I love, love, love this Lebanese garlic sauce. I first discovered it at the regional Southern California restaurant chain Zankou Chicken, then later learned it is a staple in Lebanese cuisine. Besides being terrific on roasted chicken like they do at Zankou, I use it on nearly everything! It makes a terrific dip, a sandwich spread, and even a garlicky egg-free vegan substitute for mayonnaise.
Fair warning, you MUST love garlic to like this sauce. It is super pungent. But if you love garlic you are going to LOVE Toum or Lebanese garlic sauce.
A Note on the Garlic
For this recipe you are going to want to use fresh garlic, not the stuff in jars or the pre-peeled cloves which have been treated with preservatives. Be sure to peel and remove the little nibs on the end of the garlic cloves and any green sprouts too before using in this recipe.
A Note on the Oil
For the non-medicated oil in this recipe, it is best to use a neutral oil such as avocado, grapeseed, canola, safflower, etc. as these will allow the true flavors of the garlic and lemon to shine through. I like to use a neutral medicated oil too but a small amount of infused olive oil can also work if that is what you have on hand.
If you don’t know how to make cannabis infused oil, find instructions at this link.
Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for 3 weeks or more.
A Note About Dosing on This Recipe
When I first looked into how to make Toum, I was surprised at the large amount of oil in it. This explains its silky mouthfeel, as the garlic is literally emulsified into the oil. It’s also a great bonus for cannabis cooks because some of that oil can be substituted for cannabis infused oil, and the garlic’s strong flavor can easily overpower the cannabis… unless you use a LOT of infused oil.
Because it contains so much oil, this is one of those recipes that gives you a lot of choices when it comes to dosing. Just swap out an amount of regular oil for cannabis infused oil that makes sense for your personal dosing needs. Just keep the overall combined amount of infused and uninfused oil at about 3 cups.
I wrote the recipe using 1/4 cup of infused oil which give you a dose of about 20 mgs THC per serving IF you used cannabis with 10% THC to make your oil and you used ½ ounce (14 grams) to infuse 1 cup of oil. To adjust for your needs or the way you made your oil, take my free dosing class or better yet, get my $5.00 dosage calculators that do all the math for you.
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Makes about 4 cups or 32 Servings of 2 tablespoons each
Cannabis Toum - Lebanese Garlic Sauce
EQUIPMENT
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cannabis oil see note above
- 2 1/2 cups neutral oil see note above
- 1 cup peeled garlic cloves see note above
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Place the garlic cloves and salt in a food processor and process, stopping several times to scrape down the sides, until finely minced.
- With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in about 1/2 cup of oil. Stop to scrape down the bowl. Continue processing by drizzling in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice followed by another 1/2 cup of oil. Continue alternating lemon juice and oil until all ingredients are added, taking care to process thoroughly after each addition and stopping to scrape down the bowl frequently.
- Continue to process until the mixture is totally emulsified and you have a smooth fluffy sauce. Store covered in the fridge.