a very serious toxin that causes botulism if not stored properly. Homemade garlic confit and garlic oil should immediately be stored in the refrigerator. It’s recommended that you use them within a week. Please use your own discretion.
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