Name: Vegan Garlic Bread
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 3 foot baguette (use less of the other ingredients if shorter); 1/2 cup coconut milk or melted vegan butter; 3-4 cloves garlic, minced (use as much or as little as desired); 2 tbsp fresh herbs, chopped finely (we used basil and chives); Pinch of salt, optional; Pinch of turmeric for color, optional

Quick and easy, this Vegan Garlic Bread is super delicious and flavorful. Make this cozy classic side dish in just 20 minutes with only 5 ingredients including the bread!

Skip to the Recipe!

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Hey Internet, I’m excited to share with you today a quick and easy side / snack my husband and I have been enjoying lately: vegan garlic bread!

This classic side is PERFECT to serve with pasta, salad, and more. The other night we had it alongside our Italian Salad and it was so good.

The best thing about this bread is that it is super duper easy to make, but its other best quality is that it’s really fast!

You can make this side dish in just 20 minutes, and it’s easy enough to prepare and pop in the oven while you’re cooking other things.

Or just dip these in marinara sauce and call that your dinner. It’s 2020, so no judgement, and we totally did that after photographing these.

You also only need 5 ingredients to make this and that includes the bread! I didn’t make my own because I am WAY too lazy for that, but you could and that’d be delicious. If you want.

I also highly recommend throwing some vegan cheese on this for cheesy garlic bread! If I was making that, I’d use my 5-minute vegan melty mozzarella or to be really fancy I’d use my vegan Brie.

Actually I’m going to that tonight, that sounds so good right now.

But let’s just get into this super simple recipe so you can get to noshing!

What You’ll Need

So for bread, I said you could make your own but I’m just going to use store-bought bread for this recipe.

It is my opinion that the best garlic bread is made from French bread, but you could also try sourdough, multigrain, ciabatta, or anything you like!

And, you can slice the bread any way you like. We almost split this down the center and baked it like that, but thought that slicing it in rounds might look prettier in the pictures.

Of course I have to mention the garlic. You can use garlic powder but it’s quite potent and doesn’t have the exact same flavor as fresh, so I do recommend fresh if you can.

You can use jarred minced garlic as a shortcut, but it isn’t as flavorful as freshly cut garlic cloves.

If mincing your own garlic, you want the garlic to be cut pretty fine so it spreads easier. Use a garlic press if you prefer.

The important thing to remember about the garlic is to use as much or as little as you like! I used about 4 small cloves’ worth (which worked out to about 2 tbsp) but you can use less or more as is your taste.

Now, the coating.

You can use either canned coconut milk or vegan butter for this recipe. We used coconut milk and it was chef’s kiss delicious, but vegan butter would work just as well. If you use vegan butter I’d skip the salt.

If you’re watching your fat intake, you could use regular carton non-dairy milk for this too, but I’d bake the garlic bread longer with the cover off just so you can be sure the bread isn’t soaked. You can also try thickening the mixture with a little nutritional yeast--yum!

If using coconut milk, make it taste a little like butter with a pinch of salt--you don’t need much. Stir and taste.

I added a pinch of turmeric to make my mixture a little yellow but this is totally optional.

Finally, fresh herbs like basil and chives are AWESOME in garlic bread, but you can use dried if you don’t have access to fresh herbs.

Tips for Making Vegan Garlic Bread

This recipe comes together quite quickly, so preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (or 190 degrees Celsius) before you begin. Also, line a baking tray with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper or foil.
Chop your garlic finely so that it mixes into the coconut milk or vegan butter nicely.
If using fresh garlic, chop those finely as well.
If using vegan butter, melt it in a small bowl. Same goes for the coconut milk if it is not already liquid. You want the white part of the canned coconut milk, not the clear stuff at the bottom.
Mix together the coconut milk or vegan butter with the herbs. Add salt and turmeric if you wish.
There are two ways to coat the garlic bread--dip them in the mixture or ladle it on with a spoon. If you’re slicing your bread down the middle instead of in smaller slices, you’ll need to use a spoon.
I only coated one side of the bread because that’s all it needed -- and they are JAM PACKED with flavor! But you can coat both sides if you like but you might need to double the mixture since I used all of it for this three-foot baguette.
Cover the pan of bread with aluminum foil. If you don’t want aluminum foil to touch your food, you can use parchment paper, I recommend putting foil on top of that. It still won’t touch your food but it will do a good job of keeping the heat in so your garlic bread won’t dry out.
For garlic bread that is crispy on the edges and soft in the middle, I recommend baking for 10 minutes with the cover on, then baking for 5 minutes with it off. You can modify these times based on personal preference; bake it uncovered longer if you want them crispier or take them out sooner after uncovering them if you prefer them softer.
For really crispy garlic bread, try broiling these for a minute or two--follow the directions that came with your oven and make sure to use a pan meant for broiling.

What to Serve with Garlic Bread

You can eat anything with garlic bread or just eat it by itself. We like to dunk it in marinara or arrabiata sauce.

It goes great with salads like this Italian salad or this creamy avocado salad.

It also goes really well with pasta, like this Pasta Puttanesca, Lemon Ricotta Pasta, or Chickpea Florentine.

Really love garlic? Try serving it with these vegan garlic noodles!

Other Sides and Apps

Love appetizers? Me too. My family actually used to make a night of just appetizers for New Year’s Eve when I grew up. It was really fun.

Try some of these awesome vegan sides and apps:

Anything Else?

As always, I hope you love this recipe--I know I do, and Mr. Zardyplants does too.

This Vegan Garlic Bread is:

Salty
Buttery
Zesty
Garlicky (I’d hope!)
Cozy
Fresh
Satisfying
And oh so delicious!

Let me know in the comments below if you make this recipe or tag me @Zardyplants on Instagram so I can see your beautiful recreations! If you tag me on IG, I will share your post in my stories :)

Also, one quick request: if you love how this recipe looks or tastes, please leave me a 5-star rating and a nice comment–ratings help more people find my recipes which helps me keep providing them! Thank you!

<3 Liz

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