The ONLY Toum Recipe You Need (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy
A vegan five-ingredient Lebanese staple, Toum is an incredibly flavourful garlic sauce that can be served for dipping meat or for spreading in sandwiches and wraps, such as shawarmas. All of your questions on how to make fluffy and delicious Toum are in one spot - from using a blender, using the “lazy method,” and using an immersion blender!
Do you get way too excited when you see a new dipping sauce? I have to admit that sauces are one of my simple pleasures in life! When I have the opportunity to, I definitely ask for extra sauce.
Ever since I could remember, the garlic sauce they serve at shawarma shops has been my favourite. I remember at one point in time I was more addicted to the garlic sauce at one shop more than anything else that I would go to the shop and purchase potatoes and shawarmas just so I could eat that sauce!
With that being said, this Toum recipe is certainly long overdue! As I describe in my free motivational guide to explore your potential in the kitchen, Make Cooking Fun!!, going out to eat can spark lots of new recipe ideas! I love tasting new dishes and then trying to replicate them at home. My goal is to make the best shawarmas at home, and I will be sharing that soon! However, to make an incredible shawarma, you really need that garlic sauce!
What I’ve come to learn after making five batches of Toum in the span of two days is that it seems simple in principle, but Toum is quite a science to master! This ultimate guide to Toum will guarantee success! We’ll go over which tool you should use, how to fix Toum that failed, and how to adjust the texture!
If Lebanon is a destination unseen for you, then you must try out this Toum recipe as part of your Live to Cook one-month challenge! If you want to get started on your cooking journey for free, then be sure to sign up to my email newsletter for all of my inspirational resources, plus you’ll get all of my new recipes delivered straight to your inbox!
To get a demonstration of how to make the best Toum and learn how to perfect your Lebanese garlic sauce, in addition to preventing splitting, then be sure to watch the video at the bottom of this post! If you’re not already, please subscribe to my YouTube channel and don’t forget to press the bell button to be notified when all of my video recipes are live! Let’s get blending!
Questions You May Have!
What is Toum?
Toum is a garlic sauce or dip with ancient origins. However, Toum as we know now was popularized in Lebanon. In Arabic, “toum” directly translates to “garlic.” You’ll see below that there are only FIVE ingredients to make Toum, and the main components are garlic cloves and oil. Toum is vegan and super easy to make, plus it’s incredibly versatile! You’ll see later on in this post plenty of serving suggestions to make Toum part of a hearty meal! Traditionally, Toum is made with a mortar and pestle, however, that method requires a heavy mortar and pestle and LOTS of work! In this recipe, I’ll show you a quick way to make it in the immersion blender!
Can I Buy Toum at The Grocery store?
Yes, you can get Toum at your local grocery store! I’ve easily found it at my grocery store, but to be honest I’ve never bought it myself. However, you may be able to snag a free container of garlic sauce from your local shawarma or restaurant serving Middle Eastern cuisine! I’ve done that before to save some dollars and have some freshly made garlic sauce on hand!
Is Toum Healthy?
This is a question that is highly asked and debated. Yes, there’s vegetable oil in here, which is a refined oil. To make matters “worse,” there’s quite a lot of it! However, you need to put the quantities into perspective. You will be using all of that oil to make a fairly large batch of Toum, but I doubt that you will have more than a tablespoon - perhaps two, max! - in one serving. As a result, one tablespoon is probably one twentieth of the recipe, or less! As a result, the oil in the small amount of Toum would not have any adverse affects on your health. Additionally, we should think more about the positive! Garlic itself has so many health benefits, including assisting in the reduction of blood pressure, boosting immunity, and antioxidants that can prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. For more information on the health benefits of garlic, then check out this article.
Do I have to Use Vegetable Oil?
Vegetable is a cheap and easily accessible neutral oil that is versatile and will last a long time. However, if you don’t want to use vegetable oil or don’t have it, that’s not a problem! Other suitable neutral oils that you can replace vegetable oil with include canola oil, peanut oil, grapeseed oil, or even avocado oil.
Is There a Difference between Using a Blender or a Food Processor to make Toum?
Yes, there really is! Let me be frank with you, I first started to make the Toum in my Vitamix blender. If you’ve ever seen Vitamix ads, you know that it’s praised for being able to make ANYTHING! I’ve tried twice and the Toum split. It literally is because of the blades at the bottom, it just cannot emulsify the oil and the garlic into one smooth consistency. This Toum recipe is literally what made me go out and buy my food processor (and immersion blender!), and now I’m really happy with it! If you don’t believe me, check out my attempt below making Toum in the Vitamix.
Why Is My Toum So Runny?
It’s most likely that the Toum split and did not emulsify properly. This can happen due to the oil not being added in a gentle stream and allowed to emulsify well together. You also need to ensure that the ingredients are at room temperature before blending since cold ingredients can also cause the Toum to split.
How to Fix Failed Toum?
It depends on what happened to you. Firstly, if it split, then you probably just want to discard it, since it’s not usable. If it’s too thin, then you can try to just keep emulsifying. You’ll see soon that the key that was a game changer for me to make it fluffy was… the VESSEL in which I emulsified! You want to use a wide base bowl or container when using an immersion blender so that there’s enough room to blend and make the mixture fluffy. Look at my picture guide or video to see what container I used.
Why Is My Toum Not Fluffy?
First of all, if this is your question, then this implies that your Toum has likely not split, so congratulations! You made it through a tricky part. Now, the good news is that you can definitely troubleshoot this problem! You likely need to emulsify and blend the mixture further to ensure it gets fluffier. Some cold ice water can also be added to help make the mixture fluffier. Potentially adding all the oil at once can cause Toum to be too thin, as you can see in the images below. Furthermore, I’ve observed that the Toum is too thin when I was using an immersion blender in a container that was too thin! The main takeaway you need from this recipe is that you CAN use an immersion blender, but your jar or container needs to wider than the mouth of the blender in order to get proper aeration and emulsification. Look at my picture guide or video to see what container I used.
Does Toum Thicken in the Fridge?
Toum would be its thickest when freshly prepared due to the incorporation of air during the emulsification process. Most likely in the fridge the Toum will start to get thinner. But, if this happens, simply use your immersion blender and blend it again for longer to obtain the previous texture.
Is Toum Spicy?
Not really, unless you find garlic spicy. There is a spicy version of a Toum, commonly known as spicy garlic sauce which may be more your fit if that’s what you’re looking for.
What Can I do to Make the Garlic Flavour Less Strong?
If you don’t want a super potent garlic flavour, the solution is simple! For your Toum to be less garlicky, just add more oil in comparison to garlic. The standard ratio is one part garlic to two parts oil, but you can add even more oil if you or whomever you’re serving the Toum to is sensitive to garlic.
Equipment Needed for Toum
Ingredients for Lebanese Garlic Sauce
There’s not much you’ll need to make the best Lebanese Garlic Sauce recipe! Most likely you already have everything on hand! To see all ingredients and their quantities and to save the recipe for later, scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE recipe card or press the “Jump to Recipe” button. You can also use the recipe card to scale the ingredients based on how much garlic sauce you’d like to make so that you have just the right amount of garlic cloves and vegetable oil for the best results!
Garlic: No other way around it! You’ll need fresh cloves of garlic here.
Vegetable oil: Used as an emulsifier to make the base for the Toum.
Lemon juice: The acidity from the lemon juice tones down the strong garlic flavour. Lime juice can work fine here too.
Ice water: You need ice water to thin out the Toum if you find that it is too thick. Of course, if the texture is already to your liking, then this ingredient is optional!
Salt: Key seasoning here to bring the garlic sauce together.
How to Make Authentic Lebanese Garlic Sauce
Place the garlic and salt in a wide mouth mason jar or plastic jar with a base that is wider than the immersion blender.
Insert the immersion blender into the jar and blend until the garlic turns into a purée. Scrape down the sides and blades of the immersion blender if necessary to ensure even blending.
Gradually add vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp at a time and start blending at the bottom of the jar. Keep the immersion blender running at the bottom and slowly pulse it up, down and around the circumference of the container to begin emulsifying.
After you have added half the amount of oil, 1 Tbsp at a time, add 1 Tbsp of lemon or lime juice and blend again. Then, start adding more vegetable oil and keep adding more lemon or lime juice, 1 Tbsp at a time as you alternate between the two until you have finished the oil or the zesty flavour from the lemon or lime juice is to your liking.
As you blend and add the oil, you will see the mixture thicken and emulsify. Be patient and avoid rushing the process. Once all the oil is incorporated, blend for an additional minute to ensure a stable emulsion.
If the Toum is too thick, you can add 2-4 tablespoons of ice water to lighten the texture. Blend for another 10-15 seconds to incorporate the water and achieve a fluffy consistency.
Serve with meat, as a sandwich spread, or just as a dip, and enjoy!
Tips for Making the Perfect Batch of Toum
Make sure to use a large mouthed mason jar or a plastic jar with a base that’s much wider than the immersion blender to get the expected fluffy texture for Toum. Don’t use the pitcher that comes packaged with an immersion blender.
You can even prepare this Toum using a traditional food processor with a pouring spout. Make sure to add the vegatble oil in a very gradual, thin drizzle as the blades are spinning to ensure the oil gets emulsified properly with the garlic.
While you can also slowly drizzle oil for the immersion blender method, it doesn’t make a difference if you simply add oil and lemon juice 1 Tbsp at a time as you slowly emulsify using the blender.
The oil needs to be a neutral oil, a type that doesn’t impart it’s too much of its own flavour on the Toum. For instance, olive oil has its own flavour that will compete with the garlic flavour Canola oil, avocado oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil, they are all great options.
Having all the ingredients at room temperature is recommended to help with the emulsification.
If the Toum is too runny, you can try to blend for longer or if that doesn’t work, add bit of oil very slowly as you continue to emulsify.
If the Toum is too thick, you can thin it out using ice cold water, add 1 Tbsp at a type as you re-emulsify until the texture lightens up.
How to Serve Authentic Lebanese Garlic Sauce
Shawarmas: I love shawarmas! These are Lebanese meat sandwiches that are made with chicken or beef, and garlic sauce is the main white sauce that you see spread on the pita bread before the toppings in shawarma shops.
Salad dressing: Why not! You’ve got flavour that can be incredible to add over an Arugula Salad with Goat’s Cheese, a Vegan Lentil Salad, or a Mediterranean Couscous Salad.
Bread: You can spread over pita bread just for a snack or even any other kind of bread, such as naan or perhaps rotis!
Sandwiches and wraps: As I mentioned above, the most typical sandwich Toum is used in is a shawarma. However, since this toum recipe will yield a fair amount of garlic sauce, you can use garlic sauce in any kind of sandwich and wrap of your choice! For some more direction on how to incorporate new sauces and dips in some tasty lunch sandwiches and wraps, be sure to refer to my guide to prep the perfect sandwiches.
As a dip: You can dip your Lebanese Beef Kafta Skewers, Shawarma Chicken, or even just some Grilled Chicken in Toum. Actually, the original purpose of Toum was to dip meats into it! However, I’ve always loved to dip my Roasted Potatoes in garlic sauce - I used to get those all the time at shawarma shops!
Fries: Why not dip your fries in some garlic sauce? It’s a really good combination! Try it with your Air Fryer French Fries, Waffle Fries, Sweet Potato Fries, or even Curly Fries.
Marination: You can use your garlic sauce for Middle Eastern-style marination where garlic and olive oil would typically be used.
How Long Does Lebanese Garlic Sauce Stay Good For?
2-3 weeks is the common refrigeration guideline Toum. However, if you want to be extra careful, I recommend that store Lebanese garlic sauce in the fridge for 7-10 days. While refrigeration below 40 F or 4 C and lime juice helps inhibit and slow down bacteria growth and therefore botulism risk, it doesn’t stop it.
How to Store Toum
You have a few options for storing your Lebanese Garlic Sauce. For easy spooning for spreading, transfer the garlic sauce into a clean mason jar or in an airtight container. To drizzle the garlic sauce over sandwiches, then store the garlic sauce in a squeeze bottle, but make sure that you cut a portion of the spout out. Because the sauce is a bit thick, it can be hard to pour it out of the thin nozzle. Before consuming, be sure to always check for any signs of discolouration, foul smells or mold
Other Fresh and Flavourful Sauces and Dips!
Watch How to Make Lebanese Toum Garlic Sauce Here:
Let me know what you think of this recipe in the comments! If you’ve tried this recipe, be sure to post it on social media and tag it with #cookingwithanadi and mention me @cooking.with.anadi. Thank you!
The Ultimate Guide to Making Fluffy Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)
Ingredients
- 1 Cup garlic, peeled (remove green germ if present)
- 2 tsp salt
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- 3 Cups neutral oil (canola or vegetable oil)
- 2-4 Tbsp ice water (optional, for a lighter texture)
Instructions
- Place the garlic and salt in a wide mouth mason jar or plastic jar with a base that is wider than the immersion blender.
- Insert the immersion blender into the jar and blend until the garlic turns into a purée. Scrape down the sides and blades of the immersion blender if necessary to ensure even blending.
- Gradually add vegetable oil, 1 Tbsp at a time and start blending at the bottom of the jar. Keep the immersion blender running at the bottom and slowly pulse it up, down and around the circumference of the container to begin emulsifying.
- After you have added half the amount of oil, 1 Tbsp at a time, add 1 Tbsp of lemon or lime juice and blend again. Then, start adding more vegetable oil and keep adding more lemon or lime juice, 1 Tbsp at a time as you alternate between the two until you have finished the oil or the zesty flavour from the lemon or lime juice is to your liking.
- As you blend and add the oil, you will see the mixture thicken and emulsify. Be patient and avoid rushing the process. Once all the oil is incorporated, blend for an additional minute to ensure a stable emulsion.
- If the Toum is too thick, you can add 4 tablespoons of ice water to lighten the texture. Blend for another 10-15 seconds to incorporate the water and achieve a fluffy consistency.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
2052.11Fat (grams)
224.28 gSat. Fat (grams)
16.54 gCarbs (grams)
16.39 gFiber (grams)
1.01 gNet carbs
15.37 gSugar (grams)
0.95 gProtein (grams)
2.95 gSodium (milligrams)
1558.98 mgCholesterol (grams)
0 mgNutrition info is an estimate.
Follow me
Meet Anadi
Welcome to Cooking With Anadi. This platform is all about making cooking exciting and finding new ways to bring classic flavours and recipes at your service. Join me in my personal journey in the world of cooking. Hope you have a great ride!
