Roasted garlic is one of the most delicious flavors ever. Ever! It doesn’t at all resemble the strong, pungent taste of raw or even sautéed garlic. It’s smooth and creamy and utterly delectable. It’s so good, you could eat the roasted cloves whole and alone, if you wanted to. But I usually use them in pasta dishes, or as a pizza topping.

It takes a bit of time to roast garlic, but the prep time is fairly minimal. The oven does the rest. Give it a try. Follow these step-by-step instructions, and in 40-45 minutes, you’ll have an entire head of melty, delicious roasted garlic to use however you want.

Ingredients:

1 head garlic
olive oil
salt and pepper
a couple tablespoons water

Guidelines:

Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Step 2: Remove the outer paper layer of the garlic head, without peeling off the protective covering over the individual cloves.

Step 3: Place the head of garlic in a small dish (I like to use a ramekin).

Step 4: Drizzle the garlic with a bit of olive oil (about a tsp.) and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Step 5: Place a couple of tablespoons of water in the bottom of the dish.

Step 6: Cover tightly with foil.

Step 7: Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a fork inserted into a clove slides easily in.

Step 8: Let cool for 5-10 minutes, or until you can easily handle the cloves.

Step 9: Tear the garlic into individual cloves, and squeeze the cloves out of their protective coverings.

Step 10: Enjoy!

I like to serve this salsa with pork adobo tacos, but it’s also tasty on plain corn chips.

Ingredients and Guidelines:

For a small bowl, combine the following:
2 cups assorted cherry and grape tomatoes, halved (if you can, use a combination of yellow, red, orange, purple, and green tomatoes)
1 tomatillo, finely diced
½-1 jalapeno, finely diced
3 tbsp. red onion, finely diced
small handful cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp. lime juice

Mix well. Set aside for 20-30 minutes to let flavors marry.

The sauce is shown here as White Barbeque Beans, (which are great for packed lunches, by the way) but you can use this sauce for poultry, ribs, as a French fry dip, etc. If you want to use this sauce with white beans, add 3 cans of white beans to your shopping list. And, if you really want to jazz it up, use a couple swoops of bourbon in lieu of the vinegar. Peach Bourbon Barbeque Sauce. Yummy!

Ingredients:

1 can tomato sauce
¼ cup peach preserves (*Note: You can also use fresh peaches, skins removed, and mashed.)
2 tbsp. red onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tbsp. molasses
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar (or bourbon, if you choose to go that route)
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped (optional)
olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Guidelines:

Chop all of your ingredients.

Sauté the red onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil for a few minutes, just to release their flavors.

Add the remaining ingredients and let simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve with whatever suits your fancy.

If you’re like me and don’t care for chickpeas, try hummus anyway. The chalky texture of the chickpeas, when combined with the other ingredients, disappears, and you’re left with a dish that’s refreshing yet filling. Plus, it’s healthy! If you’re not a big garlic fan, the roasted garlic is less… offensive. There’s less of a chance that you’ll return from lunch and stink up your workplace.

This dip is great served with flatbread (such as pita), and/or fresh veggies. For the brown bag lunch, place several large spoonfuls in a Tupperware container, and send along a baggie with whatever you choose to dip in it. My suggestions: whole wheat pita cut into triangles, baby carrots, cucumber, red and/or green peppers, and olives.

Ingredients:

3 cans garbanzo beans
3 oz. smoked sundried tomatoes (I find these in a bag in the produce aisle near the fresh tomatoes.)
6 cloves roasted garlic (see method below)
2 cloves raw garlic (optional)
handful of fresh parsley, chopped (3-4 tbsp.)
6 tbsp. olive oil
8 tbsp. lemon juice
salt
½ - 1 cup water, for thinning

How to make Roasted Garlic:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the unpeeled garlic cloves in a small baking dish. (Ramekins work perfect.) Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil. Bake for 35- 40 minutes, or until a fork slides easily through the cloves. Let cool, then squeeze the garlic out.

Sundried Tomato Hummus Guidelines:

Rinse and drain the garbanzo beans.

If your sundried tomatoes are whole, coarsely chop. If they are already sliced, you’re good to go.

In a food processor, combine all of the ingredients, starting with the ½ cup water and adding more as needed, and process until smooth. The mixture should be grainy, but not chunky. If your food processor is small, you will have to blend the ingredients in batches. It’s more time consuming, but it works fine, I promise!

Cover and refrigerate. Mix before serving.

I don’t feel guilty about my avocado craze either. While avocados are high in fat, most of it is monounsaturated fat, the same fat found in olive oil. Much of this monounsaturated fat is in the form of oleic acid, which, studies have found, helps to lower cholesterol. Avocados are also high in potassium (60% more than bananas, in fact), which is known to help regulate blood pressure. And (!) they are rich in vitamins B, E, and K, and have a high fiber content.

The chips, however, are another matter…

Most guacamole recipes call for two basic ingredients—avocados and lemon juice. (Though some people use lime juice, which I find very unappealing for some reason. It just doesn’t have the “clean” flavor that lemon juice does. In other words, you can taste the lime juice.) The recipes vary from there. Some people add salt, garlic powder, fresh cilantro, green onions, white onions, fresh chiles, and/or tomatoes. I skip all of these and go straight for the Joy’s—Joy’s Salsa Mix, that is. I don’t want the texture of anything but the avocados in my guacamole. I don’t want to crunch raw onion, or chew rubbery tomatoes. And while I love cilantro, I don’t want to see its green stringiness in my dip.

Joy’s Salsa Mix is perfect because it contains the flavors of chiles, garlic, onions, and other spices, without mucking up the guacamole visually and texturally. Joy’s doesn’t contain any sugar or preservatives, either. It’s just pure dehydrated flavor. The more you add, the hotter it gets, so you can easily adjust the heat to fit your personal taste. And of course it makes the perfect salsa, too!

You can order Joy’s Salsa Mix by clicking here.

Check out their other great products, too.

Or, if you live near the company headquarters in Cortez, Colorado, you can buy their products locally. I stock-up every time I go back to Durango (my hometown).

Spicy Guacamole

2 large, or 3 medium, Hass avocados
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. Joy’s Salsa Mix; adjust to individual tastes

Wash avocados. Peel and pit. Mash avocados in a bowl, or, my preference, in a pie pan. Also, I use a potato masher, which gives the guacamole body. (Which sounds much better than “chunks”!)

Add the lemon juice and salsa mix to the mashed avocados. Mix well. Let sit for thirty minutes. (The Joy’s needs time to develop flavor. If you eat the guacamole right away, you will miss what Joy’s has to offer. I know it’s hard, but seriously, let it rest for thirty minutes!! You will be a happy camper.) Adjust seasoning as necessary.