Garlic Sauce — How to Make the Toum Sauce Everyone Obsesses Over
Some sauces are nice to have. Garlic sauce is not one of them.
Toum is the reason people ask for extra sauce. It is the reason garlic potatoes become a problem you cannot stop eating. It is the reason a shawarma that was already good becomes the shawarma you tell people about. If you have ever sat down with a plate of Middle Eastern food in Montreal and found yourself reaching for that creamy, white, intensely garlicky sauce over and over again, you already know exactly what we are talking about.
This is the Lebanese garlic sauce that shawarma was made to be eaten with. And in this post, we are going to show you exactly how to make it at home, what to do when it goes wrong, and every single way you can use it once you have a jar of it sitting in your fridge.
Fair warning. Once you make toum, you will start putting it on everything.
What Is Garlic Sauce or Toum?
Toum is a traditional Lebanese garlic sauce that has been a staple of Middle Eastern cooking for generations. The name comes from the Arabic word for garlic, and if you have ever eaten at a Lebanese or Middle Eastern restaurant, there is a very good chance you have already had it without knowing its name.
What makes toum different from regular garlic sauce or aioli is the texture and the intensity. It is not heavy or oily. It is light, almost fluffy, and incredibly white. The flavour is bold, clean, and unapologetically garlicky without being harsh or overwhelming when it is made properly. It has a brightness from the lemon that keeps everything balanced and a creaminess that comes entirely from technique rather than dairy.
Toum is also completely vegan. No eggs. No cream. No butter. Just four ingredients working together in a way that produces something that tastes like it should be far more complicated than it actually is.
It is one of the best shawarma sauces in the world, one of the most versatile condiments in Middle Eastern cooking, and one of those recipes that once you learn it, you will wonder how you lived without it.
The Four Ingredients You Need
This is where toum earns its reputation for being deceptively simple. Four ingredients. That is it.
Garlic: Fresh only. Fresh garlic is what gives toum its clean, sharp flavour. Older or jarred garlic introduces a bitterness that no amount of technique can fix. Use the freshest garlic you can find and remove the green germ from the centre of each clove if there is one, as that is often the source of bitterness.
Neutral oil: Sunflower oil, canola oil, or any light-flavoured vegetable oil. Not olive oil. This is one of the most important rules in making toum. Olive oil has too strong a flavour, and it can cause the emulsion to break. Neutral oil lets the garlic be the star.
Lemon juice: Fresh, always. The acidity is what balances the garlic and helps the emulsion hold together. Bottled lemon juice does not behave the same way, and the flavour difference is noticeable.
Salt: Fine salt, added from the beginning. It helps break down the garlic during processing and seasons the sauce evenly throughout.
That is the entire ingredient list. What turns these four things into the best garlic sauce you have ever tasted is entirely about technique.
The Garlic Sauce Recipe: Step by Step
What you need:
1 cup of fresh garlic cloves, peeled and de-germed
3 cups of neutral oil
Half a cup of fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon of fine salt
2 to 4 tablespoons of ice water
The method:
Add the garlic cloves and salt to a food processor. Process for about one minute until the garlic is finely minced, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed. The garlic should look almost paste-like.
With the food processor running, begin adding the oil very slowly. Start with just a few drops at a time. This step cannot be rushed. The emulsion builds gradually, and pouring too fast at this stage is the number one reason toum breaks. Thin stream, slow and steady.
After you have added roughly a quarter of the oil, add a tablespoon of lemon juice. Continue alternating between slow additions of oil and lemon juice throughout the process, always adding the oil in a thin, steady stream.
Continue processing and alternating between oil and lemon juice until all the oil has been incorporated. Add ice water a tablespoon at a time if the sauce becomes too thick or starts to look heavy. The ice water helps maintain the emulsion and keeps the texture light.
When all the oil is in, the toum should be thick, white, fluffy, and holding its shape. Taste for salt and lemon, and adjust if needed.
Transfer to a sealed jar and refrigerate. Toum keeps well in the fridge for up to a month, and the flavour actually improves after the first day as everything settles together.
No food processor? A high-powered blender works well. A mortar and pestle is the traditional method and produces excellent results with more effort. A hand immersion blender in a tall, narrow container also works in a pinch.
Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them
This is the section that saves your sauce. Most people fail at this recipe at least once before they get it right, and almost every failure comes from one of these four mistakes.
The oil went in too fast: This is the most common reason toum breaks and separates into an oily, curdled mess. The emulsion needs time to form. If your toum breaks, do not throw it out. Start fresh with two or three new garlic cloves in the processor, get them broken down, and then slowly pour your broken toum back in as if it were the oil. It will almost always come back together.
The garlic was bitter: This usually comes from using old garlic, jarred garlic, or garlic with the green germ left inside. The green sprout in the centre of a clove is the culprit behind harsh, bitter toum. Always remove it before processing.
Olive oil was used: If your toum tastes heavy, slightly bitter, and refuses to emulsify properly, olive oil is likely the reason. Switch to a fully neutral oil, and the difference is immediate.
No ice water: If your toum is dense and heavy rather than light and fluffy, ice water is the fix. Add it a tablespoon at a time while the processor is running and watch the texture lift and brighten. Do not skip this step.
Every Way to Use Toum
Toum was born as a shawarma sauce. But once you have a jar of homemade toum in your fridge, it starts showing up everywhere.
Spread it inside a chicken sandwich instead of mayonnaise, and you will never go back. Use it as a dipping sauce for crispy fries or roasted vegetables and watch it disappear faster than anything else on the table. Rub it over chicken before roasting, and the result is something that belongs at every dinner table. Toss it through warm garlic potatoes the way Shawarmaz does, and you will understand why those garlic potatoes have their own fan club. Mix a spoonful into a salad dressing for a garlicky hit that pulls the whole thing together. Serve it alongside grilled meats, kebabs, or falafel and let people help themselves.
This is the homemade toum recipe that crosses over from condiment to ingredient. Once it is in your fridge, it changes how you cook everything around it.
The Honest Truth About Making Toum at Home
Making toum at home is genuinely satisfying. There is something about turning four simple ingredients into something that creamy and that flavourful that feels like a proper kitchen win.
But getting it right every single time, without the effort, without the risk of it breaking, and in the quantity that actually makes a difference on a full table? That is a different conversation.
At Shawarmaz, the garlic sauce is house-made, consistent across every location, and built into every dish that calls for it. It is the sauce that customers ask for by name. The one that shows up in reviews. The one that people quietly order extra of and pretend they did not.
If you want to taste what toum looks like when it is done properly every single time, you know where to find it.
Explore the full Shawarmaz menu here and find your nearest location in Montreal
The Bottom Line
Toum is four ingredients and one technique. Master the technique, and you have one of the best garlic sauces in the world sitting in your fridge whenever you need it. Respect the process, use fresh ingredients, add the oil slowly, and do not skip the ice water.
And if you want the best garlic sauce without turning your kitchen into a science experiment, Shawarmaz has been making it the right way since 2013. Across 9 locations. Every single day.
Try the best shawarma in Montreal today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What is toum?
Toum is a traditional Lebanese garlic sauce made from four ingredients: fresh garlic, neutral oil, lemon juice, and salt. It is a staple of Middle Eastern cuisine and one of the most popular shawarma sauces in the world. The name comes from the Arabic word for garlic.
Q2. Is toum the same as aioli?
No. Aioli is traditionally made with olive oil and egg yolks. Toum contains no eggs and uses neutral oil instead of olive oil, which gives it a completely different texture and flavour. Toum is also significantly more garlicky and is fully vegan.
Q3. Why did my toum break?
The most common reason is adding the oil too quickly. The emulsion needs to build gradually. If your toum breaks, start fresh with a small amount of new garlic in the processor and slowly add the broken toum back in as if it were oil. It will usually come back together.
Q4. How long does homemade toum last?
Stored in a sealed jar in the fridge, toum keeps well for up to one month. The flavour often improves after the first 24 hours as the ingredients fully come together.
Q5. Is toum vegan?
Traditional toum made with garlic, neutral oil, lemon juice, and salt is naturally vegan and contains no dairy or animal products. However, many restaurants and home recipes add mayonnaise or other stabilisers, which would change that. If you follow a vegan diet, it is always worth checking with the restaurant directly about their specific preparation.
