This week I was inspired as I so often seem to be, by necessity–a forgotten bag of garlic bulbs languishing in a corner, threatening to send out little green sprouts if I didn’t deal with them, stat. What to do with a ton of garlic? Roast it. Such an easy thing to do, and then you have a versatile ingredient hanging around that will not sprout. To roast garlic, simply slice off the upper part of the bulb to expose the cloves, then place the bulbs, cut-sides-up, in a piece of foil and drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Wrap up the foil and place it in a preheated 375 oven and roast for an hour, or until the garlic is soft and caramelized. Serve warm with bread, feta, and roasted red peppers in balsamic, as above, or make this wonderful sandwich spread that makes a fast lunchbox meal.
I used the spread in a flour tortilla, along with a good handful of baby greens, and it made a delicious wrap. Here is the recipe:
Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Spread with Roasted Garlic
1 cup roasted red peppers, drained
1 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained
1 cup English walnut halves
1 whole bulb of roasted garlic, squeezed out of the skins*
8 ounces light cream cheese
pinch of salt
Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you have a slightly chunky spread. You may halve all amounts if you want less on hand, but it goes fast as a dip and spread. Also great on baked potatoes!
*You can do this in one fell swoop if the garlic is well-roasted–just grasp the whole bulb by the base and squeeze all of the garlic right into the food processor.
Thanks for reading,
-Angela
Sigh … 🙂 What a perfect lunch that would make!
Great sounding spread, I am making this for sure. How long do you think this spread would store?
It lasts about a week–it doesn't freeze well, unfortunately.
Ah clever.. I always have tons of garlic leftover… (also because in Asia you can buy bottled pre-chopped fresh garlic, so in my laziness I always end up using that instead of my whole garlic)