Barbecue Roasted Garlic

Lesson learned. Don't blog for a few days and family members will phone to check up on you.

I'm fine. Really. I haven't succumbed to swine flu, only the temptations of summer. Truth be told, I've been playing hooky with my barbecue ? I mean grill.

Our house can't take the heat of the oven once the warm weather hits, so we're cooking everything we can outdoors. I needed some roasted garlic for a recipe I'm developing and couldn't bear to crank up the stove for such a small item. So, since I was roasting some red peppers on the grill I cooked up the garlic, too.

Now, I'll confess. I don't actually like roasted garlic on its own. I know, it's sweet and far milder than its uncooked counterpart. But there's something pasty about the texture. But mash it into a dip in lieu of raw garlic? I'm there!

Since I wasn't sure if garlic would roast well on a grill, I cooked only one bulb. And it worked like a charm. See? Soft but still perfectly whole.

To roast the garlic without burning, I put the peppers directly on the grill one side over a flame and the garlic on the upper rack on the other side with the heat turned off. While I only tested this technique on a single bulb of garlic, you can roast more, just wrap them individually.

I'll get to the recipe in a minute, but I'm curious. Do you use roasted garlic? If so, how? If not, are you turned off by the texture like I am? Or is roasted garlic not on your radar?

Grill-Roasted Garlic

Printable Recipe

If you don't have a gas grill, you can get the same results in a standard oven set to 350°F.

Ingredients

Whole head of garlic

Olive or canola oil

Instructions

Preheat grill with one burner set to medium.

Cut the top of the garlic off with a sharp knife.

Place the garlic on a piece of aluminum foil large enough to envelope the whole bulb.

Drizzle lightly with oil.

Wrap the garlic tightly and place on the upper rack of your gas grill on the side WITHOUT the flame.

Close the lid and let the garlic roast for 30 minutes or until the garlic is soft.