Vampires: Beware the Slow Cooker!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

Garlic is a versatile and healthful ingredient that adds flavor to many a dish. It has long been legendary in its curative ability and has recently been touted for all of its health benefits, including protecting against heart disease. Whenever I feel a cold coming on, I immediately turn to either garlicky chicken noodle soup or a Spanish recipe for garlic soup – Sopa de Ajo - that seems to tame my cold symptoms and to help me get well again faster. So if you are looking for ways to add more garlic into your diet (besides taking those huge garlic pills), why not turn to your slow cooker to help you out?

Slow cooking garlic tames its sharp flavor, and the longer it cooks, the more it blends into a dish and adds a subtle hint rather than an overpowering flavor note. Garlic cloves when raw are so strongly flavored that they are rumored to scare away vampires (and probably anyone else). But they undergo a magical transformation when cooked that leaves them soft and mellow with an almost creamy taste. Garlic is an essential ingredient in many slow cooker recipes, from soups to stews to chicken with forty cloves of garlic.

Roasted garlic is a condiment that became popular a few years ago, and for good reason. It has a sweet taste that is delicious on bread or crackers as an appetizer, or to make the most scrumptious Italian garlic bread. One of my favorite ways to give a dish more pizzazz is to add a bit of roasted garlic--think of the way it can enhance plain mashed potatoes or provide a flavor basis for a great salad dressing. You can also use roasted garlic as an ingredient in a multitude of recipes. It provides a nice kick to an herbed crust, or can be spread on meats before roasting, or is an excellent addition to pasta sauce.

But there is one catch: if you start a recipe that requires roasted garlic, you will have to pre-plan in advance so that it is ready when you are going to start cooking. That is where the slow cooker comes into play. You can roast however much garlic you will need (plus a little extra to serve with some crusty bread!) starting in the morning, so it can be ready when you start cooking dinner. If you plan to cook in the morning, you can also roast the garlic overnight so it is ready to go when you are.

To prepare roasted garlic in the slow cooker, leave the head whole and cut off the tip of the head, exposing the cloves. Drizzle with olive oil, and wrap in foil, and place in the slow cooker to cook up to eight hours. To make things even easier, you can use pre-peeled garlic, which you can find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store in a jar or plastic bag.

This is also a simple way to offer a tasty condiment to pass with a loaf of bread and some olive oil for drizzling. Allow one half head of garlic per person. The roasted garlic cloves can be passed at the table and are easily squeezed from their skins and spread with a knife as an alternative to butter.

Serves/Makes: 1

• 6 heads garlic
• 2 teaspoons olive oil, more if needed