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Traditional Homemade Lebanese Garlic Sauce

Toum (Garlic Sauce) usually used as a dip for grilled chicken, meat, etc. So creamy and fluffy and ah the taste… simply lip-smacking, you can just eat and lick it as it is. You would never believe it is homemade! Serve with Shish Taouk, Souvlaki chicken, Crispy fried chicken and any grilled meats or roasted vegetable. Slather on pita bread sandwiches or serve as a regular dip!

Traditional homemade garlic sauce

Ingredients

• 1 cup garlic
• 1 tsp. salt
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1/2 cup iced water
• 3 cups oil, like canola, sunflower

Method

• Peel garlic and remove the germ if desired (makes the taste less sharp) by cutting in half and scooping out the germ in the centre of the garlic.  I skipped this step today due to lack of time.
• Place the garlic with salt in a blender and process till garlic is smooth, use the lemon juice at intervals to facilitate movement of the garlic. 
• Add a little water if the lemon juice is not sufficient.  Adding more lemon juice may make it too sour.
• Once the garlic becomes a smooth paste, start adding the first cup of oil in a continuous drizzle while the blender is running. 
• Stop the blender to give it a rest.
• Then continue adding the remaining oil alternating with the iced water till all oil and water are incorporated. 
• The paste should be light and fluffy by now.  
• If not add one egg white and run the blender for 2 minutes to achieve the fluffy consistency.
• Transfer to a sterilized glass jar or a container and refrigerate. 
• Use for a month, if it lasts that long! 
• This recipe makes a large quantity of toum.  So it would be better to try with half or quarter of the recipe. 
• But bear in mind that if the toum doesn’t become thick and fluffy, the garlic mixture should not be wasted, use it in cooking where garlic paste (with tartness) is required.