I’ve always made roasted garlic in the oven, which can take an hour or so. But, did you know you can make roasted garlic in the microwave in just a few minutes? I just love garlic, especially roasted garlic, and this method makes it quick and simple when you need to add it to a dish like Garlic Mashed Potatoes.
I make up a batch at a time and keep it in the fridge in some olive oil. It’s amazing as a burger topping or in mashed potatoes, chopped up into garlic butter sauce, spaghetti, meatballs, and more. It’s so easy to make.
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How do you Roast Garlic in the Microwave?
My microwave is 1000 watts, so the time might be different for you. You can download the FREE Microwave Power Conversion Time Chart from the banner at the very top of the blog or you might need to experiment. It took me a few tries to get the right time.
After it’s cooked, you want the garlic to easily squeeze out of the cloves so that it’s soft and can easily be mashed.
Making roasted garlic this way won’t be quite so aromatic or turn very brown as when roasted in the oven. The flavor also won’t be as pungent. I still found it absolutely delicious, especially smashed on a piece of crusty bread. It’s a total time saver shortcut when you need roasted garlic or just regular garlic in a recipe because usually it takes about an hour to roast garlic in an oven.
Depending on the recipe, you might need to mash the garlic or mince it or chop it. All of that will be super easy once the garlic is softened by roasting.
How do you store freshly Roasted Garlic?
I use a small plastic container and gently squeeze all the garlic pieces I can out of the garlic head. The garlic is soft, so it can sometimes be a challenge to squeeze them out whole and not squished. Sometimes, they do squeeze out squished or mashed, but those garlic pieces are definitely still usable.
Once you’ve squeezed them all out, make sure none still have the papery skin on them. Then throw all the papery part of the head away.
Douse the garlic in olive oil. I usually fill the container so that the garlic is completely covered in olive oil. Keep the container tightly covered and in the fridge. The roasted garlic will last about 1-2 weeks.
Don’t waste the olive oil when you’ve used up all the garlic because you’ll then have amazing Garlic infused Olive Oil, which tastes amazing and is perfect to add to Italian food or salad dressing.
Microwave Recipes for Roasted Garlic
- Microwave Cheesy Ravioli Lasagna with Meat Sauce
- Angel Hair Pasta in the Microwave
- Microwave Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo Pasta Bake
- Garlic Butter Sauce in the Microwave
- 3-Ingredient Lazy Man Lasagna in the Microwave
- Microwave Lasagna for One
- Microwave Baked Ziti Pasta for One Serving
- Simple Tomato Salad
Roasted Garlic in the Microwave
Ingredients
- 1 head of garlic
- 2 tablespoons water
- olive oil
Instructions
- Cut the top off the garlic so that the tops of the garlic are exposed in the cloves.
- Put it in a small shallow dish, cut side up.
- Add the water around the garlic.
- Generously drizzle olive oil over the top so that the garlic has been completely covered.
- Set the microwave to 40% power.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- As soon as the garlic is done, remove it from the microwave.
- Using a potholder or towel, remove the garlic from the bowl and gently squeeze the garlic from the cloves into a clean bowl or plate.
- Use it immediately or store it in olive oil in a sealed container for up to a week.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
3 clovesServing Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 55Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 2mgCarbohydrates: 3gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 1g
Any nutritional information on justmicrowaveit.com should only be used as a general guideline. This information is provided as a courtesy and there is no guarantee that the information will be completely accurate.
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11 comments
Thankyou. So much. I m going to try. Garlic. In microwave. Your way. I tried. Just. By itself once. And microwave sparked !!! I read later. It can. Blow up microwave. So never did it again. But thought. There must be a way ? I think i found it. In you 💝⭐️🤣
Do you know. Can you bake garlic. In. A. Toaster oven. Or not. Powerful enough ? Thankyou. Yum
Fucking piece of shit, recipe does not work – burnt two heads of garlic.
Do not use this method! I almost burnt my house and now had 2nd degree burns on my face and arms from trying this! DO NOT TRY!!
Wow next time I’ll do my research! You are a terrible person
Exploded in microwave. What a mess!!
Never, never, never reccommend heating oil and water together, IT WILL SPARK; thats like cooking 101, there is an error in this recipe pls fix it.
Holy shit how fucking dangerous. The amount of smoke pouring out of my microwave and into my lungs is unreal. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I should have read the comments. I cooked on a lower 40% power so no burning or smoke but the garlic was unuseable. It was dried out and hard, not creamy, roasted garlic. Do not bother. Use your oven instead.
This is incredibly dangerous DO NOT TRY THIS
I do it in the summer when I am not using the oven . However I only have it in for 2 minutes 78 seconds (I like giving the little used numbers a chance) at power setting 4. That seems to work.
Mind girl started smoking luckily I noticed this and pulled the garlic out maybe I did not add enough oil but this happens a fair bit with online vegetable microwaves like some sweet potatoes that caught fire. I still managed to use a mortar and pestle and have some charged smoky style garlic for my potato salad but maybe there should be some kind of guidance for novice cookers like me to say that and there is a chance for it to catch fire as you never know how many people will find this recipe online and leave theor microwave to come back to a kitchen fire 🔥