If you’ve ever been to a Lebanese restaurant and fell in love with that white garlic sauce that is usually offered with barbq’s or shish tawook (chicken kebobs), today is your day. This post features this garlic sauce’s recipe along with an in-depth guide and references on the chemical reaction that is at the heart of its making.
Take me STRAIGHT to the Recipe. Yalla.
Garlic Sauce Background & Terminology
In Lebanon they call it “Toom” or “Toum” which literally means garlic. Our Egyptian siblings call it “Tooma”… Our Greek cousins have a similar version which they call “skordalia” and in Spain it’s referred to as “Aioli”. In the US it is generally referred to as garlic sauce, however the fact of the matter is that it’s closer to being a paste than a sauce. The intent at the end is the same, and whatever the name is, a successful garlic sauce has a white, creamy texture similar to that of mayo, sour cream or “Labneh” and with a pungent aroma of garlic, and a mouth-watering tong-tingling blood-pressure-lowering flavor that is a perfect marriage between garlic and lemon juice.
This garlic paste goes very well with many BBQs, especially chicken Shawarma, grilled chicken, kebob BBQ and Chicken Shish Tawook (featured above). You can also spread it over baked or boiled potatoes along with a sprinkle of Cayenne pepper and dried mint, and it also tastes wonderful if you wrap it in a pita bread along with some salty cheese and grill it in a panini grill. Finally, some may be surprised but we tried it spread over Kibbeh Nayyeh (raw kibbeh) and it was out of this world. Check out our Chicken Shawarma , Chicken Shish Tawook, or Lebanese Grilled Chicken recipes.
The SECRET is in the Process of Emulsion, or Emulsification
One day while discussing the process of making this garlic sauce with a dear family friend, Dr. Hisham Abdallah who is a Biotech scientist, and while complaining about how delicate making this sauce is, he pointed out that the reason the sauce breaks is likely due to certain violations that are happening to the process of “emulsification.” It turns out that a chemical reaction called “emulsification” is at the very heart of the making of the garlic sauce.
Simply put, emulsification is a process which allows liquids (water) and oils to “mix,” and turn into a “cream” in the presence of an emulsifier or emulsifying agent, and with the help of an external mechanical force such as grinding, shaking, stirring, spinning, or even using ultrasonic waves. The sequence in which oils and water are added, and the ratios also matter a lot and an imbalance can easily break the emulsification process and turn the ingredients back into a liquid state. That is exactly what happens when our garlic paste breaks in frustration as it gets overwhelmed with oil.
The process of emulsification is used in the beauty and medical industry to make creams and beauty products, and it’s the same process used in making Mayonnaise and vinaigrette, and of course, this garlic paste.
Lecithin is a common emulsifier that is used in the food industry in making creamy food products. It is found naturally in eggs and in soy beans. That is why some folks use an egg white in making this garlic dip in order to help speeding the process of emulsification and to increase the chances of success. However we personally don’t like using raw eggs in our garlic dip mainly because we feel that it leaves an undesirable subtle aftertaste, even though many folks don’t even notice it due to the potent flavor of garlic. Instead, we depend purely on the emulsifiers that naturally occur in the garlic. This along with some patience, and a careful following of the procedure, should yield an egg-free successful fluffy garlic paste. If one wants to go the extra step, Soy Lecithin which can be found in specialty baking stores, or on Amazon, can also be used as an added emulsifier in making this garlic dip. Mira, a molecular gastronomy blogger noted that Lecithin shouldn’t alter the taste if used in small quantities.
In-Depth Understanding of the Emulsification Process
If you’d like to nerd it out like I did, check those two videos from Harvard School of Engineering and Stella Culinary on the process of emulsion or emulsification.
The Harvard video features a chef from Spain who showcased how emulsification works in the making of Garlic Aioli. He made the Aioli using at least 10 different methods. Also check this in-depth Emulsion Guide for Cooks from Stella Culinary.
Traditional Garlic Sauce Preparation Method
The Lebanese garlic dip was traditionally made using a pestle and mortar. Our mothers, bless their hearts, would first add the freshly peeled garlic cloves and salt to the pestle and hammer it away until it’s completely crushed. Then, they would add a tiny bit of olive oil (1/2 teaspoon) and hammer away for a minute or so, and then repeat this step for perhaps 30-40 minutes until the oil has been used, while adding a few drops of lemon juice throughout. Another way to do it is to wait on adding the lemon juice until the end. Both ways work.
Modern Preparation Method
Over time, the garlic paste making process slowly moved to food processors and olive oil was substituted with vegetable oils which made the dip less biting and even whiter.
The exact same concept of emulsification applies when making the garlic sauce in a food processor. Oil must be added at an extremely slow rate while the food processor is constantly running, and the oil pouring must stop occasionally for a few minutes to allow the garlic paste in the processor to absorb the new oils.
Feature Video: Chef Kamal Making The Garlic Sauce
Chef Kamal is a Lebanese American Chef and food blogger with some amazing recipes. I recommend checking his book on Traditional Lebanese Cuisine. Below we feature his video of making this Lebanese garlic paste and I love how he simplified the process and broke it down in very simple and easy steps. Check out his video below:
Now a side note that I heard in Chef Kamal’s video, and which I’ve also heard from many other food bloggers and chefs, and I used to also believe it myself too… There is a belief that if the ingredients are contaminated with water, the sauce will break. However after I’ve researched the process of emulsification, and watched the above two videos from Harvard and Stella Culinary, I’m not sure that this is fully accurate anymore. The nature of the process of emulsification is that it needs water molecules to bind the oil molecules. Water is a must. Garlic naturally has water, just like all veggies, and lemon juice also has water. So when we add garlic and lemon juice during the process, we’re practically adding water. In fact, the Harvard video shows the Spanish Chef making Aioli (similar to our garlic sauce) with water droplets, instead of lemon juice. I’ve also tried that at home and got a successful fluffy garlic paste with using water (and adding the lemon juice at the end).
So what we need to be careful about then are the ratios of oil to water: if you have too much oil, it breaks, and if you have too much water (or lemon juice), it breaks just like Chef Kamal noted. The ratio must be respected and for those who like to geek it out here is a nice guide below from Stella Culinary on the ratios (look for the 2nd row, Mayonnaise & Aioli):
| On to the recipe… |
- 3 heads of garlic, pealed
- 4-5 cups of vegetable oil (canola/sunflower/peanut etc…)
- 1 lemon, freshly juiced
- 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste)
- Before you start, ensure that all ingredients are at room temperature for a more reliable outcome. Also if you are using a large food processor make sure you use at least 3 heads of garlic otherwise smaller quantities of garlic won't be easily chopped by the blades.
- Add the garlic and salt in the food processor and run for 10-20 seconds.
- Stop processor, scrap garlic down the sides, then run processor again for another 10-20 seconds. Repeat process 3-4 times until garlic starts to turn pasty and looks crushed. The garlic must look well crushed as an important step before proceeding.
- At this point, turn the processor back on and keep it on until the end. If however you're using a high speed blender instead of a food processor, you may need to start and stop it occasionally so it doesn't overheat.
- While the food processor is turned on, start adding oil slowly in a very thin stream, each ½ cup at a time. After adding the first half cup you will start seeing the garlic emulsify and turn into a paste already.
- While still running, add ½ teaspoon of lemon juice very slowly, in a thin stream.
- Wait on it a few seconds until the lemon juice is well absorbed then go back to repeating the same process of slowly adding ½ cup of oil, waiting a few seconds, then adding ½ teaspoon of lemon juice until you’ve used all ingredients. This process should take 8-10 minutes.
- If at any point you see that the paste is turning liquid, it may be an indication that you’ve added either too much lemon juice, or oil, or you may have added them at a fast rate. In this case your options may be limited especially if the paste completely breaks. Sometimes adding a cube of ice may help.
If the resulting garlic paste is too biting/strong, you could either mix it with a mashed medium size baked (or boiled) potatoe, or you can increase the amount of oil.
You could also add a small pinch of citric acid in the beginning with the garlic and salt to make the paste more tangy.
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I have to avoid ALL seed oils (canola, grapeseed, sunflower, vegetable, etc…), will the light olive oil work okay?
Jennifer I haven’t tried it with light olive oil. I think I may have tried it with Avocado oil and it turned out good. That’s one other oil you may want to consider.
If it turns watery os there any way to salvage it and make it go back to a puree? Things were going so well and then the sound of the machine changed and it turned watery. How can you avoid the machine from getting hot? I pour it so slowly that it heats up !
in the past i have made toum with no problem. then all of a sudden i can not make it. i even had my blade sharpened because I thought it was getting dull. i follow your recipe exactly. I am now at the point where i am sending my cuisinart back to them thinking it is not spinning fast enough. it is less than a year old. so disappointed that my toum making days may be over!
Hi! I made the garlic sauce and eveything went well except that it’s very strong and has a “jelly” kind of texture. Is that because I didn’t put enough oil? Thanks!
The result may vary greatly Amelie based on how strong the garlic is, and how flavorful or not the oil is. Lots of garlic in the market these days has no flavor whatsoever so you may have to add more in that case. And other garlic is too strong. You may have to do it a couple of times to fine tune the results.
Here is what I did and it worked great (First time making it), I did NOT use a blender.
I made a serving for ~2 or 3 so Instead of 4-5cups of oil I used half a cup, I used maybe half a teaspoon of lime juice and maybe around 6 garlic cloves (a lot of garlic! I wanted to have a lot of emulsification to avoid it breaking). Did not use eggs, I imagine it will last longer without the eggs.
I chopped the garlic into little cubes then crushed those cubes with a knife, I threw this pasty stuff in a medium sized bowl and added few droplets of oil and kept whisking. I got someone else to add the oil bit by bit while I whisked aggressively (Don’t try to make weird patterns to try to randomize the mixing just whisk fast in one direction (clockwise or counter-CW) and from time to time reach the areas your circular motion doesn’t reach – the center). It was a serious arm workout I had to rotate turns with others to take a break. After maybe a quarter cup it started to look a bit mushy and gains some volume; its definitely looking like the oil is not a smooth liquid anymore. I was able to add the whole half-cup of oil without it breaking down and even added a bit more lemon juice but I left the juice to the end. I imagine the most important variable is not juice the ratio of oil to water, but also how much emulsification your garlic can provide, that is why I took it very easy with the lemon juice. It was a bit sharp at first because of all the garlic but I tried it the next day and it tastes fine now. Just remember that half a cup of oil is ~960 calories – take it easy haha
Hey everyone,
I‘m so sad, I now tried it the fourth time and everytime it‘s the same: First I get a thick consistency but it‘s more like jelly not a cream or paste. And after 15 minutes it gets more and more watery until it‘s liquid.
Anyone knows where I make the mistake?
And do I have to use fresh garlic or is normal garlic from the supermarket okay?
Thanks in Advance 🙂
It took me quite a bit of trials to get this to work. If you want a shortcut, you can use a bit of a raw egg white in the blender to act as an emulsifier. Otherwise try to watch the video in this post by Chef Kamal and emulate his timing and quantities. Packaged garlic should be ok. I think one of the key requirements is that when you first crush the garlic with the salt, it needs to be well crushed/pasted before you start adding oil.
You need to take care to add the vegetable oil very slowly into the processor while the grind is on, and also the lime juice. Stop blending once it is thick, don’t add oil and lemon juice in large quantities. Use the measurement mentioned in the recipe. I am sure you’d get it right this time, Alina dear. 🙂
It should be similar to the texture of mayo, I’ve made this many times. Chef Kamal’s recipe is what I follow to the t! I do not use any pepper. I find the recipes that use egg whites seem “fluffier” but I will not trust it to last as long and I have a problem with raw egg hanging out.
I add to a jar 15 hand crushed garlic cloves, 1 cup of canola oil, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 1-2 teaspoons of salt. Mix all ingredients in the jar with a hand held immersion blender. Toum is ready in less than a minute. I’ve never had it break either. I make it like this all of the time. Very easy.
I use the blade of my emulsion blender. Not the whisk.
This recipe doesn’t work with 4-5 cups oil try it with just 1 maybe 2 or it will be like water
Hi Michael, if the result you’re seeing is watery then the process of emulsion is not taking place. The garlic needs to be well crushed and mashed with the salt first before starting to add the oil very slowly. I’ve tried it numerous times with more than 4 cups and it works just fine, as a matter of fact you could technically keep on adding oil and lemon juice as long as the proportions are within range per that table at the bottom of the blog.
This recipe definitely works with 4-5 cups of oil. I just made it, and it came out perfect. If yours is getting too runny, then you probably didn’t start out with 3 FULL heads of garlic. Start out with a lot of garlic. Pulverate all the garlic (with the salt) first until it’s like a paste. Then, proceed as directed. The outcome is beautiful. Actually, I added about 1 to 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and the flavors melded together even better. I hope you try this recipe out again 🙂
This recipe will never work with 4-5 cups oil
For 3 heads – not cloves- you need at least 3 cups of oil. 4-5 cups is about right unless you want vampire breath and Thai level spice on your toum.
I use 4 cup and i make twice a month
I discovered a way to save your mix if it’s too watery WITHOUT using other ingredients! It may even help if it’s split! Use one of those cheap hand-held whisk things people use to froth their lattes to get it moving together, then start blending/blitzing it again. You can get them at lots of supermarkets. Just make sure you clean it thoroughly, don’t want a garlic coffee!
I’ve been using this recipe for 3 or 4 years now and it is outstanding!
A troubleshooting tip if your toum “breaks”:
I had zero experience with toum before I tasted it in a restaurant and was hooked on the spot. I read everything I could find on the internet about how to make it and finally settled on this recipe. I was prepared to go through several iterations before having success. On my first try, I made it exactly as directed; it smelled heavenly, but it “broke.” I added a few drops of ice water, then an entire ice cube, but it didn’t help. In desperation (because what a waste of garlic and oil if it fails!), I put the entire food processor bowl including blade and lid into the fridge and waited a couple of hours. IT WORKED! The water and oil layers came together immediately into a wonderful fluffy paste. SOOOOOO GOOD! I was also pleased at how long it kept in the frdige, ie a few weeks tightly covered before it started to taste old. From now on I am going to chill all the ingredients before starting and again if I’m having trouble. Hope this helps!
Hi,I have the small Ninja blender.The other day I made garlic sauce it did’t turn to be pasty,fluffy.It was so spicy because of the garlic.I trashed it.i want to know where I was wrong?!I use half the recipe.If I want to use half of the recipe,what amount should I use for half of that?Please help me.That was my third time that I tried it the same day.
The Ninja blender is a very powerful processor to use for a sauce like this.if you could possibly pulse or use it at a slower speed you will more likely get the consistency needed.
I used olive oil the first time I made it and it was too spicy. I also have a Ninja and found that it didn’t work. Use the ninja to puree the garlic and then transfer to a bowl. Hand whisking I found works best.
My emulsification did not work what can I do after the fact to fix it? Thank you
You can sometimes add a small amount of liquid (water or more lemon juice) and whisk (or process) thoroughly.
Otherwise you have to start over from scratch with a clean bowl. You only need to get just enough so there’s an emulsion. Once you have a good emulsification you can SLOWLY drizzle in the broken portion.
Hi all! I tried this recipe and made it with half garlic bulb + 1 egg and 2 cups of canola oil with immersion blender , it came out really thick but I am missing the grainy look that is usually there in restaurant style toum. I could only achieve that look in my vitamix after adding egg whites to a cold broken mixture. That was the perfect toum and everyone loved it but when I tried it again I failed with Vitamix . So I have been using hand blender since then and getting a very thick mayo look but missing that white grainy look .. Any suggestions ?
Thanks!
When it says to leave the processor running a little voice told me not to but I ignored it. I have some very strong garlic paste and a broken food processor. I got through almost 1/2 cup of oil before the blade quit turning. I will say that it did look like it was on its way to turning out. Will add to some mayo and try to salvage all that garlic!
Hi all. Living in Lebanon I make zeit w toum almost every other week, The reason for using 3 garlic heads is when you use a mixer 1 head is not enough for the blades to reach. But if you use a stick-chopper (don’t know the correct name for it) in a narrow container you can get away with 1 1/2 head. Despite being an olive farmer I use corn oil and everything else as per the above recipe. Only difference I add 2 spoonfulls of olive oil. I like the taste, but guys I am bias 😉
Could you please tell me, do you use the blade on your stick chopper or the whisk?
I make this in a mixing cup with an immersion blender (stick blender) with the regular blades. Mine doesn’t have an option to change the blades. It works great — I halved the recipe but otherwise I follow it exactly — and I totally impressed all my Lebanese in-laws!
Mine too turned out super well! My daughter and I LOVED it! Thanks for the apt-wonderful recipe! Could you also post the recipes for the authentic Shawarma, Hamoos and Muttabel please…????
My hope is that this review will help some others who have the same questions I had before starting. I read MANY recipes and MANY MANY comments about this sauce but wasn’t able to find any wherein someone had used a ninja blender (the food processor attachment weirdly doesn’t have a port through which you can drizzle oil or juice). I decided to go for it and use the recipe on this page. It came out wonderfully. I had to adjust my method a bit since I used a blender instead of a food processor. I pulverized the garlic with the salt in the blender until it was creamy. With the blender on I then drizzled (from one of the plastic condiment containers with the nozzle) in VERY SLOWLY AND IN A VERY THIN STREAM the first 1/2 cup of canola oil. Next was roughy 1/2 tablespoon of lemon juice (also very slowly added). I used fresh lemon juice (I thought about using bottled lemon juice, but instinct said the water used in that would work against the emulsification process). I repeated this process a couple of times and then realized that because the ninja is so powerful, it wasn’t really blending everything together as well as I’d hoped as much as it was creating a vortex. I also realized that I no longer needed the cutting blades, so I decided to switch to a large mixing bowl and a hand mixer to finish. This made the sauce come together beautifully. I didn’t have to add potato or egg white or anything other than what this recipe calls for. I was a bit wary of 4 cups of oil, but it was absolutely needed for this. I had 3 large heads of garlic and when I tasted the mixture at 3 cups, it was still too strong (and this is coming from someone who LOVES strong flavors and believes there’s no such thing as too much garlic). 3 days later and the sauce I made is still as beautiful as the day I made it. So, for those of you who follow the recipe and still end up with a broken sauce, try switching to your hand mixer before tossing the sauce. Thanks for a great recipe!
Sorry. Does that say 300 calories per 2 TEASPOONS?
Hi Kaylyn – it should be a bit less than 80 calories per 2 teaspoons
Hi.. can I half the recipe and have it still work fine? I cannot consume 5 cups of oil in two weeks .. well I guess I could.. haha.. but I don’t:)
I cheat by making this with mayonnaise, I just add lemon, salt and garlic. Can’t mess it up this way
Where is the video you posted?
Hi Gina – the video for making the garlic paste can be found towards the bottom of the page: https://www.mamaslebanesekitchen.com/dips/lebanese-garlic-dip look in the “Feature Video: Chef Kamal Making The Garlic Sauce” section.
So sorry, but I have read all the comments and tried to look for the video as you said it is more helpful, however o couldn’t find the video posted???? Please help.
I would like to know about a “secret dip” and the guy calls it Nour Sauce. He says he does not cook his potatos ( as are done in the Skordalia…he acted totally obvilious to what Skordalia is’ yeah, right!)he says he begins with raw potatos and adds garlic and lemon and allows that to cook the potatos. I’ve made several batches of Skordalia and I’ve gotten pretty to the close getting the recipe like his. Then he adds jalapeños and cilantro. ( or so he says). What do you all think?????
really 4-5 cups of oil more like 4-5 tbls come on unless you’re making oil paste lol I;ve been making this stuff for years and that is a mis-print for sure
Hi Carl – thank you for your comment. Our recipe actually uses 4-5 cups (not spoons) of oil. If done right, the oil emulsifies with the garlic and lemon juice and turns into a thick paste. I imagine that you could definitely use 4-5 spoons of oil if you have a small quantity of garlic, or if you like the garlic extremely strong. Oil tames down the strength of garlic.
holy shit you don’t use 4-5 cups of oil unless you’re making oil paste, what are talking about
Maybe you misread. This calls for 3 heads of garlic, not 3 cloves. If 1 head is roughly 10 cloves, then this recipe uses around 30 cloves of garlic.
All comments are one better than the other. And I am a garlic lover will have to make it this Sunday. Will let u know the outcome.
How long can u fridge it for?
Can’t wait to make and eat.
Evan how did the garlic paste turn out? To answer your question we usually keep it for 2+ weeks in the fridge. It can last if placed in an airtight container. If you leave it longer though, the paste starts to slowly separate.
Hello,
Thanks a lot for the recepie.
I love Garlic paste.
I did it but it was too watery …..!!
Can you advice me what should I do…?
Thank you
Hi Sara – sorry the garlic paste turned out watery. This is a sign that the “emulsion” process didn’t work. Emulsion is when oil + water mix, in the presence of an emulsifying agent, to turn into a paste. If you place all ingredients in the food processor at once and turn it on, it will never turn into a paste as an example. The exact sequence listed in the recipe (or the video at the end) needs to be followed in order to create emulsion.
Once the sauce is made, can you freeze it? Also, I have whole frozen garlic cloves, peeled. Can I use these or do they have to be fresh?
Thanks
Peggy you sure can freeze the Garlic paste.. however it may lose strength pretty quickly. I usually keep it in a glass jar in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
Thank you. Can I use the frozen peeled garlic cloves with the same result without altering the recipe?
Thanks.
Peggy
Hi Peggy – sorry for the late reply. Yes the recipe is mostly the same for frozen garlic, with the only exception that you may not need as much oil. We usually add a lot of oil to tame down the strength of fresh garlic. However if you use frozen garlic, it’s already tamed and you could perhaps use half of the oil quantity.
So the garlic is raw. You do not roast it first, is that correct?
Gwendolyn correct, we use raw garlic for the making of the garlic paste.
Hello!
I’m wondering how much lemon juice…1/2 cup? I don’t have a fresh lemon and wanted to use bottled lemon juice instead. Thanks!
it all depends on how much garlic you’re using but 1/2 cup may be the max you need
His response was wrong you should need less than 1/4 cup because he said 1 lemon not 1 cup lemon so 1/2 cup should’ve been way too sour
One organic, whole, fresh LEMON (as mentioned 1 lemon) in my experience; (having pressed many many lemons for fasting for years) usually yields: 4-TBSP total lemon juice per lemon, (about 2 TBSP juice per each half of organic lemon), if you’re trying to convert the idea for bottled. You won’t get the enzymes from non fresh juice (ie pasteurized destroys). Fyi. Also there is an enzymatic process with crushing garlic which occurs, is it necessary to rest the garlic (as usual) that could also be why some fail, the process takes about 10 min once you crush garlic it reacts with air &goes they a conversion process all on its own, (resting garlic is necessary before use in cooking to get the benefits of the garlic for health). Fyi
Thank you for the recipe! I did it right the 1st time. My friend who grew up in the middle east loved it.
glad you liked the garlic paste Anna
What a great page! Thank you 🙂 I am totally addicted to this stuff from my favorite restaurant, so I am excited to try making it.
How long does this keep.
If packed in an airtight container, the garlic paste can stay in the fridge for a couple of weeks or a bit more.
Can I use coconut oil?
Marina I’ve never tried the garlic dip with coconut oil, I’m guessing though that it may taste too strong with coconut unless you use highly refined coconut oil. If you end up trying it I’m interested in learning how it went.
Absolutely love garlic sauce.
This is my first time making it, and I want to make a big batch to for a party and (hopefully) there will be some left overs for myself, so I’ve put about 15-16 heads of garlic. In one of the recipes I’ve read, it says to put about 1 and 1/4 cup of oil for 1 cup of garlic cloves. I’ve put about 3.5 cups of cloves so I’ve kept to the ratio and added about 4 cups of oil. Now i’ve been blending, stopping and drizzling more oil but the texture is still not quite right. It’s still very granular and there is quite a strong hit of garlic still.
Do I keep adding more oil?? What do I do?
removing the green root/stem inside the garlic can get rid of the bitterness.
I lived in Africa for many years, and Lebanese food was my very favorite way to put on pounds! After returning to Texas, I have made this hundreds of times and it is always wonderful. One of my Lebanese friends told me his mother used to boil a small potato until it was tender, then blend it in the garlic and salt prior to adding the oil and lemon juice to help with emulsification. It is a fool proof trick that seems to work great. You don’t taste the potato….but the toum is creamy and delicious every time!
My best friend is Labanese and she adds potato to hers too! This sauce is sooo delicious!
thanks Mama for your precise recipes, the whole family loves them especially the Leb chocolate cookie-the best food in the world xoxo
You are welcome Kathy glad you enjoy them.
Curious lebanese, totally fell here by mistake.
To remove bitterness from the recipe, use lebanese olive oil or a mature 1 year+ oil. If the olive oil is young, less than one year, it will taste bitter. and;
Some found it too spicey, it shouldnt be…
The way we do it in the Lebanon, we cut every garlic bead in half meticulously, and remove the green core of the garlic clove. In every garlic clove, there is a core green filament like part, remove it.
This filament renders the garlic spicey AND bitter, also we remove it because it sometimes causes indigestion a few hours later.
When trying the recipe and the mixture is still watery, keep mixing.
My mom in the Lebanon cooks Turkey (on your Thanksgiving date) each year since I was born. It was ALWAYS accompanied with toum.
I just put first batch in frig – smells so awesome, worked up fine – am planning to slather on baking tofu! ooo – eggplant! – put into cavity of squash! – in pita with roast cauliflour or other veggies!…wonder if will be good on peanut butter sandwich?(probably won’t try that)…falafel! Thnx for the recipe!(4 star only cause I haven’t used it yet – prep was 5 star easy)
Hi! I’d love to make this recipe! It looks so good! but I don’t have a food processor, I only have a chopper but there is no way to keep adding ingredients without stopping it, so I wonder if I can still make it that way? even if i stop it to add the oil and the lemon every time??
You can try using a mortar and pestle Sarah if you have one around
This was easy to make and tasted very good! Mine was also a bit “hot” and after reading all of the reviews/advice that followed the recipe I will add more oil and maybe even a piece of potato next time. I am so appreciative to the great chefs out there that take the time to write blogs/websites/reviews and help out home cooks such as myself! My family and I enjoy taking cooking trips around the world and I could not make recipes like this without your help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!
Glad you liked it Charlene
hi, i used olive oil by accident as i didnt read the recipe properly.. silly of me. it has come out to right consistency but bitter. is there anyway i can fix it?
Not sure much can be done after olive oil is used.. but don’t throw the paste away. You can use it as a marinade for meats, especially for chicken. It gives a great flavor for grilling.
Iv tried and failed many times with this also.
Its a real shame when you have cooked everything else and run out of garlic or oil after 2-3 failures on the toum.
I have now settled on making toum wth a stick mixer and use as little as half a head, no cheating required!
I have found over the years that it is critical to have the right dimensions to initially strike the garlic emulsification. The crucial thing is to have an environment where the garlic cant escape the blades. This is what compels you to use so much in a food processor. It’s the mechanical power that makes the magic happen but its no good if your wheels are spinning!
I start with a bamix(brand not important) and a jug just bigger(tighter the better) than the mixing head. 1/2 a head of garlic salt and a tbs lemon to get the initial breakdown. Then start adding oil. If you see or feel the garlic escaping the blades punch it down with the head. You need to create a tight and air free environment where the garlic is continually flowing through the blades. Once it has struck, I find i can really push things with the oil, often I add it in big slugs. Keep rocking and pumping the stick to attack the mixture. Dont stay still or it will just create an air pocket and stop processing. Using this method I get the toum as white as snow and so thick you can just about carve it.
The best thing about this method is you dont have to commit to so much of the ingredients.
Less toum in the fridge though I suppose 🙂
How much oil did you use?
I typically use an average of 0.5 to 1 cup per garlic head
my first attempt i used an immersion blender, didnt work out got runny garlic sauce. second time i used a pint sized empty yogurt cup put in the garlic and salt.. used the immersion blender to break up the garlic then used the back of a wooden sppon in cup and added about a teaspoon of oil and worked it with the back of wooden spoon, kept on adding a bit of oil and using wooden spoon.. it came out just like mayo! 😀 my arm was tired, but totally worth it lol
excellent job Layla glad it the garlic paste turned out well.
A-MAZING!! Exactly like my favorite kebab shop in L.A. Worked properly the first go! Watching the video helped. The new cusinarts have a great emulsion drip tube. The oly thing I had watch was pulpy lemon juice clogging the opening. Also, letting it whir a few seconds after each additio of oil and each addition of lemon seemed to hold it together (like Chef Kamal demonstrated). I can’t stop testing it, you know, to make sure I got the taste down!:) thankk you so much for sharing! I’ve got your Shish Tawook marinating for tomorrow’s supper as we speak!
Congratulations on getting the garlic dip right from the first time Kim, not many people are so successful on the first shot, including myself 🙂 I hope you enjoy the Shish Tawook it goes excellent with it.
oh my, Edgard! I ate the whole Vat of garlic paste before my supper tonight!! 🙂 I’m only joking. But it is THAT good. Wait ’til the Italians find this recipe! Haha! I did slather a bunch of it all over some nice warm flatbread last night. I can hardly wait for the shish tarwook and garlic paste tonight…it will be outstanding! Thank you so much. PS. I’m sure to get a husband now! 🙂
you know what they say: the key to man’s heart is in his stomach, especially Lebanese guys