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Now Reading: Toum, the Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce

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Toum, the Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce

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Toum, the Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce

Toum, the Middle Eastern Garlic Sauce

AhmadJunaidFoodNovember 19, 2025361 Views

You know that creamy, fluffy white garlic sauce you find next to your shawarma or Middle Eastern grilled meats? It’s called toum and your next favourite condiment!

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

toum, lebanese garlic sauce in a flat blue dish with fries and arayes, on a black slate — This Toum Recipe Will Change Your Garlic Life

What is Toum?

Toum is the Levant’s answer to aioli, only more intense. Sometimes called Lebanese garlic sauce, it’s made simply from garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt, it’s an emulsion that somehow transforms four humble ingredients into a silky, glossy, spoon-standing cloud. No eggs, no dairy, no nonsense – just pure garlic power.

This Middle Eastern garlic sauce is like mayonnaise, an oil-water suspension. Where mayo relies on egg yolks to hold the oil together, toum lets garlic do all the heavy lifting.

Whipped into a fluffy, snow-white cloud of pure garlicky drama, toum is the life of every Middle Eastern grill platter. It’s bold, in-your-face, and so addictive that you’ll find yourself dunking bread into it long after the kebabs are gone.

What’s in a Name?

Toum literally means garlic in Arabic. Its name in full is actually zeit wa toum, meaning oil and garlic.

toum = garlic
zeit = oil
wa = and

How do you pronounce toum? That’s easy: toom.

Having said that, depending on where you are in the Middle East, it can also be pronounced tome.

And in Egypt, it’s also known as tooma.

How It Was Made in the Past

Toum has ancient roots in the Levant, going back centuries.

Before the age of food processors, toum was made the hard way, by pounding garlic in a mortar and pestle until your arm went numb and your kitchen smelled like a vampire’s worst nightmare. Cooks would slowly drizzle in oil, a few drops at a time, keeping the rhythm steady to coax the mixture into that magical emulsion.

It took patience, skill, and a level of commitment that could end marriages. These days, thankfully, we have food processors to do the hard work. Though if you want to go full traditionalist, consider it your arm day!

Close-up of creamy Lebanese toum in a blue bowl with a fry dipped inside, surrounded by more fries on a black slate board. — Crispy Fries + Toum = Pure Middle Eastern Magic

Toum Ingredients

All you need are:

Fresh garlic
Neutral oil
Lemon juice
Salt

And channel a bit of Axl Rose. And while you’re at it, throw in a little Bon Jovi for luck. What? you didn’t get that?

Also, we need a food chopper to blend and whip everything up. You could also use an immersion blender but I find that a food chopper/processor or actual blender does a better job as it has more “space” to whip up a frenzy.

Toum Recipe

The secret to perfect this Lebanese garlic dip lies in emulsification – slowly blending the oil into the garlic paste so it stays fluffy and doesn’t split. It goes like this:

Blitz peeled garlic cloves with salt until finely minced.
Blitz in a little cold lemon juice to form a paste.
Slowly, and I mean painfully slowly, drizzle in a very thin stream (in short bursts) of neutral oil while blending.
Alternate with drops of lemon juice to help the sauce stay stable and bright.

That’s basically it, see the video tutorial below. Homemade toum is not as scary as you’ve been led to believe. And neither is mayo.

Hand dipping a piece of hot, crispy arayes into a bowl of fluffy toum garlic sauce. — My favourite sauce with arayes – toum!

The Science

Many sauces, whether toum or mayo are made through the process of emulsification.

Emulsification is what happens when you force oil and water into couples therapy and blend until they agree to stick together. The result? A silky sauce, a stable cloud, and in the case of toum – pure garlicky bliss.

When you blend, whisk, or process two opposing liquids together, you’re essentially smashing the oil into microscopic droplets. But smashing alone isn’t enough – you need something to hold those droplets in place so they don’t run off and separate.

That “something” is an emulsifier, which can be:

Lecithin in egg yolks (hello, mayonnaise)
Mustard in vinaigrettes
Garlic in toum
Even starch, if you’re using boiled potato to rescue it (see below)

These emulsifiers act like tiny bouncers, keeping the oil droplets from clumping together and telling everyone to stay in their lane.

Why Toum Depends on It

Toum is basically an emulsification diva. Garlic plays the role of the emulsifier, helping the oil droplets stay evenly suspended with the help of lemon juice and water.

That’s why you need to add the oil slowly – drizzle it too fast and the droplets gang up, rebel, and split the whole sauce.

When toum throws a tantrum and splits, don’t panic – it happens to the best of us. Here’s how to rescue it like the garlic-whispering genius you are.

How to Fix Broken Toum

1. The Ice Water Trick
Add 1 tablespoon of ice-cold water to a clean bowl, then slowly whisk or blend your broken toum into it. The shock of cold helps the emulsion cling back together. Works like garlic magic.

2. The Lemon Juice Lifeline
A teaspoon of fresh lemon juice can help stabilise things. Blend it in slowly while processing. If it still looks weepy, add another spoon of ice water.

3. The Potato Miracle (Seriously!)
Blend half a boiled, cooled potato until smooth, then slowly add your broken toum into it. The starch grabs the oil and pulls everything back into a glossy cloud again. This trick is legendary.

4. The Egg White Emergency
Not traditional, but incredibly effective. Add one egg white to a clean processor bowl, blitz, and drizzle the broken toum in slowly. Great for people who don’t mind a little culinary rule-breaking.

5. Start Over – But Smarter
If things are truly beyond saving, don’t throw it out. Use the broken mix as your new oil. Blitz fresh garlic and salt, then drizzle the broken toum in as if it were plain oil. It usually re-emulsifies beautifully. Usually.

Why It Breaks

Oil added too fast
Garlic not minced finely enough
Too warm (heat kills the vibe)
Not enough liquid to balance the oil

Toum is dramatic. It wants slow attention, cold ingredients, and zero rushing. Treat it like the diva it is, and it’ll reward you with fluffy, garlicky glory every time.

djaj mahshi, middle eastern stuffed chicken on a bed of fruity rice — amazing with Djaj Mahshi too (click for recipe)

How to Use your Fluffy Toum

1. Slather it on grilled chicken
Shish tawook and toum are basically soulmates. Don’t separate them.

2. Shawarma’s best friend
Beef, lamb, chicken – toum does not discriminate. Wrap, swipe, enjoy. Perfect with roasts too.

3. Dip for chips, wedges and roast potatoes
Because potatoes + garlic = the kind of maths I believe in.

4. Spread it on sandwiches and wraps
Forget mayo. One swipe of toum turns any sad lunch into a Middle Eastern holiday.

5. Mix into salad dressings
A spoonful blended into lemon and olive oil gives you the punchiest vinaigrette of your life.

6. Stir into soups
Especially lentil soup. You’ll wonder why you ever ate it plain.

7. Toss with roast veg
Cauliflower, carrots, courgettes – everyone becomes hotter with toum.

8. Mix with yoghurt
For a gentler, creamier dip when you’re feeding people who “don’t like strong garlic” (don’t worry, you can judge them silently).

9. Smear on bread
Garlic bread? Perfect. Breakfast toast? Brave but incredible. Try it with sfeeha, the open faced Middle Eastern meat pies.

10. Serve with kebabs and koftas
The entire grill platter is basically a delivery system for toum anyway.

11. Drizzle on falafel
Dry falafel? Not on my watch.

12. Stir into pasta
Yes, I said it. A spoon of toum melted through hot pasta with olive oil? Life-changing. Even works with tomato sauces.

13. Swirl over pizza
Garlic sauce pizza > garlic bread pizza. Fight me.

14. Mix into mashed potatoes
If you thought mash couldn’t get any better… surprise!

Variations

Our basic toum here is the classic, but there are regional twists. Some versions use egg whites for extra creaminess. Some might add vinegar. You’ll sometimes also find it blended with herbs or chilli for a spicy kick.

Want to give it your own flair? Try adding roasted garlic for a milder flavour, a pinch of cumin for warmth, or even a few drops of olive oil at the end for richness.

How to Store Toum

1. Fridge it, obviously
Spoon your toum into a clean, airtight container or jar and keep it in the fridge. It’ll stay fresh for up to 3 weeks, sometimes even longer if your garlic was super fresh.

2. Use a clean spoon every time
No double-dipping. We’re storing garlic sauce, not cultivating new life forms.

3. Expect the flavour to mellow
Fresh toum is fiery. After a few days, it relaxes into a smoother, rounder garlic flavour – perfect for dressings, roasts and sandwiches.

4. Stir before using
It might firm up or separate slightly in the cold. A quick stir brings it right back to fluffy perfection with that incredible creamy texture.

5. Can you freeze it?
Technically yes, but the texture can turn weird – grainy, icy, not at all the cloud-like diva we love. If you must freeze it, freeze in small portions (ice cube trays are perfect) and blend again after thawing to revive it. But honestly? Fresh is best.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations – you’re officially ready to conquer toum like a seasoned Lebanese grandmother with a food processor and zero patience for weak garlic sauce.

Whether you’re slathering it on shawarma, dolloping it over roast veg, or sneaking spoonfuls straight from the jar (no judgement), this Middle Eastern classic deserves a permanent spot in your fridge.

If you found this guide and helpful, save it, share it, and leave a comment below, it helps more home cooks discover proper homemade toum and join the garlic-loving chaos.

Post a picture on Instagram and tag me @azlinbloor.

See you soon!

Lin xx

Creamy Lebanese toum in a blue dish with crispy fries and grilled arayes on a dark slate platter.

Food Processor Method

Peel the garlic and remove the green sprout called the germ, as this can lend a bitter taste to your toum.
Place the garlic cloves and salt in a food processor and chop until finely minced.
Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice and continue processing until a paste begins to form. Add another tablespoon lemon juice and process until completely smooth.
Now drizzle in about 60 ml (¼ cup) of the oil in a SLOW steady, thin stream while your food processor is still running. The garlic paste will start to emulsify.If you don’t have a feeding spout, add 1 Tbsp of oil at a time, running the machine after each addition. After the 4th tablespoon, you should see the garlic paste changing texture and starting to emulsify.
Now, add 1 more tablespoon of lemon juice and whip again. Then another 60 ml (¼ cup) of the oil in a SLOW steady, thin stream and keep whipping for a minute. Repeat the lemon juice and olive oil until you’ve used up all the oil. Keep whisking until your toum is smooth, creamy and fluffy.Taste and whisk in more lemon juice and salt is necessary.
Tip the finished toum into a jar with a lid and leave in the fridge for 1 hour for the flavour to develop before serving. You can serve it immediately if you’re too impatient. Will keep in the fridge, in an airtight container for a month.

With a Pestle and Mortar

Pound the garlic with the salt in your mortar until you have a fine paste.
Add 1 Tbsp of the lemon juice and grind (round and round) with the pestle to form a paste. Repeat with another Tbsp of lemon juice.
At this stage, I prefer to transfer everything into a large, roomy bowl, so I have more space to work with.Using a fork whisk in the oil 1 Tbsp at a time. Stop when you’ve done 4 Tbsp. You can also continue doing this with a pestle if you prefer, but a fork does the job better.Now, whisk in another tablespoon of lemon juice, whisk, then 4 Tbsp of oil, 1 at a time, whisking for 30 seconds in between.After 6 Tbsp of lemon juice, stick with just 1 Tbsp of oil and keep whisking until you have a fluffy mix.Taste and add more salt or lemon juice if needed.Store in the fridge for an hour before serving.