Your Air Fryer Is The Secret To Roasting Garlic In A Fraction Of The Time

How do we love our air fryer? Let us count the ways. Once you invest in one of these incredibly handy kitchen gadgets, you'll never go back. They're useful for speedy cooking — virtually anything from french fries to proteins, roasted veggies to sweet treats like air fryer donuts. The possibilities and time-saving air fryer hacks are just about endless, but the countertop appliance's real brilliance lies in the time you'll save on usually lengthy processes — like roasting garlic. It's a task that would typically take upwards of 40 minutes in a conventional oven, but the air fryer can knock it out in as little as 15. 

And while conventionally roasting garlic is an example of a time-consuming kitchen task many busy cooks avoid, its flavor is worth the wait. The roasting process smooths out raw garlic's bite to create almost caramel-y mellow, spreadable cloves that add robust, rich flavor to a range of dishes. Every food lover deserves the heavenly pungent aroma and indulgent creaminess of velvety roasted garlic. The solution? Next time your recipe calls for it, whip out the air fryer for the same savory, aromatic result in a third of the time.

To roast garlic in your air fryer, you'll proceed almost exactly as you would if using a conventional oven. Grab a full knobby head of garlic, slice off the very topmost layer to expose each clove, and gently remove some of the outermost crispy layers of skin. Leave enough to keep the individual bulbs nestled in place. As you typically would when roasting, drizzle the whole head with some olive oil and season. 

A note on oil, here. Though a big selling point of the air fryer is its ability to crisp, brown, and cook foods without oil — "frying", as the name suggests, with little more than air — this is a little bit of a misnomer. While it's true that you can use an air fryer sans oil, you might not always want to if flavor is your main consideration. This is one such case, so don't skimp on the olive oil (but don't use cooking spray, which can damage air fryers). 

Drizzle plenty of oil over the sliced head of garlic and wrap it in tin foil. Add to the air fryer canister and set to around 400 degrees Fahrenheit. In around 15 minutes, carefully unwrap the foil, the softened garlic should be ready to be squeezed onto crunchy garlic bread, or stirred into pasta. You might want to go ahead and make a double batch. Roasted garlic keeps well in the fridge when properly stored. 

The cooking time for roasting garlic (and countless other unexpected foods you can make in an air fryer) is slashed because of the technology and design that sets them apart from conventional kitchen ovens. At face value, the cooking processes in either option are not that different; both rely on fans circulating heat around the unit. What differentiates an air fryer though, aside from their size and portability, is the fact that air is only circulated from top to bottom (typically). Additionally, because of their small cooking space, air fryers can cook through foods in far less time and with less time preheating.  

Meaning, that in the case of roasted garlic, what could have taken well over an hour from start to finish will be a job well done in 20 minutes tops. You also use less power than roasting a single head of garlic in your full-sized oven. Roasting garlic in everyone's favorite piece of kitchen tech just makes sense.