Tahini is known as something that comes out of a jar and goes onto bread. But its use in a kitchen spreads across a far wider field.
How does tahini behave with water?
That is the technical fact behind every recipe.
Tahini is a suspension of solids in oil, produced by grinding sesame.
The first response to adding water is thickening.
The water forms a layer around the sesame particles.
The particles draw together and the mixture stiffens.
A threshold gets passed as more water joins.
The mixture suddenly thins into a flowing sauce; that behaviour meets everyone who makes tahini sauce and generally gets mistaken for a mistake.
| Recipe | Tahini | Liquid | Use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic tahini sauce | 100 g | 80-100 ml water | Vegetables, meat |
| Tahini with molasses | 100 g | 60 g molasses | Breakfast |
| Hummus | 60 g | Chickpea water | Mezze |
| Halva-style sauce | 100 g | 50 ml water | Desserts |
| Tahini biscuits | 80 g/kg flour | — | Baking |
| Tahini smoothie | 20 g | 250 ml milk | Drinks |
Which uses exist at breakfast?
Four are widespread.
The first is tahini with grape molasses; the classic and best known combination.
Two measures of tahini to one of molasses; the ratio gets adjusted to taste.
The second is tahini with honey; a lighter, less dense alternative.
The third spreads it on bread directly with salt and chilli flakes scattered over.
The fourth stirs a spoonful into yoghurt, bringing protein and fat to the bowl.
Which dressings get made?
Tahini is versatile as a sauce base.
The fifth recipe is the classic tahini sauce: tahini, water, lemon juice and garlic.
It suits vegetables and grilled meat.
The sixth is a tahini yoghurt sauce; tahini and yoghurt get mixed for a lighter texture.
The seventh is a tahini salad dressing: tahini, olive oil, lemon and mustard.
The eighth is Asian in style: tahini, soy sauce, ginger and rice vinegar.
What those four share is acid; lemon or vinegar balances the fat of the tahini and keeps the sauce flowing.
How is it used in desserts?
Tahini is a source of both fat and aroma in a dessert.
The ninth recipe is tahini biscuits; eighty grams of tahini per kilogram of flour and the butter falls.
The tenth is tahini brownies; the tahini joins the chocolate mixture and adds a nutty depth.
The eleventh is a tahini sauce; tahini, icing sugar and a little water get mixed for use over ice cream and pancakes.
The twelfth is tahini energy balls; tahini, dates, oats and cocoa go through a processor and get rolled.
Tahini brings a direction different from classic dessert components in those four and stops the product reading as one-dimensional.
Does it belong in hot dishes?
It does, though that is less known.
Tahini brings body and richness to hot dishes.
It joins vegetable dishes at the final stage and goes well with cauliflower and aubergine.
It gets used to thicken soup; a spoonful in lentil soup makes a clear difference.
It appears in kavurma and casseroles too.
But tahini does not get boiled; it splits at high heat and the oil separates, so it goes in after the pan leaves the flame.
How much tahini goes in?
Tahini is a dense, calorie-rich product.
Five hundred and ninety to six hundred and twenty calories per hundred grams.
Fifty-three to fifty-eight grams of fat.
A tablespoon is around fifteen grams.
Ninety calories and eight grams of fat.
One or two spoonfuls a day is a reasonable quantity at breakfast.
Fifteen to twenty grams per head in a dressing; in a dessert that quantity spreads through the recipe and falls lower per portion.
What is the profile of tahini?
Coming from sesame, tahini is rich in minerals.
Four hundred and twenty to four hundred and fifty milligrams of calcium per hundred.
That is a level comparable with dairy.
Eight or nine milligrams of iron.
Three hundred and fifty milligrams of magnesium.
Seventeen or eighteen grams of protein.
Most of the fat is unsaturated, with oleic and linoleic acid dominant.
That profile makes tahini a meaningful item nutritionally rather than only a source of flavour.
Which tahini gets chosen?
Two pieces of information on the label decide.
The first is the ingredients list; a quality tahini contains one ingredient: sesame.
Products with added sugar, salt or vegetable oil sit in a lower segment.
The second is whether the sesame is hulled or unhulled.
Tahini from unhulled sesame is darker and more bitter; its calcium runs higher.
Tahini from hulled sesame is paler and milder; that is the most widespread and suits most recipes better.
How is tahini stored?
Tahini is a product containing oil.
That oil is open to oxidation.
It keeps a year in a closed jar in a cool, dark place.
Six months at room temperature once opened.
Longer in a fridge, though the product firms and becomes harder to stir.
Separated oil does not get poured away.
It gets stirred in; that oil belongs to the product and pouring it away leaves a dry, hard mass, and turning the jar upside down before opening makes the stirring easier too.
How do the types of tahini divide?
Three types appear on the market.
The first is classic tahini, made from hulled sesame and pale in colour.
The most widespread and the mildest in taste.
The second is unhulled tahini, ground with the husk still on.
Darker, more bitter and richer in calcium.
The third is raw tahini, ground without roasting; its taste is plainer and its colour lighter.
Classic tahini works better in desserts and unhulled in savoury uses, and the unhulled product provides depth particularly in salad dressings.
