Toum Recipe - Lebanese Garlic Sauce (2024)

Lebanese garlic sauce, also known as toum, is a rich and creamy sauce made with only four ingredients. It's dairy-free, vegan and ready in no time!

Homemade condiments, sauces and spreads are an important part of our meals because they add so much flavor to elevate our cuisine. Easy sauce and spread recipes such as zhoug, tahini sauce, skordalia, tzatziki and harissa can elevate any dish effortlessly. Today's recipe is for all of you garlic lovers! Toum is a classic Lebanese garlic sauce that you're going to keep making because it's the best!

All about toum

This Lebanese garlic sauce, also known as toum or touma, is made with only four ingredients. It's very versatile and can be used as a sauce with chicken, beef or seafood or as a sandwich spread. While the texture is creamy and thick like mayonnaise, this garlic sauce is actually egg-free, dairy-free, vegan and gluten-free.

If you like garlic, don't miss out on this sauce. The best part is that you can make a large batch and enjoy it for months!

What goes into toum?

• Garlic: This sauce is all about garlic. It's best to use young garlic and you should remove the germ (i.e., the green sprout in the middle). The sauce will be bitter if not removed. You need about one cup peeled garlic cloves, which is about 3 heads of garlic. Jarred, pre-peeled or minced garlic will not work for this recipe.
• Lemon juice: Freshly squeezed lemon juice works best for this recipe. This recipe calls for ¼ cup lemon juice which is equal to 1 lemon.
• Oil: To make toum, you need oil to make an emulsion with the garlic. You can use canola, vegetable, sunflower, avocado or any neutral oil
• Salt: Use kosher salt to add and balance the flavors of the sauce.

How to make toum

1. Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in half to remove the germ (the green sprout) in the middle. Make sure to remove all the germs since they would make the sauce bitter.
2. Place the garlic cloves in the bowl of the food processor and add the ice water. Blend for about 2 minutes to mince the garlic. Scrape down the bowl using a spatula.
3. Add half of the lemon juice and salt to the garlic and blend.
4. As the food processor is running, slowly pour in about 1 cup of the oil into the food processor. This should take about 3 minutes. Stop midway to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
5. Add the rest of the lemon juice and keep the food processor running. Add the rest of the oil as slowly as possible to avoid breakage. It should take you about 6 minutes to pour in 2 cups of oil. Again, stop a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. When ready, the sauce is creamy and rich with a consistency similar to mayonnaise.

Tips to make the best garlic sauce

• Use young garlic: To have a full flavor toum with rich and creamy texture, make sure to use young garlic. Garlic acts as a stabilizer in this sauce and is also the main ingredient. Slice each clove in half and remove the germ before you start making the sauce.
• Slow and steady: Drizzle the oil as slow as possible. It should take about 3 minutes to pour one cup of oil into the food processor. This will ensure that the sauce emulsifies well.
• Refrigerate: This is not a must, but I prefer to refrigerate the sauce for at least a day before serving so the flavor mellows a bit.
• Alternate between the liquids: You need to alternate between the oil and the lemon juice and make sure to finish the blending with the oil. Since lemon juice is acidic, it might break the sauce if added all at once or at the very end of the process.

Serving suggestions

• Condiment: Add it to lavash or pita wraps and sandwiches such as shish kabob and kofta kebab to chicken shawarma, beef shawarma and falafel with some pickled turnips.
• Dip: Use as a dip for grilled meat and seafood such as grilled chicken, shrimp skewers, steak and chicken kabobs or grilled vegetables and grilled asparagus.
• Marinade: Add it to marinades such as salmon marinade, zaatar chicken or Mediterranean garlic chicken.

Benefits of garlic

In addition to adding a lot of flavor to any dish, garlic comes with some other benefits beside flavor:

• It can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
• Garlic has antibiotic properties and will boost your immune system.
• It can work as an anti-inflammatory and could improve heart health.

Love garlic? You've got to try my fool-proof roasted garlic too! It's just perfect with almost anything.

Frequently asked questions

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