Growing up in Lebanon, garlic paste is something you will always have in your sandwiches or as a side, at restaurants or even at home. Chicken and fries simply do not taste the same without it.

It turns out this sauce is actually easy to make at home, and I haven’t stopped making it ever since.

Difficulty: Easy

Cooking Time: ~15 mns

Ingredients

You will be needing the following ingredients:

• 20-25 cloves of garlic, whole
• Juice of one Lemon
• A sprinkle of salt
• 1 cup of sunflower oil
• I tablespoon of cold water

Some optional ingredients:

• It is essential that the water is cold, as it helps with the emulsification process.
• I would recommend that the lemon juice be put in the fridge as well.

Tools

• A hand blender
• A tall container. It would be best if you use the container that comes with the hand blender. We want the container to not be much wider that the hand mixer but to be tall enough to hold the ingredients.

Notes

I would suggest preparing the paste the day before you plan on eating it, as the garlic becomes less intense the next day.

Store it in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Lemon juice can be replaced by “Citric Acid” which is both citrusy and salty. However with experience, I found the recipe with lemon juice to be much better, and definitely tastier.

Instructions

1- Put all the ingredients in the container.

2- Use the hand blender to trap as many garlic cloves as possible at the bottom of the pot, then start gradually blending the mix.

When you notice that the bottom is turning into a paste, start gradually moving your blender upwards to include more of the unblended ingredients. At the end you should have blended everything together into a homogeneous white paste.

Serving Suggestions

Best served with grilled chicken, tawouk, fries, etc.