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Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce made with just 4 simple ingredients! It’s easy to make because the sauce comes together in a food processor and lasts for months in the fridge!
Today I’m bringing you one of my all-time favorite condiments – a homemade garlic sauce recipe.
My toum recipe has only 4 pantry staple ingredients and it uses only the freshest garlic! The creaminess and texture are similar to mayonnaise or aioli but this sauce is completely vegan and gluten-free as it doesn’t have eggs or even egg whites.
We’re BIG on garlic in this house. Give me a bowl of French fries and some Lebanese garlic sauce and I’m all set.
It’s easy to see why we’ve always got large batches of homemade toum sauce in the refrigerator.
It’s the perfect condiment to spread on a roast beef or turkey sandwich, or to serve with dishes like rotisserie chicken, add a dollop to tuna salad instead of mayo, with middle eastern dishes, chicken shawarma in pita bread, beef shawarma bowls, grilled chicken kebabs, or shish tawook, amongst so many others.
You know how some people dip their fries in mayonnaise? Well, I’m the kind that dips their fries in homemade toum; and let me tell you, it’s lifechanging!
Calories shmalories when it comes to garlic dip; right?
Worked great and tastes delicious! Never had toum before this, but sure will be making again!
Let’s Make My Viral Lebanese Toum ⤵️
@littlespicejar How to make Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce) Perfect for homemade Shawarmas and all sorts of other things! #toum #garlicsauce #AXERatioChallenge #fyp #fypシ #shawarma #garlic #saucy #cooking #easyrecipes #homemade ♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) – Danilo Stankovic
Why you need to try toum
Toum, toumya, or salsat toum is a homemade garlic sauce with a fluffy texture. There are 4 ingredients: salt, lemon juice, garlic, and oil. Instead of using an egg as an emulsifier, like a traditional mayonnaise recipe, the garlic acts as a stabilizer. Traditionally made in a mortar and pestle. Some recipes call for boiled potatoes to help stabilize the sauce, however, adding the acid and the oil in small batches prevents us from breaking the emulsion, so you shouldn’t need anything extra
Ingredients for Lebanese garlic sauce
- Garlic Cloves: You’ll need a ton of fresh garlic for this recipe! Unfortunately, jarred garlic is not a good substitute for fresh garlic as it doesn’t pack the same flavor punch. For best results, I suggest using whole heads of garlic, peeling, and removing the green sprout germ from the center (it’s the green portion in the very center of the clove) using a small paring knife. More on that in a second. You can also find peeled garlic in the refrigerated produce section of most grocery stores these days.
- Lemon Juice: Fresh lemon juice and oil are alternated to create an oil and lemon juice emulsion. Lemons give the sauce just a hint of tang and help increase the shelf life. Once you pulse the garlic with salt in a food processor, you slowly add in the lemon juice alternating with oil until the condiment comes together.
- Kosher Salt: kosher salt gives flavor to the sauce and acts as a preservative. A teaspoon of kosher salt will sound like a lot but trust me, once the emulsion is created, you’ll notice it has the perfect flavor.
- Oil: You’ll want to use a neutral oil that is colorless and flavorless. Canola oil, Sunflower oil, safflower oil, avocado oil, vegetable, and corn oil will also work. I used dark green grapeseed oil the first time I made Lebanese garlic sauce, and let’s just say it was a mistake! It gave my sauce a slightly unappealing green tinge. Same would apply for olive oil.
How to make creamy Lebanese garlic sauce
- Garlic, Garlic, Garlic! Pulse 1/2 cup of garlic cloves and salt together in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. The amount of garlic might seem like a lot, but trust me, with how much oil we’re adding you’ll need it. This recipe makes close to 2 cups of sauce. It’s very important to use a food processor that has an opening at the top so you can slowly stream in the oil and lemon juice for better control. Once the garlic is minced, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. If the food processor is very hot, give it a few minutes to cool down before proceeding. You can also pop the whole food processor bowl, blade, and garlic mixture into the fridge for a few minutes!
- Emulsification Process. Start the food processor and slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of oil. Stop the bowl and scrape down the sides. You want to alternate between the oil and the lemon juice. Once you’ve added 1/4 cup of oil, pour in 1 tablespoon of oil. Take your time here and do this in a thin stream. Adding too much oil at once can cause the sauce to break. Then switch back to the oil, followed by the lemon juice, more oil, more lemon juice, and finally the last bit of oil. When the garlic sauce is done, it’ll be fluffy and have a cloud-like consistency. Scrape the sauce into a bowl or a glass jar or a airtight container. Cover and refrigerate the sauce and allow it to cool down before serving. It will have a VERY intense garlic flavor so you want to let it sit for a a day before serving.
FAQs about this recipe
Cut the garlic clove in half the center contains the ‘germ.’ If it’s young garlic, the germ is a pale yellow, but as the garlic ages, the germ turns green. It’s important to remove this little sprout before making toum because it may cause the sauce to have a bitter taste.
I find if you eat this the same day you make it, it’s way more garlicky. Its best to place in the fridge for 10 hours minimum before consuming.
At least 3 months if kept in an airtight container (preferably glass) in the fridge.
Sometimes if the food processor starts to get too hot as you’re streaming in the liquids, the sauce can become too thin. If you find this happens to you, the next time you make the sauce, I suggest allowing the food processor to cool down completely before creating the emulsion with lemon juice and oil. You can also add in an ice cube and let it melt into the sauce slowly while you stream the lemon juice and oil. As it melts, the ice water should help cool down the food processor blade a bit.
If you like this recipe, you might also like:
- 20-Minute Greek Gyros
- Easy Chicken Gyros with French Fries
- Easy Persian Chicken Kebabs
- The Best Homemade Falafel Recipe
- Greek Chicken Souvlaki Bowls
- Beef Shawarma Bowls with Vermicelli Pasta Rice
Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)
Ingredients
- ½ cup garlic cloves slice down the center and remove green germ
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 ½ cups colorless oil such as sunflower
Instructions
- GARLIC: Pulse the garlic and salt together in the food processor until very finely minced. Scrape down the sides and up the bowl. Run the food processor while adding ¼ cup oil in a slow, steady stream.
- EMULSION: Stop the food processor and scrape down the bowl one last time. Then run the food processor while you add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice very slowly. Alternate between these two ingredients making sure to add in a slow and steady stream. Add in ½ cup of oil, followed by 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Then add ¼ cup of oil, the last tablespoon of lemon juice, and finally the remaining ½ cup of oil.
- REFRIGERATE: Transfer the garlic sauce to a bowl or glass mason jar, cover, and refrigerate for up to 3 months. The garlic sauce will lose its garlicky flavor the longer it sits so I usually try to use it within 1 month. The sauce can be consumed immediately or after refrigeration. I find that it tastes better the day after you make it.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like This? Leave a comment & rating below!
This is so delicious. It goes great with so many things. This is a keeper!
Tastes so good, but it’s liquid. How do i make it fluffy?
Third time is the charm! I made 3 versions of toum and yours was the only one that really worked (ie wasn’t unbearably intense), perfect description (love it when the recipes are so precise). Excited to serve to our guests tomorrow. Thank you Marzia!
I made this yesterday and put it in the fridge. It is still very “bitey” from the garlic. Should I let it sit a few more days?
Hi Genevieve! Yes, give it another 24-48 hours, it will definitely mellow some more!
We love this garlicky fluff! I have made this several times and I especially like it with Marzia’s kafta (we prefer to make these with lamb) recipe.
Garlicky fluff is the perfect way to describe it ☺️ Thank you circling back and leaving a review, Lucy!
Worked great and tastes delicious! Never had toum before this, but sure will be making again! My food processor has one of those attachments that makes streaming oil in slowly a breeze, so was super easy after the garlic was prepped. Did make more than I expected though. Will have to look for some more things to eat it with!
Hi Lindsay! So happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe. It does hold up well in the refrigerator for quite some time and it’s delicious with grilled meats/veggies! Thank you for circling back to leave a review 🙂
Hi Marzia, I plan on making the toum very soon. Above the recipe there is a picture with some toum and what looks like ground meat in pitas. They look delicious. Could you tell me what they are? Many thanks
Hi Karen! So glad you plan on giving the sauce a try! The recipe for the pictured meat-stuffed pitas will be shared tomorrow on the blog! 🙂