Just prior to Christmas, I did a couple of jobs which had me buying a lot of garlic. When I say a lot, I mean literally dozens of heads! Of course, I gave away as much as I could but the majority came home with me. I am not one to toss perfectly good food in the bin, so I decided to roast the heads and freeze them for quick additions to sauces and soups. Now, I must say that this idea is genius because roasted garlic is so tasty and having some quick at hand makes it easy to add another level of flavour without the harshness of raw garlic. Over the holidays, we got together with our wonderful neighbours and I made this delicious roasted garlic dip.
Now there is that cold winter light!
Roasted Garlic Dip
A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe
Serves 6-8, makes about 300 mL
To print recipe, please click here.
Ingredients:
- 200 g roasted garlic (about 4 heads)
- 125 g cream cheese, room temperature
- 50 g Greek Yogurt
- Sea salt to taste
Directions:
- In a small bowl large enough to accommodate a stick blender, combine all of the ingredients and purée until smooth and silky.
- Serve at room temperature.
Notes:
- I roast garlic by cutting off the bottom of the head (the root end) and setting it in about 30 mL of olive oil. I like to cover the garlic I roast so it steams and roasts at the same time. I roast the garlic in a 350° F oven for about 45 minutes or until they are very soft.
- To extract the garlic, simply squeeze each clove into a container.
- Some people add freshly grated Parmesan to this dip but I find it rich enough without it.
- Save the cut ends of the garlic for soup stock.
This dip would also be a tasty cream sauce for pasta.
Kitcheninspirations 
Having roasted garlic in the freezer is a great idea.
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I couldn’t agree more with your thinking. I usually roast any leftover garlic. Sealed tightly (in glass, which won’t absorb the scent), it keeps quite some time in the fridge. In many dishes that call for garlic, roasted garlic is a nice sub – sometimes even preferable. Your dip sounds delicious, but it makes me wonder why I haven’t made a buttermilk ranch dressing with my roasted garlic???
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I know your buttermilk dressing and have been vying to make it. Using roasted garlic is much more subtle than the harsh flavour of raw, particularly in a dressing. I hope you love it. Thank you kindly for your comment.
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Eva, this dip sounds amazing. I wonder how many garlic heads have you got… we go through two big heads a week at least… If you have some more garlic, I’d dry it and powder it (nothing beats home-dried garlic!) or marinate it in soy sauce, Korean way (no chilli, I posted this recipe some time ago). It becomes almost black after several months and is sooooo good! It keeps for years in the fridge too!
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Hi Sissi, thank you for your comment. I roasted all of the garlic I had from the shoot, but I still have about 10 small, organic heads which I will try your drying technique on. The radiators are running full-blast these days! Do you slice them thinly for drying?
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Hi Eva, I slice the garlic, but not very thinly… I’m too lazy 🙂
Yes, I remember now you also have radiators! Good luck!
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What a simple, delicious dip! Having a stash of roasted garlic in the freezer is brilliant. I love adding it to soups….and now, dips 🙂
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Thank you kindly Liz, I’m running down on my stash so I’ll have to buy garlic again!
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I love this idea and have been meaning to try the experiment. My friend MJ makes a roasted garlic/feta dip that I’ve had my eye on but I also like your idea of a soft creamed cheese. Roasting garlic is so easy and as you say it takes down the sting which is especially welcome in dips (raw would be over the top, at least for me, in that form). Thank you for the inspiration Eva! Stay warm lovely.
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Thank you for your lovely words Kelly, it really was a tasty dip and having the extra roasted cloves in the freezer just adds a lovely nutty and subtle garlic flavour to everything and anything. Using feta sounds great too. We discovered a wonderful feta from Greece (often you can only get the Greek-Style, which just doesn’t cut it for me). It’s the Krinos brand of Sheep and Goats milk, so delicious!
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Love garlic! Dozens of heads might be just about enough. 😀 Wonderful looking dip — definitely my kind of dish. Thanks!
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Thanks John, it certainly was a keeper.
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Mmm I love garlic and would adore this dip! If you still have some left you could also make toum (although it’s so difficult and I have never perfected it-one day! 🙂 ).
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I’ve not heard of toum, thank you for the tip. I still have a lot of roasted garlic left over, it would probably make a wonderful sauce!
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You know I’ve never tried roasting a full head of garlic before?
I’ve never enjoyed the residual garlicky smell and taste in my mouth so I always use it in conservative quantities but when i read when you said, roasting it and then storing it in the freezer doesn’t render that typical overpowering taste effect – now I’m very curious…
Next time I get a head of garlic, I’m doing this 🙂
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Roasting definitely tempers the taste and brings out a nuttiness that you don’t detect in raw garlic. I hope you like the result.
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I sure like roast garlic and it would indeed be great to have it around all the time. Which I rarely do. I do have a shortcut however and that’s garlic confit. It’s easy to poach just a few cloves at a time in olive. It’s not as luxurious as roasted, but still achieves some of the same goals. GREG
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Thanks for the tip, Greg, I did some garlic confit for a chef on a local talk show recently. He even used the garlic infused olive oil in his recipe, it made for very subtle garlic flavour.
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We would LOVE this too! 200grams of roasted garlic….I can only imagine how aromatic and delicious dip would be!
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Thanks Angie. It was a tasty dip and not overly garlic-flavoured!
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