Roasted Garlic Dip
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!
When I think of “party food,” it begins and ends with dip for me. Personally, I feel that no party is complete without chips and dip, veggies and dip, crackers and dip, bread and dip, Greek yogurt buffalo chicken dip, or maybe all of the above.
And OK, maybe some charcuterie cups or shrimp deviled eggs, but those are in no way as important as the dip.
When I was a kid, I would look forward to my parents’ get-togethers with their friends only for the dip. I knew that a party meant that my mom would be buying potato chips and French onion dip, and I was probably going to eat half of it by myself.
Nowadays, I still love a good creamy dip with simple, delicious ingredients. This Roasted Garlic Dip recipe has a pretty short list of ingredients, but the roasting of the garlic imparts an incredible flavor into the cooling sour cream and creamy mayonnaise mixture.
Add the citrus zing of some lemon juice, and this dip is positively irresistible.
Use this garlic dip for chips, crackers, toasted bread, or even as a dipping sauce for mini Hasselback potatoes or lamb lollipops.
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.
Options for the creamy elements in this roasted garlic spread:
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.
Home Chef Tips for Roasted Garlic Spread
- 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.
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.
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.
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Roasted Garlic Dip
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.
Showing how little I know….
When you say “garlic HEADS”, you mean the whole, round garlic that has cloves attached?
Correct! The entire thing 🙂
I think my favorite chips and dip growing up was Ruffles cheddar and sour cream chips with french onion dip. Although I have a feeling this roasted garlic dip may be replacing it soon.
Whoa whoa whoa. I think we can all agree that Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream are pretty much the greatest chips ever. But you dipped those IN FRENCH ONION DIP? That is just, like, a flavor explosion and I don’t know how I’ve never tried it. You just blew my mind.
Thanks, Nancy! I know you and I would be party-mates made in heaven!
Girl, I love dip. Like, a lot. Probably a bit too much. I’m the person who’s always hovering around the chip ‘n dip plate, preventing others from eating it. This looks delicious! I can almost taste that sweet roasted garlic flavour.
I’m with you on the dip – grew up with French Onion dip… no such thing as nachos back the (hmmm… I’m dating myself!) Anyway, your roasted garlic dip looks great and comes together pretty quick.
Thanks, Deb! French Onion is maybe a little out of style nowadays, but who cares? It’s too good to forget about 🙂
Hmm…replying seems to be the only way for me to comment….drool, I mean comment. I’ve been a fan ever since Jamie Oliver introduced it to me (not personally of course), and my husband doesn’t know this, but we’re kind of an item now (the roasted garlic and me, of course)…although, he just might given garlic leaves trace amounts of odor…or however that should be phrased. We don’t get Super Bowl parties, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be making some sort of snack food for the man come Super Bowl night;) Good idea…
Haha yeah, my husband and I don’t really do Super Bowl parties, either. I think it’s best to just stay home and hog all the dip for yourself 🙂
This is still my hubby’s favorite type of dip! I think he would love this home-made version!
Yummm…you hubby is a smart guy, Marjory 🙂
Thanks for the shout out.
Well, of course. Thanks for not getting mad at me when I ate all the dip as a kid.
Were you me as a child because I would do the same thing! It was always a good day when the ingredients for onion dip came out. Although I’m definitely digging this version over that over-salted thing we called dip as a kid!
Haha yessss! Perhaps all kids are just obsessed with it, but this was a trending topic in our #SS twitter chat last night 🙂