Garlic sauce

The name covers several sauces: a creamy version is often made by blending garlic into mayonnaise or yoghurt, while toum is an emulsified sauce of garlic, oil, lemon juice and salt. Check the ingredients if you need to avoid egg or dairy.

For a gentler flavour, roast whole garlic cloves until soft, then mash them into mayonnaise or yoghurt. If using raw garlic, remove the green shoot from the centre of an older clove and start with less; raw garlic grows more pungent as it stands.

Keep it in a clean, covered container in the fridge and use it within three days, especially if it contains fresh garlic or yoghurt. Don’t leave it at room temperature for more than two hours.

Use it with grilled meat, falafel, chips, roasted vegetables or flatbreads. Toum is a familiar accompaniment to shawarma and grilled chicken; a yoghurt-based garlic sauce also works as a dip for crudités.

Not for the same jobs: garlic sauce is usually served cold as a dip or dressing, while garlic butter melts and is suited to spreading on bread or tossing through hot vegetables. For warm dishes, add garlic sauce off the heat to reduce the chance of it splitting.

No. Toum is a Lebanese garlic-and-oil emulsion, typically made without egg or dairy, whereas garlic sauce can mean many creamy or mayonnaise-based sauces. In toum, adding the oil very slowly while blending helps it turn thick and white.

Warm creamy garlic sauce gently over a low heat and avoid boiling it; high heat can make mayonnaise- or dairy-based sauces separate. For toum, serve it cold or at room temperature rather than heating it.

Garlic sauce has 509 kcal per 100 g, compared with 407 kcal in garlic herb sauce. The herb version has 2 g protein per 100 g, against 1.8 g in garlic sauce.