Roasted Garlic, Roasting Peppers & Caramelizing Onion – How to? (The easy way)

My TaylorMade Time saving Tips

On a majority of my recipes you will notice “caramelized onion”, “roasted garlic” or “roasted peppers”.   Instead of just adding these ingredients raw to recipes, I usually have the roasted version on hand.  It is easy to do, makes the house smell great and saves you tons of time when cooking a dish.

Once a week, I roast a sheet pan or 2 of onions, peppers and a small dish of garlic and then store them in the refrigerator.  This time saving tip is something I learned at the Restaurant after doing it the long way a few to many times.  For example, TaylorMade Market’s Roasted Vegetable frittata has roasted peppers, caramelized onion, sauteed mushrooms, spinach, sundried tomato & fresh herbs.  To make the frittata recipe from start to finish,  roasting & caramelizing everything would take HOURS, however by having them all roasted in advance, I could put the frittata together in a matter of minutes..  We made this dish everyday in the cafe – EVERYBODY loved it.  It was so popular we decided to add it to the Lunch Menu as a main dish that came with your choice of 2 yummy sides.

Now let me say this, those 3 ingredients have there place being used in the raw state, but when you are adding to frittata’s, casseroles, quiches, biscuits & other dishes – roasted is much better.  This is one of my secrets to success when cooking.

Here is how I do it…

Roasted Garlic: Place peeled whole cloves of garlic in a shallow pan and cover those babies in olive oil.  Bake 350* for around 15-20 min stirring occasionally

until they become a caramelized & buttery.  Do NOT throw away the oil.  The oil has become infused with the delicious garlic flavor.  Add garlic oil to dishes instead of plain olive oil to give your dish more depth of flavor.

OR if you have a whole head of garlic, slice the top off, place the bulb on a sheet of foil, drizzle with olive oil & wrap – Bake 350* 15-20 min.  You will be able to squeeze the roasted buttery garlic right out of the bulb

Roasting Peppers:

Let’s start with cutting the pepper.  This is the QUICKEST way to cut a pepper.  I have cut & chopped thousands of peppers and this is by far the easiest and quickest.  Some people will say, it is wasting part of the pepper – but they are wasting time cleaning off the seeds.   As some of you know, I have an aversion to seeds that aren’t meant to be eaten.  Hold the pepper and slice off one side, turn and slice again, repeat, repeat, done..

you can also lay the pepper down and use the same technique – You get the idea.

Place on a sheet pan – drizzle olive oil & sea salt (or kosher salt) and roast at 425* for 15-20 min. Stirring occasionally.   I like to chop the peppers up but you could also roast big pieces, it will just take a little while longer in the oven.

Garbage Bowl of Peppers

Done..and DELICIOUS!!!

Caramelized onion – (The quick way – not the 40 min traditional way)

Cut, peel, chop – then Same as the peppers – Place on a sheet pan – drizzle olive oil & sea salt (or kosher salt) and roast at 425* for 15-20 min. Stirring occasionally.

Once it has cooled, I store them in containers and keep in the refrigerator.. I do this weekly and it truly saves me tons of time in the kitchen.