Tahini Sauce

Tahini sauce is an essential sauce in Lebanese and Middle Eastern cooking. My easy Lebanese tahini sauce recipe with lemon juice, garlic, salt and a secret ingredient found in every kitchen will make a smooth, luscious sauce every time. Looking for the best tahini? Find a great Lebanese Tahini in my shop.

Lebanese tahini sauce is one of the best flavor makers in our kitchen. This sauce is lemony, garlicky, smooth and luscious. I like to keep tahini sauce on hand at all times for an easy way to ramp up flavor. Finish dishes like Authentic Lebanese Falafel, Homemade Beef Shawarma, Lebanese Grilled Kafta with tahini sauce goodness. I can’t imagine eating a shawarma wrap without it! Yotam Ottolenghi makes a phenomenal roasted cauliflower with sauce that is on my hit list, such a Middle Eastern favorite.

Follow my guide for the right ingredients, step-by-step instructions, and a couple of simple tricks to make authentic tahini sauce just the way we like it: glossy, smooth, and delicious.

Watch my video tutorial:

What is tahini?

Tahini (or tahina) is made of one ingredient and one only: sesame seeds. Sesame seeds are ground to a fine, smooth “paste” to create tahini.

Sometimes the sesame seeds are toasted for a darker tahini, and sometimes they are raw, for a lighter tahini.

Tahini often separates in the jar, so the sesame oil must be stirred well into the paste before use. The paste can harden a bit at the bottom of the jar.

What does tahini taste like?

The flavor of tahini reminds me of unsweetened, unsalted nut butters: thick, lush, somewhat bland. I love to call tahini “adult peanut butter.” Mixed with other ingredients in a sauce, tahini becomes even more delicious and flavorful.

Origin of tahini.

Like many Middle Eastern foods, each culture would like to claim tahini as their own. We know the origin of tahini is ancient, centuries old, originating in Greece, Persia, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Syria…you get the picture.

Tahini is long known for its nutritional qualities because it is high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

What is the best brand of tahini?

To find the best tahini, it’s a tasting game. And a stirring game. Tahini, which is simply pureed sesame seeds, likes to separate oil from solids. Those solids can become sludgy in the base of the jar, making the rest of the tahini oily, thin, not so good.

I have tasted more tahini than I can count in search of the very best in class. Look for little to no solids at the bottom of the jar, a creamy look and mouthfeel (!), and pleasant bitterness–which means not much bitterness.

I may be biased, but the reality is that the Lebanese tahini brands are my very favorite tahini brands!

The best tahini has little to no separation of ground sesame and oil. It is less bitter, smooth, and stirs easily.

If you have not liked tahini when you’ve tasted it, that’s likely because the brand you’ve had is too bitter. Bitter is not a given; many tahinis are creamy and nearly “sweet.”

Best tahini brands: Lebanon Valley Tahini, Al Kanator, Cedars, and Soom.

What is tahini sauce?

Tahini sauce is not the same as straight tahini. The sauce is a combination of a few basic ingredients to make a smooth, flavorful sauce. The consistency is like salad dressing, or slightly thicker, to pour, drizzle, or dip.

How do you use tahini sauce?

Tahini alone, as an ingredient, adds complexity and flavor to Lebanese dips like my Best Homemade Hummus recipe and Lebanese Baba gannouj.

Tahini sauce is not tahini! It is a sauce that includes tahini as an ingredient. The sauce is whisked or whipped to a fluffy heaven with lemon juice, garlic, salt and water to make the simplest and most delicious sauce.

Ingredients to make authentic tahini sauce.

An easy tahini sauce requires just a few basic ingredients, which means they all should be excellent:

Tahini

Lemon Juice. Fresh is best!

Garlic. Use fresh garlic or granulated garlic powder.

Salt

Ice Cold Water

How to make the best tahini sauce.

Step 1. Mix the lemon juice with minced garlic. Allow this to “steep” and marinate for about 10 minutes. Strain the lemon juice and discard the garlic. We do this to soften the zest of the garlic and to make the tahini sauce as smooth as could be.

Step 2. Whisk or process the garlicky lemon juice, tahini and salt. Watch now what happens—the mixture seizes and gets very lumpy.

Step 3. Cure the lumpiness! The fix here could not be easier: simply add ice cold water and whisk or process until smooth. Add more water, if needed, to get you there.

Tips for making authentic Lebanese tahini sauce.

Tahini seizes when mixed with liquids such as must-have lemon juice. In cooking, seizing means the smooth liquid (tahini, or melted chocolate) gets stiff and clumpy.

Knowing that tahini seizes, and how to fix it, is the key to how to make a great sauce! Fix the seized mixture with the addition of ice cold water.

Pay attention to your garlic. To soften the flavor of the garlic and to make an ultra-smooth tahini sauce, use minced garlic to flavor the lemon juice, then discard (or use elsewhere). Another option is to simply use granulated garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in your sauce. Certainly you can stir the garlic right into the sauce and flavor will be delicious even though the sauce won’t be entirely smooth.

Take it slowly. Add the cold water a little bit at a time, taking care so the sauce is not too thin or too thick. Look for the consistency of salad dressing, or slightly thicker.

Frequently Asked Questions

Recipes with Tahini Sauce

Garlic Tahini Eggplant

Fried Kibbeh Bites with Tahini Dipping Sauce

Lebanese Spicy Fish with Tahini and Pine Nuts

Roasted Butternut Squash with Tahini and Pine Nuts

Tahini Sauce Recipe

Maureen Abood

There's a must-know secret to making authentic tahini sauce and the answer is at your fingertips: ice cold water, an important ingredient to smooth out the naturally occurring seizing (clumping) that tahini does when mixed with liquids.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Servings 6 servings

Calories 118 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• Juice of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, minced, or 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup ice cold water, and more as needed

Instructions

 

• If using fresh garlic, in a small bowl mix the lemon juice with minced garlic. Allow the mixture to “steep” and marinate for about 10 minutes. Strain the lemon juice into a medium sized bowl and discard the garlic.
• Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic powder if using, and salt. The mixture will seize and become clumpy.
• Add the ice cold water one tablespoon at a time, whisking with each addition, until the mixture is smooth. The finished sauce should be thin enough to pour but thick enough to dip, comparable to the thickness of stirred sour cream or labneh.

Notes

Know that tahini seizes when first combined with liquid. Seizing describes what happens to tahini when it is mixed with liquids such as must-have lemon juice. In cooking, seizing means the smooth liquid (tahini, or melted chocolate) gets stiff and clumpy.

Knowing that tahini seizes, and how to fix it, is the key to how to make great tahini sauce! Fix the seized mixture with the addition of ice cold water.

Pay attention to your garlic. To soften the garlic flavor and to make an ultra-smooth sauce, use it to flavor the lemon juice, then discard (or use elsewhere). Or, simply use granulated garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in your sauce.

Take it slowly. Add the cold water a little bit at a time, taking care so the consistency of the sauce is not too thin or too thick. Look for the consistency of salad dressing, or slightly thicker.

Nutrition

Calories: 118kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 3gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 5gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gSodium: 104mgPotassium: 92mgFiber: 1gVitamin A: 13IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 28mgIron: 1mg