Creamy Toum Recipe (With 4 Ingredients)

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Toum is a traditional Middle Eastern garlic sauce that’s creamy, garlicky, and airy. This condiment boasts the punchy aroma of fresh garlic cloves and lemon juice, both emulsified with oil. Toum is perfect for serving over grilled tofu, adding to falafel wraps, or even as a dip. Fair warning though, it is addicting!

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❤️ Why you’ll love this recipe

Easy to make: With just a handful of ingredients and a blender, you can have homemade toum ready in no time.
Packed with bold flavors: This condiment is not for the faint of heart. The raw garlic and fresh lemon juice create a vibrant, punchy flavor that’s irresistible.
Vegan-friendly: This Lebanese garlic sauce is completely plant-based, making it suitable for everyone to enjoy!
Long-lasting: If you store it correctly, toum can last for months in your fridge, ready to add a kick to your meals whenever you need it.

If you love toum, you should really check out our chili garlic aioli, lemon herb tahini, hummus recipe, baba ganoush, vegan pesto, and vegan tzatziki.

🧄 What is toum?

Toum is a traditional garlic sauce that comes from the Middle East, but it’s particularly popular in Lebanese cuisine. It’s made from fresh garlic, neutral vegetable oil, lemon juice, and salt.

Everything is combined in a food processor or blender, creating an unbelievably creamy, mayonnaise-like consistency. Unlike mayo, the flavor is intensely garlicky, with a tangy note from the lemon and richness from the oil.

While garlic toum can be used in various ways, it’s often served with shawarma, used as a sandwich spread, or served as a dipping sauce with fresh bread. You can also add some to a homemade falafel pita for a burst of flavor.

🌱 Is toum vegan?

Toum garlic sauce is typically a vegan-friendly condiment, but it is important to note that some recipes incorporate egg whites to help emulsify the sauce.

However, it’s entirely possible to achieve a creamy, well-emulsified sauce without them. The oil perfectly combines with garlic, salt, and lemon on its own. The result is a robust, garlicky sauce that is entirely plant-based and suitable for a vegan diet.

Garlic, lemon, oil, and salt on a table. — Use fresh garlic for the best flavor

🛒 Ingredients & substitutions

Neutral oil: Forms the base of this Lebanese garlic sauce, providing a creamy texture. We suggest oils like canola, avocado, vegetable, grapeseed, safflower, or sunflower. You could use light olive oil, but it will slightly alter the flavor and color.
Garlic: Adds a punchy, intense, and zesty flavor. Make sure you have very fresh, young garlic, and remove the germ. We recommend purchasing full garlic heads and peeling them yourself.
Lemon: Fresh lemon juice adds a tangy note that balances out the strong flavor of the garlic and binds the sauce. In a pinch, you can use white wine vinegar or lime, but the flavor will be quite different.
Salt: Salt not only brings out the flavors of this recipe, but it also helps break down and grind the garlic. We use kosher salt for this recipe, but sea salt should work.

For a complete ingredient list and step-by-step guide, scroll down to our recipe card.

📝 How to make garlic toum

Step 1: Prepare your ingredients

Start by chilling your oil in the fridge, as this aids the emulsification process. Meanwhile, peel your garlic cloves and remove the germ if it’s present.

If the garlic is quite young and fresh, there may not be much to remove. If it’s older and there’s a green stem inside, ensure you remove it to prevent a bitter or rancid Lebanese garlic spread.

Garlic with the germ removed — The germ has been removed

Step 2: Blend the garlic and salt

Add the garlic cloves and salt to a high-speed food processor and blend them into a rough minced paste texture. Note: While we used a high-speed blender for this recipe, the most efficient and consistent appliance to use is a food processor.

Remember to stop occasionally and scrape down the sides so you don’t end up with large chunks of garlic in your sauce.

Step 3: Add the first oil

When the garlic is minced, slowly drizzle in a tablespoon or so of oil while the blender is on a low-medium setting. This first part is the most critical to ensure the oil emulsifies properly. Make sure to stop and scrape the sides to fully combine the oil and garlic paste.

White Spread in a Blender — It will look light and fluffy when you’re done

Step 3: Alternate between oil and lemon

Once that first tablespoon is incorporated, start alternating between slowly drizzling in oil followed by lemon juice. Add the lemon after every ½ cup of oil. Make sure to scrape down the sides occasionally so the mixture properly emulsifies.

Toum in a Bowl — We put this stuff on everything

Continue the alternating process until all the oil and lemon juice is gone and you’re left with a creamy, mayo-like consistency.

Step 4: Check the consistency

You can serve toum right away, but it’s best to let it chill in the fridge for a few hours. Cover it with a paper towel and leave it for a few hours or overnight if possible. This will allow the flavors to fully develop and the garlic to mellow out. Happy eating!

If you have questions about this Lebanese garlic sauce recipe, check out our FAQs or leave a comment down below!

🥙 What to serve with toum

Once your toum is chilled and ready to go, serve it with dishes like these:

Grilled or roasted vegetables like green beans, zucchini, eggplant, or sweet potatoes
Falafel
Sandwiches and wraps
Grilled marinated tofu
As a dipping sauce for dairy-free bread or sourdough
Mixed into salad dressings like creamy balsamic dressing
Spread on pizza crust before baking

🌡️ Storage

Toum garlic sauce stores incredibly well and doesn’t require reheating, which makes it a convenient condiment to have on hand at all times. Just follow these steps:

Fridge: You can store your toum in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 months.
Freezer: We don’t recommend freezing garlic toum as it can alter the emulsion and texture of the sauce. It’s best kept in the fridge.
Prep ahead: Lebanese garlic sauce is a great condiment to prepare a few days in advance as the flavors meld together and mellow out over time.

Falafel Pita on a Plate. — Enjoy it on a falafel pita!

♻️ Variations

Spicy: Mix in a pinch of chili flakes at the end for a spicy kick.
Herbaceous: Add fresh chopped herbs like parsley or cilantro for a refreshing twist.
Citrusy: Add some zest from the lemons for an extra citrus punch.
Spices: Feel free to add your favorite dried herbs or spices to customize this toum garlic sauce to your liking.

🧑‍🍳 Top tips

Chill your oil: Chilling your oil for about an hour beforehand helps the emulsion process and prevents the sauce from splitting.
Use fresh ingredients: Make sure your garlic and lemon juice are fresh to achieve the best flavor. If your garlic is old, it will result in a rancid, overly bitter sauce.
Remove the germ: If your garlic is on the older side, it’s essential to remove the inner germ before blending the cloves. This will prevent a bitter flavor as well.
Use a food processor: If you don’t have a high-speed blender, it’s best to use a food processor to keep the blade moving while you drizzle the oil in.
Add the oil slowly: Adding the oil too quickly can cause the sauce to separate. Go slower than you think you need to! The sauce takes about 15 minutes to fully emulsify.
Alternate the oil and lemon: You’ll have the best results by adding the lemon juice throughout the blending process instead of all at the end.

💬 FAQ

Can I use a different oil?

Absolutely! You can use virtually any vegetable oil for making toum garlic sauce, but it’s important to choose a neutral-flavored one like sunflower or grapeseed oil. An oil with a strong taste, like olive oil, will overpower the flavor of the garlic and change the color of the toum.

My toum split, what did I do wrong?

If your garlic toum has split, it’s typically because the oil was added too quickly or the mixture wasn’t processed long enough. The key to a successful emulsion is to add the oil very slowly, ensuring it’s fully incorporated before adding more.

How do I fix split toum?

To salvage split toum, you can try adding a few tablespoons of cold water or lemon juice, then continue to process in the blender. This can often help bring the emulsion back together and restore the creamy texture of the sauce. If not, you can try adding a few boiled and peeled white potatoes, though the resulting flavor will be slightly off.

Can I reduce the amount of garlic?

Yes, you can reduce the amount of garlic, but keep in mind that garlic is the dominant flavor in toum. Reducing it significantly will impact the final taste and consistency.

Why is my toum garlic sauce bitter?

Bitterness in toum is often caused by the garlic, especially if you’ve used older garlic or processed it too long. To avoid this, always use fresh garlic and remove the germ (the green sprout in the middle of the clove) as it contributes to the bitterness.

🍴 More Middle Eastern-inspired recipes

If you enjoyed this garlic toum recipe, you might also like to try some more Middle Eastern-inspired flavored dishes like these:

Homemade Falafel Recipe: Crispy, tender, and golden brown.
Moroccan Chickpea Stew: North African flavors served alongside couscous.
Chickpea Soup: Rich, vibrant, and comforting soup.
Lentil Patties: Bite-sized patties that pair perfectly with lemon tahini dressing.