Sweet Pepper Toasts with Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese – How To Love Cooking
Calling all roasted garlic lovers! These Sweet Pepper Toasts with Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese make a simple yet flavorful breakfast, lunch, or snack.
Post updated: July 2021
If you’re tired of your usual toast routine, have I got a toast topping for YOU. This toast gets loaded with a luscious roasted garlic cream cheese and sautéed sweet peppers for an absolute explosion of flavor. The are delicious, look gorgeous on your brunch or lunch table, and they’re vegetarian friendly.
Sweet Pepper Toasts with Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese – How To Love Cooking
What does Roasted Garlic Taste Like?
Raw garlic and roasted garlic have a completely different flavor and texture. So, if you’re not a fan or raw garlic, it’s very possible you might enjoy the flavor of roasted garlic. When roasted, garlic becomes slightly sweet, mild, and spreadable with a butterknife.
While roasting garlic significantly reduces its ability to repel vampires (and close-sitting dates), its flavor is still robust enough to make its presence known when stirred into the cream cheese.
Garlic Before – How To Love Cooking
Now, let’s talk about the rest of the toppings! Every time I’m at Aldi, I find these adorable sweet mini peppers in the produce section. They’re vibrant and cute, and I’m fairly certain half the reason I buy them is due to their pretty factor. They taste mild and sweet, and are delicious on top of the savory spread.
How to Make Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese
One of my favorite challenges when it comes to cooking is figuring out how to get the most flavor out of very few and/or very simple ingredients. Even though this toast only calls for a handful of items, it packs a flavorful punch. The most complicated part of the toast is making the roasted garlic cream cheese. And when I say complicated, I just mean a little time consuming.
Roasted Garlic – How To Love Cooking
It takes roughly an hour in the oven for the garlic cloves to morph from pungent little breath bombs into soft, golden, aromatic flavor nuggets.
(In case you couldn’t tell, I’m not a huge fan of cooking with raw garlic. It makes my hands stink! And yes, I know about these bars that get rid of stinky garlic fingers!)
Moving on…Then, all you have to do after the cloves are roasted is mash and mix ’em into the creamy cheese, and by golly, you’ve got yourself some glorious roasted garlic cream cheese.
How to Roast Garlic
Preparing the garlic for roasting is simple. Carefully slice the head of garlic in half, drizzle the open halves with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, put the halves back together, and then wrap up the whole head of garlic with some tin foil. (See Photos.)
Place the wrapped garlic on a baking pan to catch any oil that may leak out. Then, let the garlic bake for an hour in your oven. (I used my toaster oven!)
While the garlic is roasting, I like to prepare the sweet peppers and bread, which only takes about 10-15 minutes. Then, I have about 45 minutes of free time to be productive but will usually just waste it scrolling Pinterest looking at Key West Cottages.
If you want a simple video demonstration for the roasted garlic, check out this video from Laura in The Kitchen. I’ve been making roasted garlic this way for a long time, and it always comes out great.
How to Prepare the Sweet Mini Peppers
Sweet Pepper Toasts with Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese – How To Love Cooking
To prepare the peppers, simply slice them into little rings and sauté the peppers in a pan with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and a splash of balsamic vinegar. The balsamic vinegar adds just enough acidity and brightness to bring out the sweetness of the peppers. After I spread the cream cheese on the toasted bread and topped each slice with some peppers, I sprinkled each toast with a few torn pieces of basil for some color and freshness.
How Can I Use Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese in Other Recipes?
Not only is this roasted garlic cream cheese spread great on toast, it would also be great on a sandwich, wonderful as a dip for vegetables, swirled into hot pasta (yum!), and so much more.
Oh, and if you find you love the flavor of roasted garlic, check out my recipe for Roasted Sweet Potato, Carrot, and Turmeric Soup. It’s delicious, too!
If garlic and savory flavors are your style, this toast will be right up your alley.
Enjoy!
Sweet Pepper Toasts with Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese.
Take slices of your favorite hearty bread and top it with this incredible roasted garlic cream cheese and sautéed sweet peppers. Simple, yet incredibly flavorful!
Ingredients
For the Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese:
- 1 Head of Garlic Small to medium sized
- 1 TBS Olive Oil
- Pinch Salt To taste
- Pinch Ground Pepper To taste
- 4 oz. Whipped Cream Cheese
For the Sauteed Peppers:
- 1 Tbs. Olive oil
- 1 C. Mini sweet peppers Seeded and sliced into thin rings
- 1/2 Tbs. Balsamic Vinegar
- Pinch Salt To taste
- Pinch Pepper To taste
- 6-8 Slices Multi-grain or Italian Loaf Bread
- 4-6 Fresh Basil Leaves Optional; To garnish
Instructions
For the Roasted Garlic Cream Cheese Spread:
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Pre-heat toaster oven (or oven) to 400 F° Carefully slice the head of garlic in half horizontally. Place onto a sheet of tin foil.
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Drizzle the two garlic halves with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Place the two halves back together, and wrap the head of garlic tightly in the tinfoil to seal it.
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Place the wrapped garlic on a baking sheet, and bake for 1 hour until the garlic cloves are tender and golden. After roasting allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. (You can prepare the sautéed peppers while the garlic cools.)
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Once the garlic has cooled, place the whipped cream cheese in a mixing bowl. Unwrap the roasted garlic and use a fork or butterknife to scoop out the tender garlic cloves from the peels into the bowl with the cream cheese. Mix together and season with salt and pepper to taste.
For the sautéed peppers:
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Add 1 TBS olive oil to a sauté pan, and bring to medium heat. Toss in the sliced peppers, and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes.
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Add 1/2 Tbs. of balsamic vinegar to the pan, and allow to cook for another 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Assemble the toasts. Place your toasted bread slices on a serving board or plate. Spread some of the roasted garlic cream cheese onto each slice, and top each toast with some of the sautéed peppers. If you like, gently tear a few basil leaves into smallish pieces and sprinkle over the toasts to garnish.
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Enjoy!
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