Roasted Garlic with Winter Herbs
Late Autumn into Winter
FROM MY KITCHEN
As the days become colder, I find myself returning to garlic.
I keep a plait of it hanging in the kitchen, and through autumn and winter I take down a few heads at a time. I slice across the tops, exposing the cloves, drizzle them generously with olive oil and tuck in whatever winter herbs I have nearby before putting them into the oven.
It is one of the simplest things I make.
As the garlic roasts, its sharpness softens. The cloves become golden and yielding, and the kitchen gradually fills with their warm, savoury smell.
I have always associated garlic with looking after myself through the colder months. When autumn begins to move towards winter, this is one of the foods I naturally return to. I like it warm from the oven, spooned from its papery skin and spread over a piece of sourdough.
There is something particularly comforting about the contrast: crisp bread, soft roasted garlic, olive oil and the scent of herbs.
AN AYURVEDIC NOTE
In Ayurveda, garlic is traditionally regarded as warming and stimulating, qualities that can feel particularly welcome as the weather becomes colder.
Ayurveda also asks us to consider how food is prepared. Raw garlic is pungent and intense; roasting transforms it. The cloves soften, their flavour becomes sweeter and mellower, and the addition of olive oil brings richness and moisture.
This is a useful seasonal principle beyond garlic itself. As we move towards winter, the same ingredient can take on a different character through the way we cook it.
THE RECIPE
Roasted Garlic with Winter Herbs
Serves as much or as little as you need
Ingredients
4 whole heads of garlic
Extra virgin olive oil
A few sprigs of rosemary, thyme or sage
A little sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, optional
Sourdough, to serve
Method
Heat the oven to 190°C conventional / 170°C fan.
Remove any very loose outer papery layers from the garlic, keeping the heads intact.
Using a sharp knife, slice a small amount from the top of each head so that the individual cloves are exposed.
Place the garlic cut-side upwards in a small roasting dish. Drizzle olive oil over the exposed cloves, allowing a little to run down between them. Add the herbs and a small pinch of sea salt.
Cover loosely with foil or a lid and roast for around 35 to 45 minutes, removing the cover towards the end if you would like a little more colour. The garlic is ready when the cloves are completely soft and can easily be pressed from their skins.
Toast or warm slices of sourdough. Spoon the soft garlic from its skin and spread it across the bread, adding a little of the fragrant oil from the roasting dish.
A MINDFUL MOMENT
Before you put the garlic into the oven, rub one of the winter herbs gently between your fingers.
Notice its scent before it meets the warmth of the oil and garlic.
When the dish comes out of the oven, notice it again.
Cooking changes an ingredient in ways we can see, smell and taste. Sometimes paying attention to that transformation is enough to bring us fully into the kitchen.
