Prepare this easy toum recipe in the comfort of your home. The flavorful Lebanese garlic comes together with just fresh garlic, oil, and lemon juice, creating the perfect condiment for kabobs, grilled chicken, roasted veggies, sandwiches, or wraps. Garlic lovers will also fall for sos czosnkowy, a delicious Polish garlic sauce.
What is Toum?
Toum is a Lebanese garlic sauce similar to garlic aioli, made with similar ingredients. All you need is fresh garlic, oil, and lemon juice.
Restaurants serve the popular Middle Eastern condiment with chicken, lamb, and beef kabobs, as well as dishes like chicken shawarma, falafel, and shish tawook.
And in case you’re wondering, the name toum, pronounced ‘toom,’ means ‘garlic’ in Arabic, which is fitting given the sauce’s flavor.
Key Ingredients
If you’re a garlic lover like me, you’ll want to put this creamy garlic spread on absolutely everything! And all you need is four simple ingredients to make it. Here’s everything you need to get started.
- Garlic: Add a whole head of garlic (or more). Use a silicone garlic peeler to cut preparation time in half.
- Lemon Juice: Brighten the sauce with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Select a lemon with a vibrant color and a heavy weight for its size. Let it come to room temperature and roll it between your palm and the counter to make it easier to juice.
- Salt: Flavor toum with a little kosher salt.
- Oil: Use a neutral oil, such as avocado, canola, vegetable, safflower, or grapeseed, to give toum its creamy texture and flavor.
Why use a neutral oil for toum?
You’ll want to use a neutral oil for toum so the garlic can stay front and center. Stronger oils, like extra-virgin olive oil, can overpower the flavor. Neutral oils such as canola, grapeseed, sunflower, or avocado oil keep the flavor bright and let the garlic shine.
Neutral oils are usually lighter, which helps the toum whip up into a smooth consistency without breaking.
Equipment
Use an immersion blender, a food processor, or a high-speed blender to whip up this easy toum recipe. I’ve tried other methods, but I prefer an immersion blender for sauces and dressings that need emulsifying because it consistently creates the creamiest texture.
Just use the blender cup provided with the immersion blender, a wide-mouth jar, or one of these meal prep containers to ensure the blender works properly and to avoid a big mess.
How to Make Toum
The full recipe with measurements is in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Peel the garlic and transfer the cloves to a blender cup, a wide-mouth jar, or a blender. Add the salt and lemon juice and process to mince the garlic.
Step 2: With the immersion blender or blender running, slowly add the oil in a single stream until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Taste and season with salt, and enjoy!
Tip
Use a silicone spatula to scrape the garlic bits off the sides of the jar or blender, as needed.
Expert Tips
- Start with room-temperature ingredients. Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature before starting. Cold ingredients can make it more challenging to achieve a proper emulsion.
- Slowly add the oil. Pour the oil in a slow, steady stream while blending. This gradual addition is the key to building a stable, fluffy emulsion that won’t separate.
Tips for Emulsification
What is Emulsification?
Emulsification is a fancy cooking term for combining ingredients that do not naturally mix, such as oil and vinegar, and making them stay together with an emulsifier.
What is an Emulsifier?
An emulsifier acts like a bridge between two opposing ingredients, holding them together in a smooth, stable mixture. The best emulsifiers contain water and oil-friendly properties to help the ingredients combine. The most common emulsifiers include egg yolks, mustard, mayonnaise, soybeans, honey, and xanthan gum.
How to Create a Stable Emulsification
If you want to learn how to make homemade vinaigrette, dressing, hollandaise sauce, aioli, or mayonnaise, then learning how to create a stable emulsification is key. Plus, it’s easier than you think!
- Adjust the Consistency: If the mixture gets too thick, add more water-based liquid to thin it out while continuing to mix.
- Choose an Emulsifier: Select an emulsifying ingredient based on what you are making.
- Combine the Ingredients: Mix the water-based ingredients, such as vinegar or lemon juice with an emulsifier.
- Slowly Add Oil: Add a few drops, then pour the oil gradually in a slow, steady stream while whisking or blending the ingredients. The gradual addition helps to achieve a stable emulsion (so the two liquids combine instead of separate).
If you enjoy this garlic toum recipe, pair it with one of these dinner favorites!
Serving Suggestions
Toum is an easy way to flavor simple meals like rotisserie chicken with a delicious garlicky flavor.
Reach for warm pita, air fryer pita chips, or fresh vegetables like carrots and cucumber for dipping.
The creamy Lebanese garlic sauce is my favorite way to enjoy falafel, sambousek, chicken dishes, beef kabobs, fries, and sandwiches or wraps.
Storage
Store the leftovers in an airtight container or glass jar for 2-3 months. The sauce stays fresh for longer thanks to the fresh lemon juice and garlic.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does toum taste like?
Toum is a tangy condiment with a smooth texture and a robust garlic flavor.
How can I save a broken sauce?
Here is how to save the toum if it fails to thicken. Begin by whisking an egg yolk in a small bowl. Gradually incorporate some of the broken sauce into the yolk. Then, add the new egg mixture to the remaining sauce and whisk to combine.
You can mix the ingredients with an immersion blender or food processor instead of whisking by hand.
What’s the difference between toum and aioli?
Toum and aioli have many similarities, but I think Toum has a stronger flavor. The traditional aioli recipe only uses garlic and oil, but most modern recipes also include egg yolks. In contrast, toum only requires garlic, oil, salt, and lemon juice.
What type of oil is best to use?
You want to use a neutral oil like avocado, sunflower, canola, vegetable, grapeseed or safflower oil.
More Sauce Recipes:
Toum
- 1 garlic bulb, about 12 garlic cloves
- 1-2 teaspoons kosher salt
- lemon juice, one lemon
- 1¾ cup neutral oil
- Peel the garlic and transfer the cloves to a blender cup, a wide-mouth jar, or a blender. Add the salt and lemon juice and process to mince the garlic.Tip: Use a silicone spatula to scrape the garlic bits off the sides of the jar or blender, as needed.
- With the immersion blender or blender running, slowly add the oil in a single stream until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Taste and season with salt, and enjoy!
- Start with room-temperature ingredients. Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature before starting. Cold ingredients can make it more challenging to achieve a proper emulsion.
- Slowly add the oil. Pour the oil in a slow, steady stream while blending. This gradual addition is the key to building a stable, fluffy emulsion that won’t separate.
- Adjust the Consistency: If the mixture gets too thick, add more water-based liquid to thin it out while continuing to mix.
- Choose an Emulsifier: Select an emulsifying ingredient based on what you are making.
- Combine the Ingredients: Mix the water-based ingredients, such as vinegar or lemon juice, with an emulsifier.
- Slowly Add Oil: Add a few drops, then pour the oil gradually in a slow, steady stream while whisking or blending the ingredients. The gradual addition helps achieve a stable emulsion (so the two liquids combine rather than separate).