9 Ways to Use Tahini Paste

Tahini is an ingredient that might sit unloved in your cupboard – here are some ideas for how to use one of my all-time favourite ingredients.

1. Make tahini sauce

This might be what you do with your tahini anyway, and it’s certainly a traditional way of using tahini.

Give the tahini a stir and pour some into a bowl. Add a squeeze of lemon, a pinch of salt and a little cold water. Stir well and taste. Adjust the ratio of liquid:tahini until you are happy with the consistency, depending on if you want a dip, a sauce or a loose liquid to drizzle over the food.

Add salt and lemon juice until it’s super tasty, and some nice olive oil, za’atar or sumac if you like.

Have this as a side dish alongside fish or roast vegetables, or dip raw vegetables into it, and store leftovers covered in the fridge for at least a day.

2. Make tahini cookies

They’re similar to peanut butter cookies – melt-in-the-mouth crowd-pleasers with a delicious, nutty flavour. Recipe here.

3. Tahini yoghurt sauce

This is very similar to the tahini sauce, use that recipe as a starting point and stir in some Greek/thick yoghurt for a lovely dip or sauce.

4. Halva ganache – this is amazing!

Bring 100g double cream just to the boil. Leave to sit for a minute, then pour the hot cream over 100g finely chopped white chocolate. Leave for a minute and stir together until smooth. Add 100g tahini and a little sea salt. Stir until smooth and you’re done.

Use to fill cakes or tarts, as icing, chill and roll into balls of halva truffle or get creative!

5. As salad dressing

Drizzle tahini paste over a dressed salad, especially if it’s a chopped salad with crunch – I love chopping up carrots, kohlrabi, peppers, cucumber and dressing the salad with olive oil, salt, lemon juice and a little tahini.

6. Use in hummus

Just blend cooked or canned chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, salt, crushed garlic and olive oil together with a little water and ground cumin if you like for a quick and easy dip.

7. Lamb siniyah

This is a Palestinian dish where the tahini sauce is baked to form a crust. Here is Ottolenghi’s version.

8. In a smoothie!

Tahini paste is really nutritious, and is a great way of adding healthy fat and protein to a smoothie. My children love chocolate banana smoothies with banana (fresh or frozen), milk of your choice, cocoa powder, a drizzle of tahini and some ice all blended together.

9. Sesame miso sauce

This sauce is delicious and is great with roast vegetables (in the post I made it drizzled over roast cauliflower) or as a dressing for something crisp like sugar snap peas and Chinese cabbage. Recipe here.

If you’ve been inspired do let me know, and check out this post for ideas of how to use pomegranate molasses too.