Roasted Garlic Dip Recipe

Roasted Garlic Dip is a creamy and versatile dip made with simple ingredients. Serve this irresistible make-ahead marvel with chips, crackers, veggies, crostini, or spread it on a sandwich!

Look, I grew up in the Midwest. I know my way around a creamy dip, OK? When I think of “party snacks,” creamy dip is the very first thing that comes to mind.

This Roasted Garlic Dip is the best combination of 1.) short ingredient list and 2.) incredible flavor.

Three (!) whole heads of garlic are slowly and deeply roasted until the cloves can be mashed into an absolutely luscious paste.

Combine this with some creamy sour cream and mayonnaise, and add a little squeeze of lemon juice, and you have a perfectly balanced, irresistible dip to use for chips, crackers, toasted bread, or as a dipping sauce for mini Hasselback potatoes.

What you’ll need for roasted garlic dip:

• garlic – 3 heads of garlic might seem like a lot, but the longer you roast garlic, the more its flavor mellows, so you need to use quite a bit so that the dip has a nice garlic flavor. Garlic lovers need to check out my pizza with garlic and balsamic steak marinade, too.
• olive oil – for drizzling over the heads of garlic to help them brown while they roast.
• salt and pepper – for seasoning the heads of garlic before you roast them, and also for seasoning the final garlic dip.
• sour cream – one of the creamy ingredients for this dip. But, I have alternative ideas below. Save your extra sour cream for creamy chicken stroganoff!
• mayonnaise – the other creamy ingredient in this roasted garlic spread, and again, there are alternatives discussed below.
• lemon juice – a generous amount of lemon juice really lifts the flavors of this dip and makes it truly irresistible.
• chives – I grow chives in my garden to use in seafood pasta salad all summer long, so I like to sprinkle chives over this roasted garlic dip for garnish, too. You could also use thinly sliced green onions, another type of herb, like thyme, or skip the garnish altogether.

How to Make Garlic Dip

1. PREP GARLIC. Remove and discard the papery outmost layer of each head of garlic, taking care to leave the inner skin so that the head stays intact. Slice 1/4 inch off the top of each garlic head.

2. ROAST. Place the garlic, cut side up, on large piece of foil and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Loosely wrap it, place it on a rimmed baking pan and roast it until the garlic feels very soft. Remove it from oven and let it stand 10 minutes to cool slightly, then squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins.

3. MASH AND MIX. Place the garlic cloves in a bowl and mash them with a fork. Stir in the sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and the remaining salt and pepper. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

4. SERVE. Transfer the dip to a serving dish and sprinkle chives over the dip. Serve with crackers, toasted baguette slices, potato chips and/or cut vegetables.

How long to roast garlic

It’s important not to rush the process of roasting garlic. Recipes that tell you that it can be done properly in 30 minutes are wrong.

To properly roast garlic so that it’s deeply caramelized and soft enough to mash into a paste for this dip (or anything else), it will take at least 50 to 70 minutes in an a 400 degree oven when wrapped in foil.

If you’re using very small heads of garlic, it may roast a bit faster, but you should try to use nice medium to large heads of garlic for this recipe.

This garlic dip is even better if you make it in advance!

This is a great make-ahead dip, and putting it in the refrigerator really allows the flavors to meld together.

Just like my feta dressing, you CAN serve roasted garlic dip immediately after making it, but I highly recommend refrigerating it at least a couple of hours if you can. It can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for up to 48 hours.

Garlic Dip Recipe Variations

• I like the balance of 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup mayonnaise, but this roasted garlic dip recipe is very forgiving. You can use half sour cream and half mayonnaise if you want.
• You can also substitute Greek yogurt for one or both ingredients. Just like with the sauce for my corned beef egg rolls, lowfat mayonnaise tastes totally fine here, too.
• Want this garlic dip to be even creamier? Use cream cheese in place of the sour cream! It’s so rich and decadent that way.
• Just make sure the cream cheese is room temperature or even slightly softened before stirring it in. The cream cheese variation of this dip is especially great when served with homemade garlic breadsticks.

Add some Parmesan cheese if you want!

One of my favorite ways to take this roasted garlic dip recipe to the next level is by adding a handful of Parmesan cheese. This adds a bit more saltiness and that umami flavor that our tastebuds love.

Because Parmesan contains rennet, please note that this roasted garlic spread will no longer be vegetarian if you add Parmesan cheese, unless you use a vegan Parm substitute for your garlic Parmesan dip.

My favorite ways to serve this garlic dip recipe:

When I’m not serving spicy potato chips, this is my all-time favorite chip dip for plain potato chips. You can also follow Step #1 in my crostini pizza recipe card to make the best homemade toasted bread for this garlic dip.

Spread garlic dip on crostini and top with blistered tomatoes for the best summer snack. Or serve this dip as the centerpiece of any of my food board ideas.

This roasted garlic spread is an amazing condiment for sandwiches, particularly ham and turkey sliders or even a salmon sandwich.

Roasted Garlic Spread

Author: Lori Yates

Yield: 4 servings

Prep: 10 minutes minutes

Cook: 50 minutes minutes

Total: 1 hour hour

Roasted Garlic Dip is a creamy and versatile dip made with simple ingredients. Serve this irresistible make-ahead marvel with chips, crackers, veggies, crostini, or spread it on a sandwich!

4.7 from 3 ratings

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Leave a Review

Ingredients

• ▢ 3 heads garlic
• ▢ 2 teaspoons olive oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon kosher salt divided
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground black pepper divided
• ▢ ¾ cup sour cream
• ▢ ¼ cup mayonnaise
• ▢ 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ▢ ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese optional
• ▢ 1 tablespoon thinly sliced chives
• ▢ Crackers, toasted baguette slices, potato chips and/or cut vegetables, for serving

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Remove and discard the papery outmost layer of each head of garlic, taking care to leave the inner skin so that the head stays intact. Slice 1/4 inch off top of each garlic head.
• Place garlic, cut side up, on large piece of foil and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Loosely wrap garlic in foil. Place on rimmed baking pan, transfer to oven, and and roast 50 to 70 minutes or until garlic feels very soft when pierced with a paring knife. Remove from oven and let stand 10 minutes to cool slightly, then squeeze garlic cloves out of their skins.
• Place garlic cloves in medium bowl and mash with a fork until smooth (or leave them a bit chunkier for a more textured dip). Add sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and Parmesan cheese, if using. Stir until well combined. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
• To serve, transfer dip to serving dish and sprinkle chives over dip. Serve with crackers, toasted baguette slices, potato chips and/or cut vegetables.

Notes

• When you’re removing the outer papery layers of the garlic, take care not to remove the innermost garlic skin because we want to make sure the whole bulb stays intact as it roasts.
• After roasting, you’ll need to let the garlic bulbs cool off enough so that you can handle them, but don’t let them FULLY cool, or they’ll become hard to squeeze.

Calories: 259kcal, Carbohydrates: 11g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 7g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 7g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 0.03g, Cholesterol: 37mg, Sodium: 506mg, Potassium: 170mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 368IU, Vitamin C: 12mg, Calcium: 141mg, Iron: 1mg

This website provides estimated nutrition information as a courtesy only. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

Did you make this recipe?Leave a Review below or share a photo and tag me on Instagram @foxeslovelemons with the hashtag #foxeslovelemons.

© Foxes Love Lemons LLC. Images registered with U.S. Copyright Office.