Are you looking for the creamy garlic sauce recipe served in restaurants? Then this recipe is yours! My Garlic sauce or Authentic Middle Eastern Toum is perfectly light, fluffy, and the ultimate pair to my Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma.
Creamy and Fluffy
Best Ways to Enjoy Garlic Sauce
A staple for the well-known Authentic Middle Eastern Chicken Shawarma is the Middle Eastern Toum sauce. Middle Eastern people love to spread lots of garlic sauce in their Shawarma sandwiches. The combination is irresistible!
This garlic sauce pairs well with almost every chicken, BBQ, and kebabs recipe. Try it with Juicy Chicken Kofta Kebabs, Oven Baked Chicken Skewers, Middle Eastern Spiced Baked Chicken, Honey Garlic Sriracha Wings, etc.
It is the ultimate, tasty way to dip French fries and roasted veggies in Ketchup and this garlic sauce. It adds a kick of flavor to any meal.
Dig and Enjoy
Expert Tips for Best Results
You can skip the step where you remove the inner germ of garlic cloves, but the sauce will be spicy, which means that your mouth will burn a bit.
To make the garlic sauce more mellow, soak the garlic cloves in ice water for 30 minutes, but make sure to drain them well.
Try to use freshly squeeze lemon for better flavor, or use bottled lemon juice without additives.
Add the oil and lemon juice gradually. Because when you add them quickly the emulsification will fail and the sauce will break.
If your food processor gets hot, then give it a pause since the heat affects the sauce and causes its separation.
A Perfect Combination
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The toum sauce breaks and becomes liquidy if you miss the use of lemon juice, or you add the oil too quickly.
The best way to fix the broken garlic sauce is to add a binder to enhance the emulsification process, like egg whites. Remove 1/4 cup of the broken emulsion and whip it with 2 large egg whites in a food processor until it gets white and fluffy. Then, drizzle in the remaining broken toum slowly.
Store it in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 months. This only has garlic, salt, lemon, and oil, and will be naturally preserved.
I do not recommend freezing since the texture will be affected upon thawing and the texture becomes liquidy.
I have not tried it in a blender, so I can’t confirm whether it will work or not.
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What You Will Need
Garlic cloves: use fresh and firm garlic knobs to ensure that you get the best consistency and flavor. Avoid using old garlic knobs or pre-peeled garlic cloves.
Oil: you can use any neutral oil, like Mazola oil, canola oil, Avocado oil, etc. Olive oil doesn’t work to make this garlic sauce since it changes the color of the sauce and gives it a strong, sharp flavor.
Salt: unlike almost all recipes where salt is added to taste, in the garlic sauce you need to add salt for two reasons: first, to finely grate garlic cloves and get a chunky texture; second, for the taste.
Lemon juice: Fresh lemon juice helps to well combine and emulsify since it acts as a binder.
How to Make Garlic Sauce?
To start, cut each garlic clove in half lengthwise and remove the inner germ. This process makes the garlic taste a lot less spicy.
Once cut, add to your food processor. Your food processor MUST have a small emulsifier spout. It has to be a strong and large food processor (minimum of 12 cups).
Then, add the salt to the garlic and turn the food processor on. Let it go until the garlic gets finely cut.
Now stop, and scrape down the sides.
After that, add 3 tablespoons of the oil you are using and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Start the food processor once again and you should see the garlic getting chopped even more finely.
Next, stop the processing one more time and scrape down the sides, making the garlic move towards the middle. Close the lid, and add the emulsion sleeve to your food processor.
Last but not least, start the food processor and add ½ cup of the oil into the emulsifier cup. Let it drip slowly, then once it is finished, add another ½ cup. Repeat until you finish 2½ cups of oil.
Once finished, add in ½ of your lemon juice to the emulsifier cup. Later on, add ½ cup of the oil, then add the remaining lemon, and finally the last bit of oil.
Once that is finished, it means that the garlic sauce is now ready. It should be fluffy and creamy.
The End Result 😋
Must-Try Recipes:
Easy Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas
Chicken Maqluba (Flipped Upside Down)
Meat Stuffed Pitas (Palestinian Arayes)
Middle Eastern Kidney Bean Beef Stew
Palestinian Cauliflower Fritters (Emshat)
If you’ve tried this recipe, don’t forget to rate it and leave a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Garlic Sauce – Middle Eastern Toum
Ingredients
- 1 cup garlic cloves mine measured 35
- 3½ cups neutral oil Mazola oil, Canola oil, Avocado oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
Instructions
- Cut each garlic clove in half lengthwise and remove the inner germ. This process makes the garlic taste a lot less spicy.
- Add to your food processor. Your food processor must have a small emulsifier spout. It has to be a strong and large food processor (minimum of 12 cups).
- Add the salt to the garlic and turn the food processor on. Let it go until the garlic gets finely cut.
- Stop, and scrape down the sides.
- Add 3 tablespoons of the oil you are using and about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. Start the food processor once again and you should see the garlic getting chopped even more finely.
- Stop the processing one more time and scrape down the sides, making the garlic move towards the middle. Close the lid, and add the emulsion sleeve to your food processor.
- Start the food processor and add ½ cup of the oil into the emulsifier cup. Let it drip slowly, then once it is finished, add another ½ cup. Repeat until you finish 2½ cups of oil.
- Once finished, add in ½ of your lemon juice to the emulsifier cup. Once it is finished, add ½ cup of the oil, then add the remaining lemon, and finally the last bit of oil.
- Once it is finished, it means that your garlic sauce is now ready. It should be fluffy and creamy.
Notes
- You can skip the step of the remove the inner germ of garlic cloves, but the sauce will be spicy aka month burning a bit.
- To make the garlic sauce more mellow, soak the garlic cloves in ice water for 30 minutes.
- Make sure to follow the directions fully.
- Add the oil and lemon juice slowly. Otherwise, when you add them quickly the emulsification will fail and the sauce will break.
- You can chill your oil before using if your food processor gets warm too quickly.
- Sometimes the emulsion will break since there isn’t a binder, which is okay. Mix 1/4 cup of broken emulsion with 2 large egg whites in a food processor and mix until white and fluffy. Then slowly drizzle in the remaining broken emulsion while the food processor is running
- Don’t beat yourself up if it doesn’t work, I tried it numerous times on different food processors until I found what worked for me.
So good! Made it exactly how she posted it and it came out so delicious! My hubby is picky sometimes with his food and he couldn’t stop eating it! Loved it and will make it again!
So good! Made it exactly how she posted it and it came out so delicious! My hubby is picky sometimes with his food and he couldn’t stop eating it! Loved it and will make it again!
LOVE!! So good and perfect consistency, and of course had it with the shawarma
Kills any restaurant garlic sauce…. I can never get a good garlic sauce anywhere, and now I don’t have to because I make it myself ! This is the best recipe; so delicious every time, but you must follow the steps exactly for it to turn out perfect !! Definitely worth it and so easy (:
Okay so toum is so intimidating because i tried a different recipe before and i always ended up with oily garlic water lol. I love that you have all thr steps laid out and detailed, this worked perfectly for me and its the best toum i have ever tasted
This has to be one of the best!
Delicious! If mine isn’t fluffy enough sometimes I add a little bit of crushed ice
Tried this today, and I’m so bummed!! This turned out absolutely spot on!!! I followed step by step and got the perfect creamy texture… Sooo Amaazing! I removed half and stored in an airtight glass jar, the other half that was in the processor- I did a quick press and it just turned into liquid!! Now I have a half perfect creamy texture Toum and a half liquid/ runny version! Definitely know when to stop next! But sooo soo good! The kids were finger licking it off the spoons 😂😂
haha so glad you figured out what to do!
So easy to make. Authentic! The garlic taste is not so overpowering. Just perfect. Love to always make it and leave it in my fridge.
Total fail!! I followed the steps and measurements and my sauce was complete liquid 🙁
Hi! It can happen with Toum unfortunately. Sometimes you’re adding the liquids too fast, or your food processor isnt as powerful. The emulsification is really delicate and can mess up quickly unfortunately. Till this day, this recipe, or any other one, can mess up!