Toum – Recipe for Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce. Use on Shawarma, Falafel, Grilled Foods. Vegan, Garlicky, Creamy and Flavorful
I’ve been wanting to post this recipe for a while now, but it took some time to develop it and get it just right. Either the texture wasn’t quite right or the flavor wasn’t exactly where I wanted it to be. I can proudly say that finally, I’ve cracked the code. This toum recipe is da bomb. It’s smooth, creamy, garlicky and deliciously potent.
The key was using a big food processor (8 cups or more), making a large batch (big enough for it to easily emulsify in the food processor), using sunflower or canola oil (these mild oils work best for flavor and texture), and chilling the oil. Sound strange? The chilled oil is magic, it helps to keep the sauce from separating. Come on, don’t you trust me yet?
If you’ve never had the pleasure of trying toum, it’s a creamy garlic dipping sauce that is often served in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants. It’s similar to aioli or mayonnaise, but made without eggs.
It’s utterly fabulous on falafel, shawarma, grilled chicken, fish, and vegetables— really, anything that calls for a creamy garlic accompaniment. Be warned, this sauce isn’t for the faint of heart. Toum packs a powerful punch.
Raw garlic contains some pretty incredible health benefits, and has been used as both food and medicine for thousands of years. Ancient Olympic athletes used to eat raw garlic to boost their strength and stamina. It’s a great source of antioxidants; it also has anti-inflammatory properties.
Some studies have shown that eating garlic may help lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol. So toum is not only tasty, but it’s also good for you. Although I can’t promise it will have a very positive effect on your breath. Don’t go kissing anybody after a serving of this stuff!
Recommended Products:
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Garlic Sauce (Toum)
Ingredients
- 4 cups sunflower oil, avocado oil or canola oil, chilled (You may need less oil - detailed instructions below. For Passover safflower oil may be used)
- 1/2 cup garlic cloves peeled
- 1/2 cup lemon juice divided
- 1/2 cup ice cold water divided
- 1 3/4 teaspoons salt
Instructions
- Please Note: this recipe must be made exactly as written, and it relies on a balance of ingredients with very specific amounts and temperatures. Please do not alter the number of servings, or your sauce may not emulsify properly. Before you begin, place your oil in the freezer or refrigerator so that it is chilled, but still liquid. While the oil chills, remove the ends from your garlic cloves, split them in half and remove any green layers from inside. In a food processor, combine garlic cloves, salt, 1/4 cup of the lemon juice and 1/4 cup of the ice cold water.
- Process until smooth, then stop and scrape the sides of the food processor with a spatula.
- Turn the food processor back on and drizzle the chilled oil through the top as SLOWLY as possible, one cup at a time. If you don't have a steady hand I suggest putting the oil in a squeeze bottle and drizzling it in that way. After each cup of oil, add 1 tbsp each of the lemon juice and cold water.
- Scrape down the sides of the food processor as necessary. Be sure that your processor does not get too hot, as this can cause your sauce to separate.
- Only add oil until you've reached the texture you desire - you may only need 3 1/2 cups to achieve the proper texture. The final result should resemble a soft mayonnaise. This recipe makes about 5 cups of sauce, a serving is calculated as roughly 2 tablespoons. Store toum in an airtight container in the refrigerator. This recipe makes a pretty big batch, but it should keep for up to 4 weeks and it can be used on so many things. You'll be happy you have extra. Enjoy!
NOTES
Nutrition
I’ve messed this up countless times before. This was perfect as written – thanks!
When I made this, I used ice cubes instead of water, and put the sunflower seed oil in the freezer for an hour or two before I made it. The oil came out significantly thicker than at room temp, poured very slow, and the resulting Toum was *perfect*.
The ice cubes rattled around disconcertingly, and even caused a teensy amount of splatter to escape what I thought was a safely sealed food processor container. Still not sure how that happened, but it was fine.
Yesssss. I’ve made so many unsuccessful attempts at toum until this time. It turned out perfect!!!!! Thank you
After craving chicken shawarma and toum that we used to eat regularly at a Tunisian restaurant before we moved, I found your website and made those recipes, since your toum recipe called for the exact ingredients (no less and no more) that our restaurant stated they used! My husband said it was one of his favorite dinners ever- thank you for making these dishes easy to make in the average kitchen!
I do have one question, that I didn’t seem to see in your comment section. not having as large of a food processor as yours, I chose to use the Vitamix. All the comments about separation had me worried, so when after only adding half the sunflower oil amount to the original lemon juice/water/garlic mixture, it was emulsified I stopped while I had success (in other words, I stopped before doing the lemon juice/water and oil alternating additions). It was the consistency of a soft mayo. At the restaurant, it was always thicker (and whiter). Was this because I didn’t end up using the other 1/4c of lemon juice/water and 2c of oil? Maybe because of the use of the blender? Or was my Tunisian restaurant maybe just an anomaly for their toum sauce? We definitely didn’t mind texture, because the flavor was there, but I didn’t know if you had any thoughts 🙂
Hmm… you could maybe try adding less water next time to see if you can get the thicker texture you desire. You will need some water, but if you cut it a bit you might get the consistency you are looking for. Good luck!
Absolutely delicious!! Thank you for posting. I have a Vitamix so I just threw everything but the oil in the blender, gradually increased the speed, added the oil and it became the most delectable addition to my vegan Shawarma wrap. I used DOCG olive oil I just brought back from Italy. Definitely green-ish but so yummy!
Hello! My local restaurant Layla’s Lebanese restaurant serves “Garlic Whip” and wanted to make it at home. I think this is very similar so I’d like to give this a try. This one looks runny but Layla’s Garlic Whip is more like whipped cream/sour cream kind of consistency. If I omit water do you think this will be thicker like whipped cream?
Also can I freeze them? I think I will have some leftover and I don’t want to keep in the fridge since because of garlic smell. Or do you think this will separate?
Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
Hi Yoko– you add liquid to this recipe until you obtain the desired texture. So once you get to a texture you like, stop adding liquid. I’m not sure about freezing the sauce, it might separate… can’t be certain as I haven’t tried it myself.
The one at restsurant are made with egg white ubput the garlic salt and ldmon or citric acid in the food processor , mix until small add 1 egg white it can be 1/4 cup on pasteurized egg white from costco mic thrn dlowly drizzle canola oil it Will thicken and become Fluffy and creamy
Try skim milk powder, just a sprinkle and a time
This is the best batch I have every made. Perfect recipe! Delicious on everything!
Hey there, I followed your recipe and my toum came out very watery, as well when I tried it, it tasted very strongly of the oil. What am I doing wrong?
Hi Sandy, please read through comments as this has been addressed repeatedly. Also, I am working on a video to show this process in depth and hopefully help clarify it– emulsification is a tricky thing to master, and really has to do with patience– the drizzle of oil must happen very, very slowly.
This recipe is so simple and delicious. We like it best with at least 1/2 cup of olive oil, but not too much because it can easily overpower the recipe. If my garlic is particularly zippy, I will add a drop or two of honey and two or three cloves of roasted garlic.
We use it for just about everything, but my two favorite ways are in a pita with falafel instead of tahini sauce, and a dollop on top of scrambled eggs. YUM!
I made a half recipe of this last night in a food processor with no edits; it came out perfect! This tastes just like the stuff we get at a tiny, family owned Lebanese restaurant we’ve been going to for years. Thanks for sharing, this recipe is an absolute keeper!
This recipe makes the best garlic sauce. Loved it! I used canola oil. Made a half batch for a campfire party and with 8 adults we polished it off pretty quickly. Was great as a dip with potato wedges, also did chicken schawarma over campfire coals served with this toum, hoummus, mango chutney, chilli paste, some tabbouli. Thanks for the great recipe.
I thought I followed the recipe exactly, but the final product was too “liquidy.” Any tips on how to correct or how to prevent next time would be greatly appreciated!
Trish, please read through the comments, lots of tips there.
Made this recipe but cut it in half and used my small food processor. Worked great and so fast and easy! I love it in place of mayo since I’m a garlic lover. And I could see adding all kinds of different flavors, like herbs or spices! Also love that there’s no egg!
Just a note: most all food processors have feeding tubes or parts on top that have small holes in them just for the purpose for adding a liquid in a slow stream. Check it out!
I made it with 1/2 cup of garlic cloves, and aprox 2cups of canola oil in the ninja blender and it was delicious! I did wisk it in a bowl with my hand mixer after blending in order to get it to be more fluffy but it did not really change the texture…
has anyone used Olive Oil? I am not able to eat the oils you listed, but can eat olive oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil.
Avocado oil would work well in terms of flavor, however it may give the sauce a greenish hue.
I used avocado oil today because I didn’t have the others. It is fantastic! I added a little more lemon juice and some garlic powder because we like it a little tangier, and I ran out of garlic cloves (I did a half batch with a half cup of cloves, and it just wasn’t enough garlic, thus the powder.) Also, I don’t have a food processor, so I used the “processor” attachment for my stick blender. Anyone have a spicy lamb shawarma recipe they love that they’d like to share?
Cannot wait to try this ! I had this “garlic “paste” on a recent trip to Cedars of Lebanon restaurant in Roanoke VA.
I’ve been searching for this recipe ever since
Cheri Nichols.. I have couple of recipes for chawirma (even VEGAN one can be done with Buckwheat).. Turkish one the meat marinated in Milk or Yogurt, lots of Black Pepper, Salt, Garlic and Olive oil over night. And other one the meat is tossed in equial amounts of Garlic Powder, Oregano, Salt and Black Pepper.. I use very thin sliced beef you find in Mexican stores for their BEER MARINATED BBQ specialty.. Either stock them all on shawirma machine or do them on ceramic pan.. Increase black pepper for spicy one or add crushed red pepper into recipe.. Enjoy
This sounds exactly like what I had a small Indian/Asian restaurant – was soooo good. Have to give this recipe a try!
Mine came out watery. I tried cutting the recipe in half so I wouldn’t make so much. Any way I can fix this?
Hi Nicole, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong, but I do know that it’s very important to slowly drizzle in the oil until you reach the consistency you like. Also, be sure the toum hasn’t separated as a result of the processor getting too hot.
Hello! So there’s no fix if it came out watery?
Greetings and THANK YOU! Fabulous recipe! I had just made falafels and wanted to try this but I had only limes and cold Walnut oil. Delicious!
OMG! I used crushed garlic in a jar and we love love it! Thinking of other things to eat it with! Warm tortillas, toast, tortilla chips! So easy to make!
How much of the crushed garlic did you need?
Would this be good if I switched to using roasted garlic in the same amount as the recipe recommends?
Hi Della, Toris’ assistant Ashley here. It’s best to stick with raw garlic cloves for this recipe.