Tahini

Tahini

Tahini is not only a delicious ingredient, but also an amazing appetizer! I made a double batch of this stuff the other day, and my brother and I, just the two of us, ate all of it! One batch makes two cups, which means my brother and I ate two cups each of tahini in 24 hours… call us crazy! 

I got this recipe from an Israeli that works here in Pangia. He brought us a bowl of it one evening, and we just couldn’t get enough of it! 

Soak the sesame seeds in water for 5 minutes. Rinse and drain seeds. On medium heat roast seeds until seeds are dry. You don’t want them brown though. Cool seeds. Once seeds are cool, blend them with water (you add water until the tahini is as thick or thin as you want), garlic, lemon juice and salt. Blend till smooth. Mine wouldn’t come to a paste using my normal food processor blade, I had to change it to  the smoothie cup and blade. If yours isn’t coming to a paste after about two minutes, try changing blades. I did try making this using an emersion blender, but it didn’t work. But, try what you have, and if it doesn’t work you can always toast the seeds till they start to brown and use them to top salads. 😜 

One your seeds are all ground up into tahini, it will be around two cups. The quantity is determined by how much water you added to the sesame seeds as they were being blended. 

You can use the tahini in recipes just like you would the stuff you buy from the store. I personally think this stuff tastes so much better than the stuff from the can! But, I’ll let you be the judge of that. Next week I’ll put up a couple of recipes that use tahini in them. But, while you wait, check your cookbooks, and try a recipe that calls for tahini. 

Keep the tahini in the fridge. I don’t know how long this will last in the fridge, but I am assuming less than a week. Use this as an ingredient or as a chip or cracker dip. 

Enjoy! 

Amber Wells

Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬