What Is Tahini Sauce And What Does It Taste Like?

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If you've ever grabbed a falafel-stuffed pitta from a food cart, you may have drizzled a punchy dressing known as tahini sauce over it. Along with tzatziki and chili sauce, this yummy condiment can make any variety of street food sing. A blend of tahini (a paste made of ground sesame seeds), lemon juice, salt, and garlic, the sauce has a creamy texture, nutty flavor, and rich mouthfeel.

Tahini is commonly whizzed up with chickpeas and oil — along with aromatics like garlic or lemon juice — to make hummus, which is perfect for pairing with veggies, spreading on sandwiches or slathering onto flatbreads. To turn tahini into tahini sauce, simply nix the chickpeas and combine it with a dash of lemon juice, garlic, and salt. This combination of ingredients creates a velvety sauce that's tangy, savory, and aromatic, which you can thin down to your liking with a dash of water. However, you can also incorporate green herbs, like cilantro and parsley, to your tahini to lend it a fresher flavor or add yogurt to boost its creaminess further. Tahini sauce imbues dishes like souvlaki with a distinctive saucy richness. However, it also makes an awesome drizzle on Lebanese koftas and veggie skewers, can be used as a salad dressing, or served with a fresh platter of crudité.

You can make your own tahini with hulled sesame seeds and a very good blender. However, there are plenty of awesome ready-made options available at the supermarket. The best store-bought tahini brand in our eyes is Bayaz Tahini of Amedi as it has a complex, nutty flavor and luscious texture. Since tahini is made with sesame seeds, which have a naturally high oil content, it will separate after a while (like peanut butter), whether it's homemade or store-bought. Simply give it a really good stir to re-emulsify it and get it back to its original smooth texture. This peanut butter stirrer makes light work of mixing separated tahini that's particularly thick. 

Then mix in your lemon juice and seasonings to whip up a homemade batch of tahini sauce. Just bear in mind that your tahini will seize up when you first add the citrus. All you need to do is continue to stir, and it will loosen up again. The final taste of your sauce will also depend on what type of tahini base you've used. For example, roasted tahini (where the sesame seeds are toasted prior to blending) will have a nuttier, more robust flavor than raw tahini. You can also use leftover tahini in unexpected ways, such as mixing it into the custard base of an ice cream, incorporating it into cookie batter, or stirring it through a bowl of ramen.