Roasted Garlic Spread with Probiotics

I personally believe there is nothing more beautiful than waking up to a fluffy, toasted bagel with cream cheese. If I had to get stuck eating one thing for the rest of my breakfast years, it would be this combination. But depressingly, when I stopped eating gluten and dairy, it also meant I had to give up my love for bagels and cream cheese. I’ve had a few gluten free “imitation” bagels but it was always like bighting into a dense sponge. My teeth literally squeaked against the surface as I bit in. After 6 long years of bagel-less mornings, I decided something had to change. One day, as I walked happily through my local Kroger grocer (I have a love for grocery shopping), I stopped dead in the freezer section. With wide eyes and a loud gasp, I whispered to myself, Could this be what I’ve waited for all these years? I knew I had to be reading the label wrong, “Gluten Free Bagels That Don’t Taste Like Rubber.” Well, it didn’t say the last part but I knew that brand made bread that tasted delicious so the bagels just had to be good too.  I yanked open the freezer door and pinched them to see if they were real. They were frozen so my fingers didn’t sink in like I expected. I decided I’d have to buy them to see if they were as good as they looked. A whopping 6 bucks later, they were mine.

To make a long story short, they were better than I imagined gluten free bagels could be. They became fast friends with my kitchen and taste buds. But something was missing. A bagel isn’t complete without cream cheese. The next time I went to the store, I explored my options. I came home with tofu "cream cheese", which just didn’t hit the mark for me. I don’t really like to play around with soy products (learn about the dangers of soy here here), so I decided to stick with butter. Contrary to popular belief, butter is wonderful.

Just to name a few benefits of buttter:

            --It’s rich in the most easily absorbable form of Vitamin A, necessary for thyroid                    and adrenal health.

            --Great source of Omega 3’s

            --Contains essential minerals

            --Filled with Glycospingolipids which protect the stomach from gastrointestinal                     infections (Yes, please!)

            - Contains Lauric acid, important in treating fungal infections

            - Contains Lecithin, essential for cholesterol metabolism.

            --Cholesterol found in butterfat is essential to brain and nervous system                                   development. (Find out why cholesterol is essential to our health:                      here )

So, I love butter. If after some research of your own, you find that you don’t share the same love, whatever you do, don’t go for margarine. It’s usually made up of hydrogenated oils that are terrible for our bodies.

Now, getting to the point of my post… awhile back my mom posted a recipe for pickled roasted garlic (It’s the 3^rd recipe down the page). Pickling is fermenting food in salt and/or whey to make it rich in bacteria that is beneficial for your gut and proper digestion. I decided to make my own and let me tell you, I don’t need no cream cheese after I discovered this stuff.

After roasting, peeling, then letting the garlic sit in it’s little saltwater bath for 3 days (yes, like Jesus), up rises the most delectable spread of your life. Plus, I don’t have to feel bad about not having yogurt that morning to get my probiotics because I’m getting them from the pickled garlic! This stuff seriously tastes like dreamy garlic bread. It’s better than Olive Garden bread sticks. Yes, I stand by that statement.

Here we go:

2 heads of garlic (Or up to 6)
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons whey (if you have none, use 1 additional tsp. salt)
1/4 cup water (Or enough to cover the cloves)
Directions: Break off the cloves from heads but don’t take off the peel. Bake garlic cloves at 300 degrees until most of the cloves open. (Mine took about an hour. They should be a little brown so that they'll be easy to spread). Peel the cloves and place into jar. Pour other ingredients over but make sure to have 1 inch at top of jar with no liquid. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for 3 days then transfer to refrigerator.
The mixture should be cloudy but if it has anything growing on top that smells weird, looks weird, or just doesn’t seem right, don’t eat it and discard. The garlic cloves should look the same as they did when you put them in the jar 3 days earlier.

Besides tasting like heaven, garlic has a long list of benefits to our bodies, including: lowering blood pressure, thinning blood, promoting cardiovascular health, fighting cancer, anti viral, fungal, and bacterial properties, and reducing number bug bites!

1) Break apart garlic heads but don’t peel cloves.

2) Place in baking dish and roast on 300 degrees until clove skin cracks open and cloves are easily removed. It will smell heavenly.Mine took about an hour. You want them to be a little brown.

3) Remove from oven and peel.

 

4) Place in jar. Mix whey, salt, and water together and pour over garlic cloves in jar. Stir gently to mix and then close tightly for three days, then transfer to cold storage. 

On day 3, your garlic should be ready to eat! Take out the cloves and spread them on buttery toast.  To finish off my breakfast, I fry up some eggs and tomatoes.

Serve your eggs, tomatoes, and garlic bagel with green onions and raw milk aged cheddar cheese (which has a low lactose count I’m able to tolerate).

My garlic spread isn’t pictured because it’s still pickling.

Thank God for garlic and a new day and enjoy!