Chef Joost
Appelcompote
Appelcompote is the apple left with its dignity: soft enough to spoon beside pork or potatoes, still chunky enough to remind you autumn did the real work.
Culinary Explorer
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Knoflooksaus
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The garlic sauce of the Dutch snack counter, sharp enough for shoarma, friendly enough for fries, and honest enough to admit that raw garlic is doing all the talking.
Sauces & Condiments
Dutch
Weeknight
Game Day
10 min
Active Time
0 min cook•40 min total
YieldAbout 300ml, enough for 6 servings
Some dishes arrive with a genealogy, and some arrive at half past midnight in a paper bag. Knoflooksaus belongs to the second family, which is no insult. The Dutch snackbar, the shoarmazaak, the tray of patat after football, the bowl on the barbecue table beside too much bread: this is where the sauce became part of the country’s living kitchen.
The name already tells you everything and nothing. Knoflooksaus means garlic sauce, plain as a front door. No Roman poet is hiding in the cupboard here. But let me tell you a secret: its plainness is the trick. This is not the airy garlic emulsion of the Levant, and it is not French aioli in a clean shirt. It is Dutch mayonnaise culture meeting the night-time grill, raw garlic softened with lemon, parsley, and a little yoghurt so the sauce still has manners.
Hou het altijd simpel, always keep it simple. Crush the garlic with salt first, because salt turns sharp cloves into a paste and keeps you from biting down on little white thunderbolts. Let the finished sauce rest for half an hour if you can. Garlic needs time to stop shouting and start speaking at the table.
Knoflooksaus became widely familiar in the Netherlands through late twentieth-century snackbars and shoarma shops, especially from the 1970s onward as Middle Eastern grill counters became part of Dutch city eating. Unlike Levantine toum, which is built as a garlic-and-oil emulsion, the Dutch version usually begins with mayonnaise, reflecting the Low Countries' strong fry-sauce culture. Its journey from night food to supermarket tub to home barbecue bowl is a small but telling example of how the Dutch table adopts new street foods and makes them ordinary.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
good mayonnaise
Quantity
200g
thick Greek yoghurt or full-fat yoghurt
Quantity
75g
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
finely grated or crushed
fine sea salt
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
fresh lemon juice
Quantity
1 tablespoon
Dijon mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
chives
Quantity
1 tablespoon
finely chopped
sugar
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
freshly ground white pepper
Quantity
to taste
cold water (optional)
Quantity
1 to 2 tablespoons
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| good mayonnaise | 200g |
| thick Greek yoghurt or full-fat yoghurt | 75g |
| garlic clovesfinely grated or crushed | 3 |
| fine sea salt | 1/2 teaspoon |
| fresh lemon juice | 1 tablespoon |
| Dijon mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| chivesfinely chopped | 1 tablespoon |
| sugar | 1/2 teaspoon |
| freshly ground white pepper | to taste |
| cold water (optional) | 1 to 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Small mixing bowl
- •Fine grater or garlic press
- •Spoon or small whisk
Instructions
- 1
Make garlic paste
Put the grated garlic and salt in a small bowl and press them together with the back of a spoon until the garlic turns wet and pasty. This minute matters. Salt draws out the garlic juice and tames the harsh little pieces that would otherwise bite like gravel.
- 2
Stir the base
Add the mayonnaise, yoghurt, lemon juice, mustard, sugar, and a few turns of white pepper. Stir until smooth and pale. The yoghurt is not there to make the sauce virtuous, for obvious reasons; it loosens the mayonnaise and gives the garlic somewhere cool to land.
- 3
Add the herbs
Fold in the parsley and chives. Taste once, then wait before changing anything. Fresh garlic grows stronger as it sits, and a sauce that seems polite at first can become a small sermon after twenty minutes.
- 4
Rest and loosen
Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Stir again before serving, adding a spoonful of cold water if you want the loose, pourable snackbar texture for fries or shoarma. For bread, keep it thicker, so it clings.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh, firm garlic with no green sprout in the centre. Sprouted garlic turns bitter and sharp in a cold sauce, and there is no pot of heat here to soften it.
- •For a stronger shoarma-shop bite, use 4 cloves. For a family barbecue table, stay with 2 or 3. Garlic should announce itself, not empty the room.
- •Make it at least 30 minutes ahead, but not three days ahead. Raw garlic keeps changing in the refrigerator, and by the third day it becomes bossy.
- •Serve with patat, grilled chicken, shoarma, kebab, raw vegetables, or a basket of bread. This is not a sauce with airs.
Advance Preparation
- •Best made 30 minutes to 2 hours before serving so the garlic can settle into the mayonnaise.
- •Keeps covered in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Stir before serving and loosen with a few drops of cold water if it thickens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 53g)
Calories
245 calories
Total Fat
26 g
Saturated Fat
4 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
21 g
Cholesterol
15 mg
Sodium
430 mg
Total Carbohydrates
2 g
Dietary Fiber
0 g
Sugars
1 g
Protein
2 g
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