Air Fryer Burrito

I avoid peeling and chopping garlic whenever possible. The same goes for ginger. It just takes forever, makes my hands smell, and adds what feels like an extra step to weeknight dinner recipes. I can usually get already minced garlic in a jar, throw in a few spoonfuls, and move on. The other day, though, I couldn’t find any at the store. I could only find a tube of garlic paste or purée. I used a little in the recipe I bought it for, but still had most of the tube left afterwards.

Fast forward to a weeknight when I wanted to make roasted baby potatoes. I washed and halved the potatoes, coated them in olive oil, and then looked for the garlic. I found the garlic tube and decided to go all out: I squeezed the rest in and coated the potatoes with that, too. After adding some salt and pepper and dried herbs, they were ready to go in the oven. I roasted them for 30 minutes at 400 F, then mixed them, then raised the temperature to 425 F for another 25 minutes (the temp and time needed for the frozen fish I was baking with them).

Soon after they were in the oven, I started to smell roasting garlic. It was like I’d actually put full heads of garlic in the oven to roast. They tasted even better than they smelled: creamy on the inside, crispy on the outside, and full of rich garlic flavor.

For that intensity of flavor, it may be worth peeling some garlic to make a jar of purée to keep in the fridge.