Hey garlic lovers! This delicious garlic whip is perfect for shawarma and is great on just about everything!
Total Carbs 1g (per tablespoon)
Watch this video on how to make toum garlic whip
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- Total Carbs 1g (per tablespoon)
- Watch this video on how to make toum garlic whip
- What is toum?
- Toum pronunciation
- Why eat toum if you are diabetic?
- Is toum keto friendly?
- Ingredients for homemade toum
- How to make toum
- Equipment you’ll need:
- How to fix broken toum emulsion
- Serving suggestions
- Storing toum
- Frequently asked questions
- Toum - Lebanese Garlic Sauce recipe card
What is toum?
Toum is a creamy garlic sauce, used in Lebanese cuisine, that's spread inside a shawarma pita to give a boost of garlic flavor.
Toum is a fluffy, savory, whipped Lebanese garlic sauce that can be used as a dip or condiment. The best way to describe Toum is that it is like an eggless mayonnaise where the emulsifier is garlic, rather than egg. It is a diabetic-friendly, vegan-friendly, vampire repellant and tasty snack you definitely must try.
Toum is not aioli. It's a delicious part of Middle Eastern cuisine.
Toum pronunciation
Toum is pronounced "toom".
Why eat toum if you are diabetic?
It's an easy to make diabetic-friendly keto snack recipe. Toum is dairy-free, eggless, gluten-free and vegan too!
This diabetic-friendly snack is low in carbs and full of beneficial garlic. According to food and nutrition research published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine, ingesting garlic was found to improve blood glucose control.
Is toum keto friendly?
The quick answer is: that depends!
If you follow this keto-friendly toum recipe, then you are guaranteed a keto friendly Lebanese garlic sauce. Other recipes may suggest using potatoes to thicken or fix a broken sauce, which would add carbs and the sauce will no longer be keto. Some recipes also suggest adding egg to fix a broken sauce. This would keep it keto, but would not be appropriate for vegans.
Ingredients for homemade toum
This is what you need to make toum at home. Toum is made with 4 simple ingredients:
- fresh garlic cloves
About one cup of garlic. Use freshly peeled garlic cloves for best results. The freshest garlic sticks to your fingers and knife when sliced. You may use pre peeled garlic, but you won't get the best results. Minced garlic is not recommended. - salt
Use a course, abrasive salt like Kosher salt or sea salt. This is perfect for pulverizing the garlic. - oil
Use a neutral oil such as grapeseed oil, safflower oil, vegetable oil, canola oil or sunflower oil. You can use light olive oil if you prefer the flavor or have a dietary preference. - fresh lemon juice
You'll need a bit of acidity from the lemon juice to both brighten up the whip, preserve it and help stabilize the garlic and oil emulsion.
Peel the garlic and remove any green sprouts that you see as they can add bitterness to the flavor.
How to make toum
The secret to making toum is to use fresh garlic and take your time! It's worth it to make homemade garlic sauce as you can make a big batch and it lasts a long time.
Start by breaking down the garlic into a garlic paste by processing it with Kosher salt. This breaks down the garlic's cell walls which releases emulsifiers. This is what helps the ingredients bind and whip together into a mayonnaise-like fluffy texture, instead of an oily sauce!
Step 1: Add garlic cloves and Kosher salt to a food processor.
Step 2: Pulse in a food processor until finely minced.
Continue pulsing in the food processor, adding oil and lemon juice a few tablespoons at a time. Scrape down the sides as you go. Continue until a smooth paste forms.
Step 3: Scrape down sides as you go.
Step 4: Add a splash of lemon juice.
Step 5: Add oil a splash at a time. Alternating with lemon juice.
Step 6: Pulse food processor after each splash of lemon juice and oil.
Step 7: Garlic sauce is ready when fluffy and whipped.
Step 8: Enjoy as a dip or condiment!
It's gonna take time
A whole lot of precious time
It's gonna take patience and time, mmm
To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right, child
George Harrison -Got My Mind Set on You
Equipment you’ll need:
- Food Processor
- Spatula
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Cutting board
- Knife
How to fix broken toum emulsion
Although easy to whip up, toum does require a bit of time and patience. Do not use a blender, as it requires too much liquid up front to get the paste started and this will prevent emulsification. Use a food processor and add liquid in tiny amounts, pulsing as you go, alternating between lemon juice and oil. Do not use too much oil. If you add all of the liquid up front, the emulsion will not take and the sauce won't whip together like mayo, but be liquid like sauce. Avoid leaving the food processor running since that will generate heat and this can also prevent or break emulsification.
If your toum comes out more like a sauce than a mayo, then that means that the emulsion is broken. You can solidify it by removing most of the garlic toum from the food processor. Then process a chopped cooked potato with a bit of that toum. Add a little toum at a time back into the potato/toum mixture while pulsing the food processor until incorporated into a thicker paste.
Serving suggestions
Serve this garlic whip with:
- Serve as a garlic dip for fresh vegetables
- Smear it on pita bread
- Use it on grilled meats such as grilled chicken or grilled lamb
- Enjoy it on rotisserie chicken
- Try it on chicken shawarma or lamb shawarma in a lettuce wrap
- Add a dollop of toum to steak for dairy-free garlic butter
- Use it to make dairy-free garlic bread
- Toum is a great spread for grilled meat, fried fish, and sandwiches
Storing toum
Store in the fridge
Store in an airtight container (such as a jar) in the fridge for 2-4 months.
Store in the freezer
Store in small sealed containers in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Frequently asked questions
"Toom". Basically the same way you pronounce "toon", but with an 'm' at the end.
No. Although they are both emulsifications that contain garlic, toum uses garlic as the emulsifier and therefore contains a larger volume of garlic compared to aioli. Aioli uses garlic mostly for flavoring, so there is substantially less garlic. Aioli also contains eggs.
Toum - Lebanese Garlic Sauce recipe card
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
- Diet: Diabetic
Description
Hey garlic lovers! Do you love garlic? Do you love mayo? Then you'll love toum - a delicious, creamy, garlicky dip that you'll never tire of eating! It's a Lebanese garlic sauce that whips up like mayonnaise. It's easy to make, keto-friendly, dairy-free, eggless, gluten-free and vegan too!
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw, fresh garlic cloves, peeled
- 3 cups oil, use a neutral flavored oil such as safflower, canola, vegetable or sunflower oil
- 1 tablespoon coarse salt, such as Kosher salt or sea salt
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Place garlic and salt in a food processor and pulse until garlic is minced. Scrape down the sides of the food processor occasionally between pulses to get all the garlic minced.
- Add a spoonful of lemon juice and pulse until the garlic becomes a paste.
- Slowly drizzle in about a half cup of oil in a thin stream while pulsing. Then add a spoonful of lemon juice and pulse. Then slowly add another half cup of oil and pulse. You may need to stop the food processor and scrape down the sides at times. Keep alternating between oil and lemon juice and pulsing until the mixture emulsifies and all of the liquid has been incorporated and you have a fluffy, whipped toum.
Notes
- Take your time. Be patient.
- Use fresh, sticky garlic. Old, dry cloves may not emulsify.
- Use coarse salt to grind the garlic into a paste.
- Use neutral flavored oil. Don't use olive oil.
- Do not use a blender, as it requires too much liquid up front to get the paste started and this will prevent emulsification.
- If you add all of the liquid up front, the emulsion will not take and the sauce won't whip together like mayo, but be liquid like sauce.
- Avoid leaving the food processor running since that will generate heat and this can also prevent or break emulsification.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Snack
- Method: Food Processor
- Cuisine: Lebanese
Robin Donovan says
Love this!
Cindy says
So much flavor! Great recipe!
Anne says
Yum, I love garlicky sauces!
Kathy Hester says
This is so tasty!
Linda says
I'm all about garlic and this one is a must-try recipe. Sooo good and easy to make
Mandy Applegate says
What a tasty sauce - thank you!
Lynn Polito says
Delicious! I love this garlicky sauce!
Jennifer says
This is incredible! I can't believe so few ingredients can turn into something so amazing!
Aimee says
If you love garlic (like me), you'll love this!
Sherry Ronning says
What a great alternative to mayo!! A very flavorful garlic sauce!
laura L sampson says
Mmmm a delicious low carb dip that we loved!
Cery says
I LOVE garlic! Can't wait to try this on all the things!
Cindy says
I have never made anything like this before and was a little worried. Your directions were so very clear and the end result was fantastic!
alex bala says
I really love garlic with anything. This is simple, yet delicious. Thanks!