We are all obsessed with this Toum, or Lebanese garlic sauce. It is spectacularly garlicky, creamy, and a little bit tangy thanks to lemon juice. It’s absolutely addictive with lamb chops, salmon, chicken, potatoes, and is one of those sauces that makes anything better!
The Non-Traditional Difference: Egg White
Toum is traditionally made with four or five ingredients: oil, lemon juice, ice water (sometimes), garlic, and salt. You blend everything together, making an emulsion with the oil, which is usually poured in at a thin stream until the sauce comes together. The resulting texture is like a mayo or aioli, and it’s absolutely delicious.
This Toum recipe came about after my dad Bill and his buddy David developed a mild obsession with recreating the garlic sauce from their favorite falafel and shawarma shop.
In my dad and David’s various attempts, however, the sauce was often frustrating and sometimes wouldn’t come together depending on what they used (a stick blender isn’t strong enough for this recipe, for example). They experimented with it so many times that after a while, I zoned out and stopped checking in on their progress.
But one day, David emerged triumphant after making two key changes: adding egg white to stabilize the mixture and discovering the right equipment.
See David’s other hit recipes that have made it into The Woks of Life archives:
- A similar obsession with recreating his favorite restaurant Korean Fried Chicken yielded major dividends!
- His restaurant-style salsa is still a go-to for parties.
- And this unusual recipe for Orange Pasta was actually inspired by a dish David’s mom used to make when he and my dad were kids.
(And if you’ve been wondering, read about David and Bill’s friendship origin story.)
Egg white is usually touted as an ingredient to rescue a separated toum that remains stubbornly slick with unemulsified oil. But it’s a convenient shortcut from the get-go.
It may not be a traditional ingredient, but it really fluffs up the texture and helps your results stay more consistent. No need to pour the oil in a thin, persistent stream and wait with bated breath to see if your toum comes together. That’s the beauty of this recipe: throw everything into the blender, and let it go!
You can use a food processor to make this, but we find we get a smoother and creamier result with a small bullet-style high speed blender. The beauty of the personal blender is the smaller container, so it mixes up this relatively small quantity of sauce handily.
Now David makes a batch of toum whenever he visits. My mom knows the drill and serves his favorite—lamb chops. We enjoy them with this garlicky sauce, roasted potatoes, and salad or veggies. It’s just the perfect dinner. But there are so many uses for it! Spread it on whatever you please!
I dip french fries and pita chips into it with glee. My local falafel shop usually only gives a tiny 1 or 2 ounce cup, after all. I will definitely be saving a few dollars in extra cups of sauce and making this large batch at home!
FAQs
After I made this the first time, unsupervised but armed with David’s recipe, I reported back and shared that we used avocado oil. As you can imagine, I got a slap on the wrist, and he insisted that I use high-quality canola oil.
You might think that avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil would be the one to go with here, but he said he’s tried all the oils and found that canola yields a superior thickness, mild flavor, and color.
You can buy high-quality expeller-pressed canola oils, and this is the time to use them. David says he grabs the highest quality looking one he can find.
A helpful tip we learned from Yumna at Feel Good Foodie is that if your garlic has the inner green sprout or germ, it is best to remove it, as it can make the sauce bitter. So this sauce is best made with fresh garlic cloves, not the ones that have been sitting in your fridge or on the counter quietly sprouting.
So long as you’ve used a pasteurized egg, it should last for 1-2 weeks in the fridge in a clean, resealable container. Only dip into it with a clean spoon, and you should be okay!
Toum: Recipe Instructions
Add a large handful of ice to a glass of water and let it get really cold. Add 3 teaspoons of ice water the canola oil, garlic cloves, salt, lemon juice, egg white to a bullet blender.
Blend until thick and creamy. If you want a thicker consistency, add a second egg white and/or another teaspoon of ice water.
Use a rubber spatula to transfer to a bowl. Serve! Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
TLDR In David’s words: “I just throw the ingredients into the bullet blender—that’s it. If it doesn’t come out thick enough, I add another egg white.”
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Recipe
Toum (Lebanese Garlic Sauce)
Equipment
- Bullet blender (any powerful small personal blender)
Ingredients
- 3-4 teaspoons ice water (the ice water keeps everything cool and helps make the sauce fluffier)
- ⅔ cup canola oil
- 6-8 cloves fresh garlic (depending on how strong you want it to be)
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
- 1 large pasteurized egg white (more egg white will yield a thicker consistency)
Instructions
- Add a large handful of ice to a glass of water and let it get really cold. Add 3 teasopons of ice water the canola oil, garlic cloves, salt, lemon juice, egg white to a bullet blender.
- Blend until thick and creamy. If you want a thicker consistency, add a second egg white and/or another teaspoon of ice water. Use a rubber spatula to transfer to a bowl. Serve! Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Nutrition Facts
Ye Vegetarians and lactose-free, listen up!
I found that after this toum sat for one or two nights in the refrigerator uncovered, it lost some moisture but took on the remarkable taste and texture of goat cheese—without any dairy of course! If you’re dairy free or vegetarian, consider making this as a satisfying substitute for spreadable cheeses! If you let it dry out a bit in the fridge and it sets and gets cold, we wager you can even “crumble” it into a salad the way you would with feta or goat cheese! Consider it if you’re on the second week of this sauce!
