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Toum garlic sauce
5 from 10 votes

Toum Garlic Sauce

Toum is a creamy garlic sauce popular in the Levant region. Often spread over pita bread to make shawarma wraps, or served with shish tawook, grilled chicken, or served as a dip with fries.
Author Diana
Servings 24 servings
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes

Ingredients

  • cup garlic peeled cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1½ cups (350ml) neutral oil sunflower, corn, vegetable, safflower, or canola
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

  • Peel the garlic, place it in the bowl of the food processor. Add salt, half of the lemon, and about 2 tablespoons of the oil.
  • Blend the peeled garlic until it's minced and becomes quite creamy like a smooth paste. This is very important for the emulsion to begin. Make sure that it's not just minced garlic sitting in oil, but it needs to be "creamed". Scrape down the sides with a spatula.
  • Blend again, and keep the food processor on. Then with a steady hand, SLOWLY stream in the oil alternating with the rest of the lemon juice. This is very important. Keep adding the oil until you run out and the sauce is creamy. The whole process takes about 10 minutes, so take your time and don't add the oil at once as that can break the emulsion.
  • Taste the sauce, and see if you need to add more salt. Blend for 5-10 seconds and the sauce is ready.

Video

Notes

  • Go for garlic that is fresh, and firm. If you slice a clove of garlic, and there's a green sprout or germ, make sure to remove it as it will add bitterness to the sauce.
  • Any neutral-tasting oil works great but avoid olive oil as it can overpower the sauce and change its color as well. Go for sunflower, safflower, canola, avocado, grapeseed, corn, or vegetable oil.
  • This garlic sauce will easily last in the fridge for 3-4 weeks if stored in an airtight container.
  • To mellow out the garlic flavor, soak the peeled garlic cloves in ice-cold water for 30 minutes before making the garlic sauce. It also helps to let it sit in the fridge for a few days and it won't be as sharp as on the first day.
  • Make sure that you don't skip lemon juice as it works as a stabilizer. If an emulsion is broken, you can try fixing it by adding a boiled potato or 2 egg whites to the food processor leaving just a quarter of the broken emulsion and blend. Then gradually add back in the broken emulsion. This should help to emulsify the sauce. If a potato or egg whites are used, you can store the sauce in the fridge for just 5 days.

Nutrition

Calories: 127kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 1g | Sodium: 97mg | Potassium: 10mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg