Toum is a creamy, bold, and totally addictive Lebanese garlic sauce with just 4 ingredients: garlic, oil, lemon juice, and salt. Once you make this simple recipe, you’ll be hooked!
I first learned about this Lebanese garlic sauce from my mother-in-law, Dina, who owned a Mediterranean restaurant in grand Rapids, Michigan. Toum was one of the most requested items at the restaurant, where they served it with all their grilled meat and veggies. Every morning, Dina would whip up a large batch of her special toum recipe, and it was inevitably sold out by the end of the night! That’s how good it is!
Growing up in Egypt made me a firm believer that it’s the dips and sauces that take a meal to next-level delicious. You may already be familiar with tahini, tzatziki, and hummus. But toum may be the most under-rated! Once you master this easy 4-ingredient garlic sauce recipe, you’ll be using it in all sorts of ways. Some of my go-tos:
- To dip pita chips and fresh vegetables.
- With grilled meat and fish.
- As a sauce for sandwiches, wraps like gyros, and burgers.
If you love big flavor and you’re not afraid of a little garlic–or a lot of garlic, rather–this recipe is for you!
What is in Toum?
Some toum recipes call for mayonnaise, but this traditional recipe is completely vegan. To me, it tastes far better while remaining nice and creamy. You only need 4 ingredients:
- A whole head of garlic: Toum means “garlic” Arabic, after all!
- Kosher salt
- Neutral oil: As much as I love my extra virgin olive oils, grapeseed or sunflower oil is best for toum. The lighter flavor lets the garlic do all the talking.
- Lemon juice: Or substitute lime.
How to Make Toum
Making toum (or touma) is all about the very slow and steady emulsification process that whips the garlic and oil together. Traditionally, a mortar and pestle are used to make this garlic sauce recipe, but I have found a small food processor to work just as well.
- Process 1 whole head of garlic. Smash the garlic with the side of your knife, then remove the peels. Optionally, remove the green germ from the center as you go (it can be bitter). Place the peeled garlic and 1 teaspoon kosher salt in the small bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until the garlic looks minced, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add the juice of 1 lemon and pulse a few times to combine, again scraping down the sides.
- Slowly incorporate 1 3/4 cups neutral oil. With the food processor on low speed, drizzle in the oil in ever so slowly through the opening at the top. After you’ve used about 1/4 cup or so, add in about 1 tablespoon of the ice water. Stop to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl.
- Finish, adjust the seasoning, and serve. Keep the processor running and continue to slowly drizzle in the oil, adding a tablespoon of ice water after every 1/4 cup of oil. Continue on with this process until you have used up the oil entirely. The garlic sauce has thickened and increased in volume (it should look smooth and fluffy). This should take somewhere around 10 minutes or so. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt and or lemon juice if necessary. Enjoy!
Toum Tips
I have a few tips for this toum recipe before you get started, which will ensure a light and airy sauce that’s beautifully emulsified:
- Use the best fresh garlic. This toum recipe is all about garlic! Avoid using peeled garlic from a package, which won’t pack quite the same punch.
- Slice the garlic in half and remove any green sprouts. This is optional, but it prevents the bitter flavor it can impart.
- Don’t skip the lemon juice. Fresh lemon juice adds brightness, and it should be added at the beginning to help the emulsification. (Some recipes add the lemon juice toward the end, which causes the sauce to break.)
- Do not rush the emulsification process. Adding the oil ever so slowly is what makes this sauce! Alternating the oil with a small amount of water prevents the emulsion from breaking.
- Use a small food processor. For the amount of garlic used in this recipe, a smaller processor works well because the blade can easily mince the garlic without it flying all over the bowl. (I use the small bowl attachment on this one). If you double or triple the recipe, you can easily use a large food processor.
Too(m) Strong? Three Ways to Mellow
For some who need their toum to be less powerful, three things you can do:
- Leave it in the fridge a few days. Time in the fridge will take a bit of the edge off.
- Place the peeled garlic in ice water for 30 minutes or so before making the garlic sauce. But be sure to dry the garlic very well before you start.
- Add boiled potato (mashed) or a couple tablespoons of Greek yogurt. Either of these items will thicken the toum sauce and take a bit of the garlic edge off. You would add a little bit at a time during the process.
What to Serve with Toum
This Lebanese garlic sauce is a versatile condiment you will use over and over. Pretty much anything you think might need a kick of garlic, you can use toum! It’s a great swap for mayo and aioli. Some ideas:
- Meat: Chicken kabobs, shawarma, grilled lamb, Shish Tawook.
- Vegetarian: Falafel and the traditional Greek roasted vegetables, Briam, are both delicious.
- Fish: The garlicky punch is absolutely delicious with fresh and smoky grilled seafood.
Love Garlic? Try These Recipes Next!
I always say I would wear garlic as a perfume, so you’re in good company! I know you’ll love these recipes as much as I do:
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 head garlic
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 lemon juiced
- 1 3/4 cups grape seed oil or sunflower oil a neutral tasting oil
- 4 to 6 tablespoons ice water
Instructions
- Process the garlic. Smash the garlic with the side of your knife, then remove the peels. Optionally, remove the green germ from the center as you go (it can be bitter). Place the peeled garlic and kosher salt in the small bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times until the garlic looks minced, stopping to scrape down the sides. Add the lemon juice and pulse a few times to combine, again scraping down the sides.
- Slowly incorporate the oil. With the food processor on low speed, drizzle in the oil in ever so slowly through the opening at the top. After you've used about 1/4 cup or so, add in about 1 tablespoon of the ice water. Stop to scrape down the sides of the processor bowl.
- Finish, adjust the seasoning, and serve. Keep the processor running and continue to slowly drizzle in the oil, adding a tablespoon of the ice water after every 1/4 cup of oil. Continue on with this process until you have used up the oil entirely. The garlic sauce has thickened and increased in volume (it should look smooth and fluffy). This should take somewhere around 10 minutes or so. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt and or lemon juice if necessary. Enjoy!
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Notes
- Visit our shop to browse quality Mediterranean ingredients, including olive oils, honey, jams, and spices.
- For best results, do not rush the emulsification process. Remember to add the oil very slowly as the processor is running, alternating with a little tiny bit of ice water. If your processor does not have a top opening to drizzle the olive oil, still add the oil very slowly, about a tablespoon or so at a time, and run the processor to whip the garlic well. And again, don’t forget to add a bit of the ice water as well. Keep whipping the garlic until you have used up all the oil. Alternating the oil with a small amount of water prevents the emulsion from breaking.
- It helps to use a smaller food processor. I used an older version of this one.
- Storage: toum can best be stored in a tight-lid mason jar or container in the fridge for 4 weeks or so. You can also freeze some for later use (do not thaw out, use from frozen). I do prefer the fridge method.
- This recipe is adapted from Maureen Abood’s cookbook Rosewater and Orange Blossoms.
Nutrition
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I made this with an immersion blender and the blending cup, but you don’t need to alternate water/oil. Blend the garlic and salt and lemon juice, toss in 3 ice cubes (mine are about 1.5 tbsp per cube) but don’t blend them, they will melt as you drizzle in the oil and the blending stick heats up, slowly adding water to the mixture and cooling it at the same time. After you’ve emulsified about half of the oil (you should have a paste by now), you can just dump in the rest of the oil, it’ll float on top of the emulsion, and if you hold the blender head right under the emulsion-oil interface, it will slowly suck the oil down in a vortex. Use a plunging motion to help mix it when it gets too thick.
If it does break and turn into a garlic slush, take half a cup of the mixture, add a teaspoon of egg white and it should turn fluffy when you blend it, then you can slowly add the rest of the mixture back in. Fry the rest of the egg in a pan and slather some of your garlic sauce on it.
Thank you for all your tips, Mike!
Excellent comment! So helpful to others and myself. I can not make mayo in my small Cuisinart, EVER, because the blade was too high from the base. The KitchenAid Immersion Blender had no issues emulsifying the oil, so I went with it for this recipe. No problem. Love the idea of the ice cubes …Thank you Mike.
I’ve had toum many times before, in restaurants, but this is the first time I made it. I was SO looking forward to it, but it never got past the “thick milk” texture. I also never got past a cup of oil (grapeseed), never mind 1 3/4 cups, as it was just too soupy.
I’m wondering if maybe I didn’t have enough garlic…? It was a smallish head, so I also used a little less lemon also.
Or maybe my food processor, which is the same size as the Cuisanart one in your link….but it’s not as powerful as my larger one, maybe it needed more power to emulsify…???
So many different variables, that I’m not sure what to correct. Any thoughts?
Thanks for sharing, Jayne. It could easily be the size of the garlic, but making toum, as shared in the tips, is all about the balance of oil to cold water and the technique in adding them ever so slowly as you continue to whip it.
Could I use lime instead of lemon??
Lemon is what you need for this recipe, Astacia
This is amazing — I want to put it on everything!
Go for it 🙂
This sounds amazing
So would I put it on my salmon and then cook or is better to use to dip the salmon after it’s cooked ?
Marlene, either way will work. I tend to use it more as a dip for something like salmon or chicken
I tried this using a liquidiser and not a processor as I think my processor may be too big. Sadly did not work and had to toss it. Will definately try again using the right equipment
Oh, no :(. I’m sorry! I hope you have better luck next time!!
Kathy. I’m not sure what a liquidiser is…do you mean a blender, like a Ninja or VitaMix? Anyways, I was wondering why you had to throw all the ingredients out as the garlic oil, even tho whipped up somewhat, could have been used for simply sauteing or cooking whereever you would use regular oil, or maybe in salad vinairgrettes, etc.
I’m thinking I will go ahead and make this with my regular Cuisanart food processor because I use the same amount of oil when I make mayo and it works fine. I understand about the garlic not getting chopped up enough in the big bowl but I’m thinking I might like roasted garlic better anyways or just try it and see how it comes out. This sauce sounds so good and I hope you give it a go again 🙂
This worked perfectly for me! Thanks for the recipe!
My pleasure, Amy! So glad you enjoyed it!
Next time, try chilling the oil before using it.
Can you use vegetable oil?
Any neutral tasting oil you prefer will work.
Everything was looking good except it wasn’t thickening like the picture. I did it SO slow but after the last 1/4 cp of oil (good Avocado), it turned to liquid! I used my little food processor and it got quite hot and the sauce got very warm too.. Also the temperature in my house is 78° as we’re having an awful heat wave and even though my AC is on I tend to sit in front of a fan and not use too much electricity during the day. So…how can I fix it? I will use it on vegetables but not as a spread. ?
Hmmm. I’m not so sure what might have gone wrong for you, Jeannette. Did you use ice water to alternate between the oil and the ice water? That is an important step and may help a ton given the heat in your home.
I had toum (or something very close to it) in Turkey years ago. I’ve made an “aioli version” with mayo for decades but never using your specified ingredients. An ice water bath for garlic in this volume tones things down considerably too. Will I look like you if I eat enough of this?
I loved it! Really tasty and delicious! So easy to make, too!
Yay! Thanks, Toni!
Made this last night to go with homemade red pepper hummus , tabouli, and thin sliced top sirloin steak, and of course pita bread. It was absolutely outstanding. I used an immersion blender to make it and it worked perfectly. Have enough toum for leftovers and I’m freezing the rest for another time. Thanks Suzy for this great recipe.
What a feast!! 🙂
I just made a batch. Actually used a bit more than 1 bulb of garlic, and a bit less oil. What I have tastes great, but is the consistency of thick milk!! Next time I will adjust the ingredients a tad more.
I think if you use the amounts indicated, you may get closer to the right consistency. Thank you for sharing!
This is so easy and good on almost everything! Love it!
I agree! Thanks, Wilhelmina!
I love garlic so much, this recipe is incredible! Thank you!
Thanks, Lauren!
This was really good!! Everyone at my house really loved it!
Awesome! Thanks, Sandra!
What a great sauce! I am always down for some garlic!
Thanks, Kevin!!