Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)

Name: Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: ½ cup peeled whole garlic cloves; 1 tsp sea salt; 3 Tbsp lemon juice; 1 cup avocado oil

Lebanese Garlic Sauce or Toum is a staple in Lebanese cuisine. It's a light, fluffy, and flavorful aioli that can be served with homemade pita bread, chicken shawarma plate, kofta kebabs, or as a dipping sauce. If you love garlic, you will fall in love with this garlic sauce recipe!

toum, garlic sauce in a blue bowl with a dishtowel around it.

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It's my 500th post and I wanted to share a special recipe to commemorate this achievement. 🥳 If you're wondering what's so special about toum, you've probably never tried it.

Or, maybe you've had Lebanese Garlic Sauce served to you at a Middle Eastern restaurant and you've wanted to make it ever since? Either way, I'm excited to share this recipe with you!

Jump to:

🤔 What Is Toum?
😍 Why You'll Love This Recipe
🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
🔪 Helpful Tools
🧄 Toum With An Immersion Blender
🌀Toum Using A Food Processor
🥙 What to Serve with Toum?
🤔 Toum Troubleshooting Tips
🫙 Toum with Olive Oil vs. Neutral Oils
🤷🏻‍♀️ Recipe FAQs
👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips
🍯 More Sauce Recipes
📖 Recipe
💬 Comments

🤔 What Is Toum?

In Arabic, "toum" means "garlic." Toum is a Lebanese Garlic Sauce and the father of all other aiolis! As a matter of fact, the word "aioli" means "garlic and oil." However, toum has a higher garlic-to-oil ratio than most aiolis.

Aiolis are sometimes made with mayonnaise (as in my black truffle oil aioli and Sriracha aioli). This is done to skip the emulsification process, which can be a chore because sometimes the emulsion breaks. Unlike mayo, toum is stabilized with garlic instead of eggs.

I tried making toum with a mortar and pestle (like my ancestors), and it was a slippery mess! My hands ached after a few minutes and were covered with oil. It made working with my marble pestle impossible.

Next, I tried my food processor, but it was too large for this small batch of Lebanese garlic sauce. Finally, I purchased a small 3-cup food processor, which was the perfect tool for the job!

I then took it a step further and tried making toum with my immersion blender. It was flawless and easy, so it's going to be the only way I make it from now on.

If you follow this detailed recipe, you can make a light, fluffy, and delicious toum on your first try... which is more than I can say for myself, ahem.

😍 Why You'll Love This Recipe

Toum tastes amazing and can be used in a variety of ways. Spread it on cream cheese garlic bread, use it as a dip, or smear it on this grilled ribeye recipe or these smoked ribeyes!
Because we're not adding egg whites to bind it, this garlic sauce recipe's shelf life is extended from a week to months.
This Lebanese garlic sauce can elevate so many dishes!
You'll learn how to make toum with an immersion blender and a food processor.

🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions

Garlic: You will need fresh garlic, which is the star of the show. No minced and bottled garlic allowed!
Oil: Most toum recipes call for a neutral oil such as safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, or grapeseed oil. If you use a neutral oil, your toum will be white, while using olive oil will result in a pale yellow-colored toum. They are both delicious in their own way. If you want a healthy option, I recommend using avocado oil.
Lemon Juice: You can either use fresh lemon juice or bottled. I'm using bottled juice for this recipe.
Salt: Sea salt not only flavors the toum, but it also helps to break down the garlic as you blend it.

🔪 Helpful Tools

To make this Lebanese garlic sauce recipe, you'll need a food processor or an immersion blender. If you decide to use a food processor, I highly recommend the small food processor below. It's very affordable and only allows you to add a tiny amount of oil at a time through the hole in the lid. This should ensure a successful emulsification process.

However, if you have an immersion blender, it will be even easier to make this garlic sauce recipe in a fraction of the time!

🧄 Toum With An Immersion Blender

Step 1: Peel garlic cloves and discard skins. Slice garlic cloves in half and remove any visible germs from the center. Not all cloves have a visible germ to remove.

removing garlic germ from garlic cloves.

Pro Tip: If you decide not to remove the germ, the garlic sauce will likely be spicier, somewhat similar to horseradish in taste, and might be slightly bitter.

Step 2: Add garlic, salt, and lemon juice to a tall, cylindrical container such as a quart-sized wide-mouthed mason jar. Use an immersion blender to blend the ingredients until frothy.

adding salt to garlic cloves inside a glass jar.

adding lemon juice into a jar of garlic.

using an immersion blender to make toum, garlic sauce.

Step 3: Pour oil into the jar all at once. Slowly lift the immersion blender up and down as you blend the oil into the other ingredients. The mixture will emulsify and get thick. It should take less than 5 minutes.

Lebanese garlic sauce or toum in a bowl with more on a red spatula.

toum in a bowl with a red white and gray dishcloth

🌀Toum Using A Food Processor

Step 1: Peel garlic cloves and discard the skins. Next, split each garlic clove in half lengthwise. Remove garlic germ from the center of every clove that has one. Not all cloves have a visible germ.

Step 2: Add garlic and salt to the bowl of a food processor. Blend to make a garlic paste. You will need to occasionally remove the lid and scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

garlic being minced for making toum in a food processor.

Step 3: With the food processor running, pour oil into the food process in a very thin, thread-like stream. Alternate with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Continue alternating between the two until the mixture is emulsified. Since the ingredients are being added very slowly, it will take around 20 minutes to make.

pouring oil into the lid of a small food processor to make garlic sauce.

Pro Tip: Don't forget to stop every now and then to keep the food processor's motor from overheating.

🥙 What to Serve with Toum?

In the Middle East, toum is served with so many meals! Serve this luscious garlic sauce in your prettiest bowl with a chicken shawarma plate, falafel wraps, beef shawarma, these juicy steak kabobs, or this easy doner kebab recipe.

You can also slather it on sandwiches instead of mayo or use it as a dip with pita chips or French fries! It can also be thinned to make a delicious salad dressing.

yellow toum, garlic sauce in a bowl with a salad and part of a blue plate

🤔 Toum Troubleshooting Tips

If the emulsion breaks, it's usually because the oil was added too quickly while using a food processor. Some people suggest adding one egg white to bind the garlic sauce.

However, that doesn't always work. Also, adding an egg white decreases the shelf life. Not to mention, consuming raw eggs isn't always safe, so I don't recommend this method.

I do recommend fixing a broken emulsion with 2 ounces of boiled potatoes instead. To do this, add a boiled and cooled potato to a food processor and blend until mashed. Then pour the broken emulsion into the food processor and blend until the garlic sauce comes together.

🫙 Toum with Olive Oil vs. Neutral Oils

One of the biggest differences between toum with olive oil versus other neutral oils is the color. Toum made with olive oil is pale yellow in color, while using neutral oils will yield a white garlic sauce.

2 mason jars, of white and yellow garlic sauce

Another difference between the two is that you can taste the distinct olive oil flavor in a garlic sauce made with olive oil. If you prepare it with a neutral oil, it tastes slightly more lemony. The healthiest option is to use olive oil or avocado oil.

🤷🏻‍♀️ Recipe FAQs

What do you eat with garlic sauce?

Garlic sauce is so delicious that you can serve it as a dip with pita chips or crackers. It can be added to a Mediterranean charcuterie board or slathered on your favorite savory sandwiches. It also pairs well with most Middle Eastern dishes, including shawarma and kabobs.

What is Middle Eastern garlic sauce made of?

Middle Eastern garlic sauce, or toum, is made with an emulsion of fresh garlic, a neutral oil, lemon juice, and salt. Sometimes water is also added.

Why is garlic sauce so spicy?

Garlic sauce can sometimes be spicy, especially if your garlic is very fresh or if you don't remove the germ inside the garlic cloves. However, garlic sauce usually mellows out with a little time and patience.

👩🏼‍🍳 Pro Tips

For a successful garlic sauce every time, start with a high-powered immersion blender or a small 3-cup food processor.
If you decide to do a double batch, you will need a 5 or 6-cup processor instead.
Use high-quality, fresh garlic cloves instead of minced or pre-peeled garlic.
Lebanese garlic dip can last for months when stored in an airtight container in the fridge, but it will be less potent over time.
This garlic sauce recipe will be thicker in texture if prepared in a food processor and lighter and fluffier if you use an immersion blender. That's because the longer the mixture is blended, the thicker the texture will be.

🍯 More Sauce Recipes

If you love this toum recipe, check out these other great sauces!

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Hilda Sterner