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Add delicious garlic flavor to your favorite dishes by learning how to make garlic confit, which only requires two ingredients. It only requires 5 minutes of hands-on time and can be flavored with whatever herbs you love!
save this recipe!A nice, warm piece of toasted bread is best topped with a dollop of butter and a bit of garlic. One of my favorites is garlic confit, which can be expensive to buy, but today, I’m going to show you how to make garlic confit at home!
This recipe can be made with three flavorful herbs. Then, you can take things further by choosing to remove or leave the garlic paper on! It’s a have-it-your-way garlic confit recipe that you’ll be adding to all of your favorite dishes.
What is confit?
Garlic confit is a fancy name for garlic cooked in olive oil. For this recipe, we’ll simply bake the combo to allow the garlic to “roast” to a golden brown color and absorb some of the flavors from the oil. You can make confit with many vegetables, like this tomato confit.
Here’s what you’ll need
You don’t need much for this recipe. You can optionally enhance the flavor with fresh herbs.
- Garlic: Grab whole heads of nutritious roast garlic. We’ll separate the individual cloves prior to cooking.
- Olive Oil: Good quality olive oil is of utmost importance for this recipe. The best way to check the quality is to smell it. If it smells slightly acidic or rancid, then it’s a low-quality olive oil. Costco’s olive oil is always a safe buy.
- Herbs: You can optionally add herbs like fresh thyme, rosemary, and bay leaves for extra flavor.
garlic confit is so easy to make
Step 1: Prep the Garlic
Preheat the oven to 250°F (121°C). Either peel the garlic cloves completely or separate them from the head, leaving the paper on (if you go with this approach, you’ll just squeeze out each clove before serving).
Step 2: Assemble the Dish
Add the garlic and oil to an oven-safe pan (like a cast iron or casserole dish). If the garlic is not submerged completely, add a bit more oil. If desired, add a few hearty herbs to the pan.
Step 3: Cook the Confit
Cook for 2 hours or until the garlic cloves are golden brown and soft. Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool. Then use the cooked garlic on everything!
how to use garlic confit
For delicious meals rich in garlic flavor, consider adding your garlic confit to:
- Vegan Garlic Bread: Can you think of anything better than an extra garlicky garlic bread?
- Pressed Eggplant Sandwiches: Add a light spread of the garlic for another punch of flavor.
- Caprese Paninis: Take these sandwiches to the next level with garlic confit.
Buttery Garlic Confit
Ingredients
- 3 heads garlic
- 1 ½ cups olive oil, 354 mL
- Optional Herbs: 6 sprigs thyme, 3 sprigs rosemary, and/or 3 bay leaves
Instructions
- Prep: Preheat oven to 250°F (121°C). Either peel the garlic cloves completely, or separate the cloves from the head, leaving the paper on.
- Assemble: Add garlic and oil to an oven-safe pan (like a cast iron or casserole dish). If garlic is not submerged completely, add a bit more oil. If desired, add a few hearty herbs to the pan.
- Cook: Cook for 2 hours or until garlic cloves are golden brown and soft. Remove from oven and let cool.
Notes
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Do you mash it or leave whole. And how do you use it?
Either! I love it mashed on toast, sliced and thrown into pasta, with crackers, or veggies!
Wow! This sounds amazing! Could you make this with frozen garlic? Thinking flavor might not be as rich, but… need a way to use it up!
I would think so! 😀
Which part is the confit? Do you take the garlic cloves out of the olive oil, or is it supposed to all stay together? I’ve never heard of confit before, so just wondering what it should look like and how to use it.
The confit is the garlic cloves, which you pluck out of the oil and use! The oil becomes very garlicky though – great on its own or for cooking!
How long can you keep the oil around after you have used the garlic cloves and will it need to be stored in the fridge?
Up to 2 weeks! And yes, we’d recommend storing it in the fridge.
Can you extend the life of the confit by freezing it?
Yes!
Can dried herbs work here? I’m assuming so but every recipe I see calls for fresh so I thought I’d ask. Thank you!
Yes dried herbs should work! 😀
Question: I put garlic in a jar and covered it with oil and put it on the counter. I have been using it all winter, but my friend said that it is not good to do that. Is it dangerous to do that?
I did the same thing with fresh, dry Basil leaves. Is it safe to use?
Thank you
It is a bit risky, yes. When garlic is in an anaerobic environment for a long time (like submerged in oil), it can produce dangerous bacteria. Best to store it in the fridge and enjoy it within 2 weeks.
Basil leaves are a different story – they can be kept much longer because they don’t have this bacteria risk!
When leaving the papery skins on the cloves, does one need to remove skins prior to use? Or do they brown and become edible? I have never used anything but “naked” garlic. Even whole roasted cloves are squeezed out of the skins before use.
Thank you. Love your recipes and website.
Belle
You squeeze the garlic out of the papery skins before enjoying them 🙂