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    Home » Recipes » Dips and Sauces

    Toum Lebanese Garlic Sauce

    By Mariam・Published:Jul 13, 2020・Updated: Jun 6, 2021・Post may have affiliate links.

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
    TOUM LEBANESE GARLIC SAUCE DIP

    The star of every barbecue gathering we host in Lebanon has got to be the Lebanese garlic sauce called toum. Pronounced as TOOM, this dip-style condiment bursts with flavor and adds a tangy twist to barbecued chicken and meat. It is often served with chicken shish tawook, french fries, on top of toasted bread, or roasted vegetables.

    toum lebanese garlic paste

    Let's also not forget how most Lebanese people slather "extra toum" in shawarma wraps and tawook sandwiches. You might think it's pretty complex to whip up a batch of this sauce at home but honestly, it doesn't have to be. We made the recipe and with a little bit of effort, we promise you'll have a tub of extra delicious "toum," to serve and devour.

    What I Love About This Recipe

    Toum garlic dipping sauce is a delicious sauce for shish tawook, chicken shawarma (or shawarma chicken wings), and cilantro garlic fried potatoes (batata harra). It's creamy, tangy, garlicky, and delicious. It only takes 10 minutes to whip up, and it lasts for up to a month in the fridge in an airtight container.

    Ingredients

    ingredients needed to make toum garlic sauce
    • Garlic: Easy to guess this one right? The recipe calls for a ton of garlic but the amount can always be adjusted based on how pungent you want your sauce to be.
    • Vegetable Oil: Canola oil works great here but you can use any other vegetable oil (sunflower/corn).
    • Salt: Just a pinch helps to bind all the flavors together.
    • Lemon Juice: This is what gives the garlic paste a beautiful white color and it also balances the flavor out.

    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 (if any). 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 in a thin stream, alternating with the lemon juice.

    • 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 paste.

    • slowly adding the lemon juice to the food processor
    • Lebanese garlic toum

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

    lebanese toum garlic sauce in a small white bowl

    Tips and Tricks

    • Take your time with it. If you pour in the oil or lemon juice into the blender super quick the mixture won't emulsify and you'll end up with a watery texture so 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 start alternating between the oil and lemon juice over a period of 15 minutes. Don't rush the process.
    • Use the freshest garlic. This makes a world of difference when it comes to 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 when making this sauce rather than the bottled or ready-packed versions.
    garlic cloves in bowls

    Storage

    This sauce can last for up to a month if refrigerated in an airtight container. After a month, its freshness might be affected so make sure to use it up before it goes bad.

    Equipment

    • A good knife
    • Food processor or blender
    • Airtight container

    How To Thicken Garlic Sauce 

    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. No cornstarch or other thickeners are used for this recipe. The key for successful emulsification is the right ratios and going very slowly for all of the ingredients to blend evenly.

    What Do You Eat With Toum?

    Well, the list is quite endless. We like to put a little bit of it on everything really. 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 which includes popular dishes like tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, hummus, and fattoush to name a few.

    • Cilantro Garlic Fried Potatoes (Batata Harra)
    • How to Make French Fries
    • Oven Broiled Lamb Kabobs
    • Slow Roasted Crispy Chicken Thighs and Potatoes

    More Lebanese Recipes

    • Fried Kibbeh Balls
    • Homemade Labneh Dip From Milk
    • Lebanese Tabouli Salad (Tabbouleh)
    • Epic Fatoosh Salad With Pomegranate

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    Lebanese toum garlic sauce

    Toum Lebanese Garlic Sauce

    Author: Mariam N.
    Course: Sauce
    Cuisine: Lebanese
    Prep: 10 mins
    Total: 10 mins
    5 from 2 votes
    Print Pin Rate Email
    Servings 48
    Toum garlic sauce is a delicious Lebanese dip-style garlic paste for barbecued chicken and vegetables made with garlic, lemon juice, and oil.

    Ingredients
     
    US Customary - Metric

    • 3 cups vegetable oil
    • 1 cup garlic cloves green germ removed
    • 1 lemon juiced
    • 1 teaspoon salt

    Instructions

    • Peel the cloves of garlic, remove splinters, and the green germ inside each clove.
    • Place the garlic cloves in a food processor and pulse until they're minced.
    • Add the salt and pulse a little more.
    • Slowly start adding the oil and lemon juice in intervals (pulse for a few minutes between each addition).
    • Keep pulsing until you're done adding all the oil and lemon juice.
    • You'll have a soft but emulsified white paste that's ready to serve.
    • Serve and sahtein!

    Notes

    1. The sauce keeps for up to month if refrigerated in an airtight container. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1tablespoon | Calories: 123kcal | Carbohydrates: 0g | Protein: 0g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 12g | Trans Fat: 0g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 0mg | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 0g

    More Homemade Dips and Sauces

    • Meaty Lasagna Tomato Sauce (From Scratch!)
    • Creamy White Béchamel Sauce
    • Homemade Garlic Butter Sauce
    • Homemade Shrimp Cocktail Sauce (So Easy!)

    About Mariam

    I am Mariam Nabbout, a writer and content creator. I’ve spent years dedicating research, digital, and filmmaking skills to come up with content that's just as meaningful as it is inspiring. A few of my obsessions include good branding, films, photography, design, art, and of course, food.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

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      Recipe Rating




    1. Jamie

      July 28, 2021 at 11:54 am

      5 stars
      Hi. I just have one question. Whenever we store our toum inside the fridge using airtight container for example 1 day, once we put it out of the fridge, the toum melts and the oil that I used starts to show. It does not stay as toum anymore. Hope you can help me with the proper storage so it will still stay the same. Thank you. By the way, I am using palm oil for this.

      Reply
      • Lily

        July 28, 2021 at 12:41 pm

        Thanks for the comment! How long is the toum outside the fridge before it starts melting? I haven't tried making toum with palm oil, normally I use vegetable oil or canola oil. I'm wondering if it's melting because of the oil type.

        Reply
    2. Mireille

      July 13, 2020 at 5:50 pm

      5 stars
      Amazing description and easy to follow up
      Thank you Mariam 👍🏼

      Reply

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