Perfectly fluffy, creamy garlic sauce – the classic sauce for charcoal chicken (or just about anything, if you’re imaginative enough!) This easy Lebanese garlic sauce (toum) recipe uses just 4 ingredients, is easy, and best of all – failproof. Never go back to store-bought garlic sauce again!
In Arabic, the word toum actually just means garlic! This is very fitting, since this Lebanese garlic sauce (toum) recipe requires 2 entire heads of garlic (is there really such a thing as too much garlic?) If you’ve ever bought Middle Eastern charcoal chicken, you’ll be very familiar with toum! And if not, imagine a beautifully fluffy, cloud-like sauce that has intense garlic and lemon flavour – it’s honestly addictive! Plus, it goes with just about anything (it’s delicious just on its own as a dip with some bread)!
Benefits of Homemade Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)
I know what you’re thinking – why bother making your own when the store-bought stuff is so convenient? Two reasons! The first is that you’re in more control of how intense the garlic and lemon flavour is, in case you like it super garlicky. The second is for health reasons!
Store-bought Lebanese garlic sauce (toum) is typically made with highly-processed seed or vegetable oils. I personally try avoid these due to their highly inflammatory nature – that means avoiding things like canola oil, sunflower oil, soybean oil, and so on. They are heated, bleached, deodorized, often rancid oils that oxidize easily. This means they can cause oxidative stress in our bodies, which leads to damaged cells, and possibly even cancers and other diseases! Now, I know some people think the research is somewhat split on seed oils. As someone who has spent 10 years in philosophy, all I can say is think for yourself, dear readers! Do your own research, and come to your own conclusions!
But that’s why my Lebanese garlic sauce (toum) recipe uses cold-pressed avocado oil! It’s nowhere near as processed or refined, and it is a neutral-tasting oil, which is perfect for toum! If you wanted to, you can also use a mild tasting olive oil – avocado oil can be expensive! Your toum will just taste more olivey. And that might be okay with you – your life, your toum! I once heard my brother describe avocado and olive oil as fruit juices, since they’re made by squeezing the pulp of the fruit (not the seed). And you know what? I guess he is right! But I can never look at these oils the same way again haha!
Ingredients
Garlic, lemon, salt, and avocado oil. That’s all you’ll need to make Lebanese garlic sauce (toum)!
Make sure the garlic is fresh – don’t use the neglected bulb that’s been buried in a dark corner of your pantry. Fresh garlic will emulsify better, and won’t taste as bitter as old, sad garlic. Also make sure you use a freshly squeezed lemon – not the stuff that comes in plastic bottles. Trust me, the flavour of freshly squeezed lemon juice in toum is unbeatable! I use cold-pressed avocado oil, but like I said, you can go with olive oil if you like (or any other oil you personally prefer, so long as it tastes pretty neutral!)
How to Make Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)
Toum is basically an emulsion! An emulsion is when you combine two liquids that don’t normally mix (like oil and water), until they become homogeneous! Think of mayonnaise, or vinaigrettes, or a hollandaise sauce. The emulsifying agent in toum is actually the garlic!
After peeling 2 heads of garlic (roughly 38-40 cloves), throw them into a large jar with salt and lemon juice. and blend with an immersion blender. You are looking for a thick garlic paste at this point. This thick, sticky mixture is what combines with the oil to give you a perfectly emulsified Lebanese garlic sauce (toum)! This recipe will give you around 650g of toum.
Then, the most important step to take your time with, is to continue blending while slowly adding in the oil. And make sure you blend from the bottom up! As you make your way up the jar, you make sure that the oil is fully incorporated into the sauce before adding any more.
Trust me, taking just a few extra minutes to be patient with this process is so worth it. You’ll see as you blend and slowly drizzle in the oil, magic happens as it emulsifies. Do not rush this step! If you overwhelm the sauce with all the oil at once, you risk it splitting. And that’s when you end up with a runny, thin sauce. Still delicious, but definitely not thick and fluffy like toum should be!
How to Use Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)
My absolute favourite way to use toum is in my Lebanese Lemon Garlic Chicken! But the possibilities are endless. You can use it as a dip for a mezze platter instead of hummus! You can also spread it on bread as a makeshift garlic bread! It also works beautifully with grilled meats at a barbeque, in sandwiches or wraps – even in salad dressing! It’s even delicious simply tossed through pasta, or used as a marinade for chicken or other meats.
Honestly, whenever you want a garlicky, lemony hit of intense flavour, reach for this sauce! I’ve been known to sometimes just eat it with some fresh Lebanese bread – it really is that good!
I truly hope you love this recipe! xxx
Easy Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum) Recipe
Ingredients
Yields 650g of toum
Method
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Peel your garlic cloves, remove the ends, and if there are any with a green core/'germ', remove that as well.
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Place your garlic cloves in a large jar, along with the salt and lemon juice. With an immersion blender, blend until you have a thick paste.
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With your immersion blender on the bottom of the jar, very slowly begin to drizzle in your oil, while slowly blending from the bottom up. Do not add all the oil at once.
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Keep drizzling in your oil, and blending from the bottom of the jar to the top, ensuring that as you make your way up, the oil is fully incorporated before adding any more.
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Continue until you've added all the oil and the toum has become thick and fluffy. Enjoy!
