Roasted Garlic Grilled Cheese
A whole head of garlic goes soft in the coals, then gets mashed into a skillet sandwich.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 87
- protein
- 20 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 50 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Head of garlic | 1 medium | roast it at the fire or at home the day before |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 1 tsp | for drizzling over the cut head |
| Salt and cracked black pepper | to taste | go heavy on the pepper |
| Butter | 1 tbsp | softened; ghee works and does not need a cooler |
| Crusty bread | 4 slices | a dense sourdough survives a pack better than sandwich bread |
| Cheese | 2 slices or 1/2 cup shredded | anything that melts |
Method
- Peel the loose papery skin off the garlic head but leave each clove wrapped. Cut about 1/3 inch off the top so every clove is open.
- Drizzle the cut face with oil, season with salt and pepper, and wrap the whole head tight in foil.
- Set it at the edge of the coals, not in the flames, for 40 to 50 minutes. Turn it a couple of times. It is done when a clove gives under a fork and looks brown.
- Open the foil, let it cool a minute, then squeeze the cloves out of their skins into a mug or bowl. Mash them flat with a fork. Season again.
- Butter one side of two slices. Lay them butter-down in a skillet over medium coals and pile cheese on each.
- Spread the garlic mash on the two remaining slices and set them face-down on the cheese. Butter the top side.
- Three to four minutes per side. Press with a spatula and flip once the bottom is dark.
Raw garlic in a camp sandwich is a mistake. Roasting is what fixes it: an hour wrapped in foil at the edge of the coals turns the cloves soft and sweet enough to spread like butter, and the harshness goes away entirely. The foil is doing two jobs, holding steam in so the cloves cook through and keeping the head off the hot metal so it browns instead of scorching.
The hour is the real cost, which is why the garlic belongs at home or on a fire you already have burning for something else. Once the mash is made it is just a grilled cheese, and it goes fast. Keep the coals moderate. High heat browns the bread before the cheese has any chance to melt.
Packing
Roast the garlic at home and carry the mashed cloves in a small screw-top jar in the cooler. That cuts an hour off camp time and the jar keeps four or five days cold. Bread rides on top of everything else in the bin.
Variations
- No cooler: swap butter for ghee and use a shelf-stable cheese like aged gouda or a wax-sealed wedge.
- Roast two or three heads while the fire is already going and use the extra on eggs, in couscous, or straight on bread.
- A canister stove works for the sandwich, but not for the garlic. Roast that over coals or at home.
https://ohmyveggies.com/how-to-roast-garlic-roasted-garlic-grilled-cheese-recipe