Tahini is served by itself (as a dip) or as a major ingredient in hummus, baba ghanoush, and halva. Yes, you read right! Tahini can be used as a sweet spread too and is known as halawa taḥiniyya.
Ingredients
Sesame seeds
Oil
Directions:
- Add sesame seeds to a wide, dry saucepan over medium-low heat and toast, stirring constantly until the seeds become fragrant and very lightly colored (not brown), 3 to 5 minutes. Careful here, sesame seeds can burn quickly.
- Transfer toasted seeds to a large steel plate and cool completely.
- When the sesame seeds have cooled, we throw them into the bowl of our food processor, shut the lid then process until a crumbly paste begins to form.
- Add oil and process into a smooth cream. To help the tahini turn into an extra smooth paste, we add a few tablespoons of neutral-flavored oil. You can eliminate some of the oil if you would like, but the tahini won’t be as smooth or pourable. To reach a similar consistency as store-bought, I found 3 to 4 tablespoons of oil should do it.
- After more processing, a few stops to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and a little more processing after that, the tahini is done. Extra smooth and ready to use in whatever recipe you like.
Tips:
You can keep tahini covered in the refrigerator for a month, maybe a bit more. You might find that after some time in the fridge it separates like natural peanut butter would. All you need to do to fix this is stir it well.