By Ham El-Waylly
- Total Time
- 15 minutes, plus 15 minutes for the toum (optional)
- Rating
- 4(1,018)
- Notes
- Read community notes
When I was a teenager, I remember getting freshly baked akkawi cheese manakeesh with sides of cucumber and beet-stained turnip pickles and little plastic containers of toum for dipping at a Lebanese bakery in Doha, Qatar. Cheese manakeesh, a topped flatbread found throughout the Levant, is delicious with toum, a sauce made by combining garlic, lemon juice, salt and oil. This grilled cheese hits those notes, skipping a trip to the bakery. Slathering the bread with toum instead of butter instantly gives it garlic bread vibes. Though you can purchase toum at many supermarkets and Middle Eastern specialty stores, making it at home gives it a more vibrant punch. It lasts for months and can be used anywhere a tangy, garlicky wallop is needed. Use in salad dressings, as a rub on roasted meats, as a sandwich condiment, or even as a dip for crudités.
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Ingredients
Yield:1 sandwich, plus 1¾ cups toum
- 1medium head of garlic, peeled (about 12 cloves)
- 2tablespoons lemon juice (from 1 lemon), plus more to taste
- 2teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 1½cups neutral oil, like grapeseed oil
- 2slices bread, preferably from a rustic loaf, no more than ½ inch thick
- 3slices Muenster cheese
- 4cornichons, thinly sliced lengthwise
- 2tablespoons toum (prepared or homemade), plus more for dipping
- Kosher salt
For the Homemade Toum (optional)
For the Sandwich
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Prepare the toum (or proceed to Step 4, if using store-bought toum): Place garlic, lemon juice, kosher salt and 1 tablespoon water in a tall, narrow container; blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Let sit for at least 10 minutes to mellow out some of the raw garlic’s bite.
Step
2
Dump the neutral oil on top, then lower the immersion blender to the bottom of the container. Turn the blender on, but don’t yet move it. Once the mixture starts emulsifying and thickening, slowly tilt the blender to introduce more oil to the mixture and very slowly pull the blender to the top of the mix. Plunge the blender up and down until the toum is fully emulsified and thick. (This streamlined toum recipe sacrifices fluffiness for ease by using a stick blender. If you want to make perfectly fluffy toum, prepare this recipe using a food processor.)
Step
3
Stir well and adjust the toum with more salt and lemon juice as needed. (The toum recipe makes about 1¾ cups.) Transfer to a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate, if not using immediately.
Step
4
Prepare the sandwich: Divide the cheese evenly between the two slices of bread, tearing one piece in half to split it. Shingle the cornichons in one even layer on one side. Carefully close the sandwich. Evenly spread 1 tablespoon of toum on one side of the sandwich.
Step
5
In a medium nonstick skillet, place the sandwich, toum-side down. Press the sandwich firmly with a spatula to compress. Cook over medium-low until lightly golden underneath, 5 to 6 minutes.
Step
6
Spread 1 tablespoon of toum on the top side of the bread, then flip the sandwich over and press firmly. Cook until bread is lightly golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes, then flip back over. Since toum is made of mostly garlic, it burns easily. Take your time, reducing the heat to low, flipping and pressing the sandwich often to ensure that the cheese melts evenly and the bread doesn’t burn, about 3 more minutes. Lightly season both sides with salt and serve immediately, with a side of toum for dipping.
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4
out of 5
1,018
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Jacqueline
For a shortcut, if you are near a Trader Joe's they have a perfectly serviceable toum on the refrigerated section called Garlic Spread and Dip with the same ingredients.
Mark Mitchell
This, like many NYT recipes I've made verbatim, has problems. Too many times I've had to go back a second time and make significant adjustments to amounts and cooking times to get the proper result. In this case with the toum, DO NOT simply "dump the neutral oil on top." The recipe calls for far too much oil and you will get a watery result that never fully emulsifies. Drizzle the oil a little at a time until you get the proper aioli emulsification. Made this way, it's quite delightful.
Susan Ford, New Orleans (Happy Mardi Gras!)
Olive oil can get bitter when processed in a blender or food processor. I process the garlic with coarse kosher salt and a little lemon juice first, to tame the bite a bit, then alternate with vegetable oil, lemon juice, and ice water. Nice and fluffy.
Cynthia
Trader Joe's sells a truly excellent toum (just labeled "Garlic Spread Dip" and stocked with the other refrigerated dips) that tastes fresh and homemade, if you want to skip to Step 4. I've relied on it for years.
KarenaCreates
I used olive oil, but probably only needed 3/4c.to get the right consistency; at 1.5c this turned into garlic oil, not toum. Still delicious though. Next time I will add the oil slowly as I go until getting the desired aioli-like texture of toum.
Orbis
I’m crazy about grilled cheesies, but toum puts it over the top. I’m definitely on this.
SLF
Would be more clarity if the recipe specified to spread the toum lon the outside” of one slice of bread.My Lebanese friend instructed me to make this in a mortar and pestle and no the water. Also insists that it only be stirred in one direction with repeated addition of oil until it stops absorbing it. I was told a chopper/blender would make it bitter.This is a wonderful accompaniment to flank steak and as a base for vinaigrette made with lemon and olive oil and mint.
ScrarchCook
I bought Trader Joe’s Garlic Spread Dip & Sourdough Bread. Let cheese get to room temp. I add fresh tomato slices, pickles between thinly sliced Cheddar Cheese, Dijon inside of one bread slice, Garlic Spread on inside of other slice1st sandwich toasted very dark on first side down, flip side shortened time. Next sandwiches I lowered electric stove temp. Toasted beautifully on both sides. Cheese was perfectly melted onto tomato/pickles. Served with scratch tomato soup. Delicious!
st
I have made grilled cheeses with toum at my cheese shop and can confirm it definitely takes them to the next level.
Don Hogle
As some suggested, I made this with 3/4 cup oil, adding a little bit at a time. I ended up with a nice frothy toum. Next time, I might reduce the salt to 1 tspn; for my taste -- I salt things only lightly -- it was a bit too much. I've used this not only for grilled cheese, but also as a spread for a turkey and swiss sandwich and in a spaghetti sauce. If you like garlic, it's a great, versatile condiment.
Sara
So when I was taught to make toum, we would alternate a tiny bit of oil (think like with making mayo) with a spoonful of lemon juice. I'm really intrigued by the immersion blender method, though. I want to try it.
FitGirl
What you’re aiming for is a fluffy kinda mayonnaise like consistency. Anything that will help you get that consistency will work. The immersion blender here is a quicker way. A mini-processor probably won’t do the trick, well, I wouldn’t go that route.
Match W.
This may have already been said but it is much easier to spread the toum on one side of each of the 2 slices of bread. Have your cheese and pickles ready. Place one piece of bread toum side down and immediately put the cheese and pickles on top. Then top with the second slice of bread make sure the toum side is up.
Lil Sal
Unlike everywhere else on the Internet, you should ALWAYS read the comments on a NYT recipe.Unfortunately...I didn't do that. I made the toum according to the directions and ended up with sad oily garlic.If you made the same mistake, here's what I recommend:1) grab another lemon, and another head of garlic2) start over, blending the garlic into a paste then alternating adding the juice of the other lemon and the garlic-oil a bit at a time (I did not add additional water or salt)3) profit
BGees
I added some hot honey, and it was very good
Val
I got the Trader Joe’s replicant. Was not impressed with the sandwich. I’ll have to find something else to do with the rest of it.
Love2cook
I made this with my daughter and she and I had so much fun cooking this super simple recipe that tastes sooooooooooo good! My whole family loved this, even my very picky 8 year old! This is for sure a home run! It is also very easy to make the toum and grilled cheese. The toum adds a great touch of flavor!
bakewell
I have tried to make toum twice in the past and had mostly given up. But when I saw this immersion blender technique, I gave it another go. Followed the blending instructions to the letter, even the part about dumping the oil right on top, all at one time. Nailed it! For the recipe itself, I chose canola oil and used much less than recipe called for. Next time I’ll reduce the salt, too. NYT Cooking to the rescue again!
Steven F. (New England)
There are many more exciting cheeses for this than Muenster.
blaine bentsen
perfect drunk food 10/10
Mary Beth
My son in law regularly makes toum just because he likes to demonstrate emulsification. I will send him this recipe. I love reading that someone actually grew up in Qatar.
joanne
Has anyone made this sandwich with a panini maker?
EMC
Arrived in my inbox, read it, made it. SO GOOD! Although I only needed half the amount of oil to get me to the consistency of the toum in the picture. And a bag of pre-peeled garlic cloves from whole foods helped for a speedy lunch. The "tall, narrow container" that worked for me was the one that came with my immersion blender for whipping stuff...
KC
How important are the cornichons? Wondering if I should just put on the side for my picky grilled cheese purist husband.
Dean Weiss
Nope. Toum requires the magic of emulsification to get the wondrous fluffly texture. You have to add the oil slowly and be really patient. It'll happen, emulsification is a magical sort of food alchemy when the oil and water molecules combine just so. I've also never heard of using anything other than olive oil in a formal recipe, no doubt restaurants substitute the cheaper ones. If an Arabic restaurant doesn't have fluffy toum, it's not a proper Arabic joint.
John Viste
I had a jar of Toum that I had made for use with Grilled Chicken (just about the best way to eat Grilled Chicken). So, it made the construction of this excellent sandwich very easy. I added a good sprinkle of Aleppo Pepper to the sandwich to make it even more delicious.I note below that one individual used olive oil. Even thought the olive oil tastes good, it doesn't seem to work. I've made Toum many times and for some reason the olive oil doesn't fluff up like another neutral oil does.
Kathy
Don't use olive oil to make toum. Stick to neutral oils, per the recipe.
Barbara
Toum is one of my new favorite things . Just traded up to a great immersion blender so this recipe is perfect. Add a swirl of hot honey for the perfect sandwich or salad garnish.
Portez
What a lot of bother to make a grilled cheese snadwich!! We're not talking DB Bistro here. Just slather the bottom sides of dood snadwich bread with Duke's mayonnaise, insert a slice of A,erocam cheese and sautee in a cast-iron skillet.Flip when golden. Ninety0second perfection.
Kevan Jenson
why can't you shortcut this with a mayo base? I already use mayo to crispy up grilled cheese, next time I will add lemon, garlic and salt to see it it gets a boost ala this recipe.
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