Toum Lebanese Garlic Sauce

Name: Toum Lebanese Garlic Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 3 cups vegetable oil; 1 cup garlic cloves (green germ removed); 1 lemon (juiced); 1 teaspoon salt

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This Lebanese garlic sauce recipe, or "toum," is an emulsified white paste made with fresh garlic cloves, lemon juice, oil, and salt.

The star of every barbecue gathering we host in Lebanon has got to be this creamy garlic sauce. Pronounced as TOOM, this dip-style condiment bursts with flavor and adds a tangy twist to barbecued chicken and meat.

Toum sauce is often served with chicken shish tawook, french fries, pita bread, or roasted vegetables. Let's also not forget how most Lebanese people slather "extra toum" in chicken shawarma wraps.

This creamy sauce has a reputation to be complex because of the emulsification process. The step by step guide explains exactly how to make homemade toum and tips to get a fluffy garlic sauce.

Ingredients

Garlic: This Lebanese garlic dip calls for a ton of garlic, but the amount can always be adjusted based on how intense you want your sauce to be. Use fresh whole heads of garlic.
Vegetable Oil: Canola oil works great here, but you can use any other neutral oil like vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or corn oil. Olive oil does not work well for this garlic sauce because of its strong flavor.
Salt: Just a pinch helps to bind all the flavors together. Use kosher salt, sea salt, or flaked salt.
Lemon Juice: This gives the garlic paste a beautiful white color, and balances the flavor. The acidity from the lemon causes emulsification. Use fresh lemon juice.

How To Make Lebanese Garlic Sauce

Squeeze the lemon. Measure out the oil. Put the oil and lemon juice in separate cups that can easily pour into the spout opening of the food processor.

Peel the garlic. Cut the ends off and remove the green germ (or green sprout). Add the garlic cloves to the blender with some salt. Pulse on high.

cutting the tips off of the garlic on a cutting board

adding the garlic cloves and salt to a food processor

Scrape down the sides of the food processor. Turn the food processor on while slowly pouring the oil into a thin stream, alternating with the lemon juice. This is a long process and should take about 10 minutes.

scraping the minced garlic off of the edges of the food processor

slowly pouring the oil into the blended garlic as the food processor blends

The garlic will emulsify into a creamy thick paste. If the garlic is not emulsifying, check the tips section for what to do.

slowly adding the lemon juice to the food processor

Scoop the toum garlic sauce from the food processor into a bowl or airtight container.

lebanese toum garlic sauce in a small white bowl

Tips and Tricks

Make a big batch as shown in the recipe card. Large food processors struggle to emulsify a small batch.
Take your time with it. If you pour the oil or lemon juice into the blender super quickly, the mixture won't emulsify, and you'll have a watery texture. A key tip is to add the garlic and salt into the food processor and whizz them up until the garlic is well minced. Then alternate between the oil and lemon juice for 5 to 10 minutes. Don't rush the process.
If your toum is not emulsifying, there are two tips to fix it. If the food processor is heating up, the mixture may be overheating as it's being processed. Stick the food processor bowl in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes to cool the mixture down. Tip two, if the toum is still not emulsifying (how frustrating!) add two egg whites. If using egg, it will affect the storage length of the toum so don't exceed 5 days of storage in the fridge.
No cornstarch or other thickeners are used for this recipe. The key to successful emulsification is the correct ratios and slowly alternating between the oil and lemon juice.
Use the freshest garlic. This makes a world of difference regarding how the sauce tastes at the end. So make sure to pick up garlic from the store a day before you need to make a big batch of this recipe.
Olive oil doesn't work for this recipe due to its strong flavor.
Always use fresh lemon juice rather than bottled or ready-packed versions when making this sauce.

FAQs

How to fix a runny toum?

If your toum is not emulsifying (thickening up), and you have added all of the oil, do these two things to salvage it. Stick the runny toum in the freezer for about 10 minutes to cool off. Maybe the mixture has overheated due to a hot food processor. Second, add two egg whites to mixture. Turn the food processor on high and wait for about 4 to 5 minutes. If it's still runny, stick it back in the freezer for another 10 minutes and then process again for 5 minutes.

How to make toum emulsify?

The key to the perfect emulsification is slowly alternating the oil and lemon juice by adding it in a thin stream. In the beginning, start the emulsification off on the right foot by not pouring too much oil in.

Why does toum thicken?

The process by which this garlic sauce thickens is called emulsification. The acidic lemon juice suspends the fat particles and creates a thick garlic paste.

What To Serve With Toum

Well, the list is quite endless. It is the perfect companion for shish tawook, rotisserie chicken, and chicken shawarma.

We like to put a little bit of it on everything. The sauce is also often used as a dip. It goes amazingly well with grilled chicken kabobs, chicken wings, batata harra, and mighty homemade fries. It's an integral part of the Lebanese mezze culture, including popular dishes like tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, hummus, and fattoush.

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