This roasted garlic butter is a flavor bomb. Roasting garlic unlocks its natural sweetness, while a touch of spice and fresh herbs create a homemade butter that’s bursting with taste. Spread it on toast, toss it with veggies, or use it to add a decadent touch to your favorite protein – all without the added sodium and mystery ingredients of store-bought options! More importantly, you’ll only need a fraction of this roasted garlic herb butter compared to regular garlic butter to make any recipe flavorful.
Ingredients
(You can find the exact measurements and instructions in the printable recipe card at the end of this page.)
Roasted garlic compound butter is versatile and made with simple ingredients:
- Butter: Use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt.
- Garlic: We’ll be roasting whole heads of garlic. So ensure that they are fresh without any black or soft spots.
- Fresh herbs: Rosemary, thyme, sage, chives or parsley: use any of these or a combination.
- Seasoning:
- Paprika: Use hot, sweet or smoked paprika, according to your preference.
- Black pepper
- Sea salt
How to make roasted garlic butter: step by step
This simple compound butter recipe can be made in 3 simple steps:
Roast garlic
Roasting garlic is similar to the recipe for roasted garlic sauce. I usually roast a few heads of garlic and store them for different recipes like roasted garlic pesto, roasted garlic tomato soup and the dressing for beet walnut feta salad.
Leave butter at room temperature (outside the fridge) until it softens.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F.
Rinse 2 whole heads of garlic and wipe them dry. Remove the outer papery skin. Leave the skin on and the bulbs intact.
Using a sharp knife, cut off the top (about ¼ inch) of the garlic bulb. This exposes the individual cloves in the head of garlic.
(Do not throw away the small bits. Peel and reserve them.)
Cut out small sheets of aluminum foil. Place each garlic head on individual sheets with cut side facing up.
Sprinkle pinches of salt, black pepper and paprika on the exposed cloves. Drizzle olive oil.
Loosely wrap the foil around the garlic bulb. Do the same with the reserved tops you cut off from the bulb.
Place the tin foil packets on a baking sheet pan. Place it in the oven and roast.
Remove the pouch with the small garlic bits after 10 minutes. Roast the rest (whole garlic heads) in the oven for 25 minutes more.
The roasted garlic should be very soft and mashable. If not, roast for 5 more minutes.
Remove from the oven and let them cool down.
Mash roasted garlic
Squeeze out roasted garlic cloves into a large bowl.
Add paprika, salt and black pepper. Mash garlic and spices with a fork until smooth.
Add butter and herbs
Add softened butter and finely chopped herbs.
Mix everything together until you get uniform creamy butter mixture.
How to store roasted garlic herb butter
If you’re not going to use all of the garlic butter right away, you can store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh for a couple of days.
If you want to store it longer, freeze it. It keeps in the freezer for a month.
I usually store roasted garlic butter in ice cube trays. It is very convenient for chilling as well as for freezing.
It’s so amazing when you can take cubes of compound butter from the fridge and spread on fresh bread right away!
Frozen garlic butter also thaws faster when it is in the form of small cubes.
How to serve roasted garlic compound butter
Roasted garlic butter tastes great in a variety of dishes, including the recipes that use fresh garlic butter or regular butter.
- Delicious spread: Spread it on crusty bread.
- Garlic butter steak: Serve it on steak or baked thin chicken breasts.
- Lemon garlic butter sauce: Heat the garlic herb butter with a squeeze of lemon juice and some lemon zest. This sauce tastes amazing, drizzled on pan fried prawns and peppers or oven baked panko crusted cod.
- Pasta: Replace regular butter with roasted garlic butter in butter chicken pasta recipe.
- Boost flavors by using this compound butter instead of regular butter in recipes like browned butter salmon or honey lemon chicken wings.
- Garlic butter mashed potatoes: Replace regular butter with roasted garlic butter in my yogurt mashed potatoes recipe.
- Roasted veggies: Warm roasted carrots and green beans, balsamic roasted Brussels sprouts and rosemary roasted potatoes and broccoli taste even better when tossed with a cube of roasted garlic compound butter.
Homemade Roasted Garlic Butter Recipe
Ingredients
STEP BY STEP IMAGES
Scroll back to find detailed recipe photos!
Instructions
Roast garlic
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/390°F.
- Leave 8 ounces (225 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature (outside the fridge) until it softens.
- Rinse 2 whole heads of garlic and wipe them dry. Remove the outer papery skin. Leave the skin on and the bulbs intact.
- Using a sharp knife, cut off the top (about ¼ inch) of the garlic bulb. This exposes the individual cloves in the head of garlic.
- (Do not throw away the small bits. Peel and reserve them.)
- Cut out small sheets of aluminum foil. Place each garlic head on individual sheets with cut side facing up.
- Sprinkle pinches of salt, black pepper and paprika on the exposed cloves. Drizzle 2 teaspoons olive oil.
- Loosely wrap the foil around the garlic bulb.
- Do the same with the reserved garlic tops you cut off from the bulb.
- Place the tin foil packets on a baking sheet pan. Place it in the oven and roast.
- Remove the pouch with the small garlic bits after 10 minutes.
- Roast the rest (whole garlic heads) for 25 minutes more.
- Remove from the oven and let them cool down.
Mash roasted garlic
- Squeeze out roasted garlic cloves into a large bowl.
- Add ¼ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon black pepper and ½ teaspoon fine sea salt.
- Mash garlic and spices with a fork until smooth.
Add butter and herbs
- To the mashed garlic, add softened butter, 2 tablespoons fresh chopped rosemary and 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley.
- Mix everything together until you get uniform creamy butter mixture.
Notes
-
- Butter: Use unsalted butter so you can control the amount of salt.
-
- Garlic: We’ll be roasting whole heads of garlic. So ensure that they are fresh without any black or soft spots.
-
- Fresh herbs: Rosemary, thyme, sage, chives or parsley: use any of these or a combination.
-
- Paprika: Use hot, sweet or smoked paprika, according to your preference.
- Roasting garlic: Roasted garlic cloves should be very soft and mashable. If not, roast for 5 more minutes.
- Paprika: Use hot, sweet or smoked paprika, according to your preference.
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