Tahini Paste Recipe | Sauced

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated October 12, 2018
20111029-177340-tahini.jpg

I was never quite happy with the hummus and baba ganoush coming out of my kitchen until I decided to take tahini into my own hands. Making it is actually really simple. I've never looked back to the bottled stuff.

Tahini is a paste of Middle Eastern origin made from grinding sesame seeds and oil together. The common version you'll find at most groceries is made from hulled sesame seeds, which produces a very smooth paste, while at home, unhulled seeds are used, which gives the tahini more texture, and I think delivers a stronger nuttiness that defines the flavor of this sauce.

The final paste has a thick, peanut butter-like consistency and can be used as is, although you're more likely to use it in other sauces and marinades. The homemade tahini will outshine anything you get in stores.

Recipe Details

Tahini Paste Recipe | Sauced

Active 10 mins
Total 20 mins
Makes 1 1/2 cups

Ingredients

  • 2 cups sesame seeds
  • 1/3 cup olive oil, plus more as necessary

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place sesame seeds in a rimmed sheet pan and cook until lightly toasted toast, but not browned, about 5 minutes, tossing seeds ever couple of minutes with a spatula. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.

  2. Place sesame seeds in workbowl of a food processor with olive oil. Process until smooth and paste as consistence slightly thinner than peanut butter, adding more oil if necessary. Store in an airtight container in refrigerator.

Special equipment

Food Processor

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