How to fix bitter tahini sauce?

If your tahini is dry, or if you prefer a thinner sauce, add more water, as needed, to reach your desired consistency. Then, taste and adjust your seasonings. If you prefer a brighter sauce, add more lemon. If it is too bitter, stir in 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon maple syrup or honey .

What section do you find tahini sauce?

In most grocery stores, tahini is either in the aisle with other condiments like peanut butter or in the aisle with international foods . You can also find it at a specialty or Middle Eastern grocery. It is sold shelf-stable in glass or plastic jars and is not refrigerated.

How to fix a broken tahini sauce?

Add more liquid If it is half-broken, add half as much again as the amount of oil that was used to break it in the first place. If it is completely broken, add equal volumes of oil and liquid. Start with a little bit and keep adding until the sauce comes back together into an emulsion. This may take a few iterations.

What's the difference between tahini and tahini sauce?

Tahini paste is just ground sesame seeds. Period. In comparison, tahini sauce is made by thinning the paste to a consistency similar to a thick cream, typically by adding other ingredients . My family's recipe adds lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil to our tahini sauce.

Is it normal for tahini to be bitter?

The sesame seed paste has “a strong, earthy taste with bitter undertones, but it should be a very pleasant bitterness with a hint of sweetness when it first hits the palate ,” Reem Kassis writes in “The Arabesque Table.” It is one of the key ingredients in hummus, responsible for the dip's slight nuttiness, but it can ...

How do you get the bitter taste out of sauce?

Tips to Remove a Bitter Taste Sprinkle in a pinch of baking soda . Add acidic flavors to the dish, like lemon juice or vinegar. Add some heat to your food with spicier ingredients, like cayenne or red pepper. Season the bitter food with herbs.

How to make tahini liquid again?

Mix in 1 cup (240 ml) of water . The water makes the tahini clump up at first, but continue to add the water and it will become thin. The simple tahini sauce will be thin enough to coat the back of a spoon once you've mixed in the water.

Is tahini more healthy than peanut butter?

They're both healthy , dietitians say. Tahini is lower in carbohydrates and sugars than peanut butter is making it a better choice for people who follow low-carb diets, Politi notes. Both foods are predominantly fat, though peanut butter has a little more protein, Young adds.

Is it cheaper to buy or make tahini?

Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds. Store-bought jars of tahini can be expensive. Homemade tahini is not only cheaper , but it also tastes amazing.

Why is tahini so expensive?

Tahini, often referred to as creamy tahini or tahini blend due to its texture, often carries a relatively higher price tag, influenced by several factors. The primary contributor is the cost of fun sesame seeds , the key ingredient in tahini.

How to remove bitter taste from sesame seeds?

How do you remove the bitterness from sesame seeds? Toast them iver medium heat until fragrant and a few of then start to pop . That removes any bitterness related to being stale, but some bitterness that is normal for sesame seeds remains.

How do you make tahini smooth again?

Adding a few tablespoons of mild-tasting oil is helpful. This helps the tahini become more smooth, creamy, and drippy.

What does rancid tahini taste like?

Expired tahini may have a sour smell and taste bitter or rancid .

Tahini Sauce - Maureen Abood (2024)

Home Recipes Lebanese Recipes

Maureen Abood

5 from 2 votes

Feb 08, 2022, Updated Jun 02, 2024

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Tahini sauce is an essential sauce in Lebanese and Middle Eastern cooking. My easy Lebanese tahini sauce recipe with lemon juice, garlic, salt and a secret ingredient found in every kitchen will make a smooth, luscious sauce every time. Looking for the best tahini? Find a great Lebanese Tahini in my shop.

Lebanese tahini sauce is one of the best flavor makers in our kitchen.This sauce is lemony, garlicky, smooth and luscious. I like to keep tahini sauce on hand at all times for an easy way to ramp up flavor. Finish dishes like my falafel recipe, homemade beef shawarma, Lebanese grilled kafta with tahini sauce goodness. I can’t imagine eating a shawarma wrap without it! Yotam Ottolenghi makes a phenomenal roasted cauliflower with sauce that is on my hit list, such a favorite Middle Eastern recipe.

Follow my guide for the right ingredients, step-by-step instructions, and a couple of simple tricks to make authentic tahini sauce just the way we like it: glossy, smooth, and delicious.

What is tahini sauce?

Tahini alone, as an ingredient, adds complexity and flavor to Lebanese dips likemy Best Homemade Hummus recipe and Lebanese Baba Ganoush.

The sauce is a combination of a few basic ingredients to make a smooth, flavorful sauce. The consistency is like salad dressing, or slightly thicker, to pour, drizzle, or dip.

Ingredients to make authentic tahini sauce

This requires just a few basic ingredients, which means they all should be excellent:

Tahini

Lemon Juice. Fresh is best! Vary this with fresh lime juice.

Garlic. Use a fresh garlic clove for great garlic flavor, or granulated garlic powder.

Salt

Ice Cold Water

How to make tahini sauce

Step 1. Mix the lemon juice with minced garlic. Allow this to “steep” and marinate for about 10 minutes. Strain the lemon juice and discard the garlic. We do this to soften the zest of the garlic and to make it as smooth as could be.

Step 2. Whisk or use a food processor to mix the garlicky lemon juice, tahini and salt. Watch now what happens—the mixture seizes and gets very lumpy.

Step 3. Cure the lumpiness! The fix here could not be easier: simply add ice cold water and whisk or process until you get a smooth, creamy sauce. Add more water, if needed, to get you there.

Tahini sauce recipe tips

Tahini seizes when mixed with liquids such as must-have fresh lemon juice. In cooking, seizing means the smooth liquid (tahini, or melted chocolate) gets stiff and clumpy.

Knowing that tahini seizes, and how to fix it, is the key to how to make a great sauce with the desired consistency: smooth!Fix the seized mixture with the addition of ice cold water.

You may only need a little water to smooth out the mixture; it’s best to start with less water and add more as needed.

Pay attention to your garlic.To soften the flavor of the garlic and to make an ultra-smooth tahini sauce, use minced garlic to flavor the lemon juice, then discard (or use elsewhere). Another option is to simply use granulated garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in your sauce. Certainly you can stir the garlic right into the sauce and flavor will be delicious even though the sauce won’t be entirely smooth.

Take it slowly.Add the cold water a little bit at a time, taking care that it is not too thin or too thick. Look for the consistency of salad dressing, or slightly thicker.

How do you use tahini sauce?

The sauce is not the same as straight tahini. It is a combination of a few basic ingredients to make a smooth, flavorful sauce. The consistency is like salad dressing, or slightly thicker, to pour, drizzle, or dip. Use tahini sauce for shawarma (all stuffed in pita bread…delicious), and to dip falafel or veggies, or as a dressing for salads.

Storage

Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It lasts for at least a week and usually much longer than that. Bring to room temperature and give it a whisk before serving.
Store your jar of tahini in the pantry, the same way you store peanut butter.

What is the best brand of tahini?

To find the best tahini, it’s a tasting game. And a stirring game. Tahini, which is simply pureed sesame seeds, likes to separate oil from solids. Those solids can become sludgy in the base of the jar, making the rest of the tahini oily, thin, not so good.

I have tasted more tahini than I can count in search of the very best in class. Look for little to no solids at the bottom of the jar, a creamy look and mouthfeel (!), and pleasant bitterness–which means not much bitterness.

I may be biased, but the reality is that the Lebanese tahini brands are my favorite tahini brands.

The best tahini has little to no separation of ground sesame and oil. It is less bitter, smooth, and stirs easily.

If you have not liked tahini when you’ve tasted it, that’s likely because the brand you’ve had is too bitter. Bitter is not a given; many tahinis are creamy and nearly “sweet.”

Best tahini brands: Lebanon Valley Tahini, Al Kanator, Cedars, and Soom.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where to find tahini?

Tahini is available in most any grocery store. The tahini brands noted above may be found in your local Middle Eastern markets, or online.

What do you eat with tahini sauce?

Oh gosh, start with a spoon! Uses are many. Serve alongside authentic Lebanese and other Middle Eastern favorites such asGrilled Chicken Shawarma,Kibbeh Bites with Tahini Dipping Sauce,Authentic Lebanese Falafel, and more.The sauce is also glorious on avocado toast and as a dressing for salads, or a dip with fresh veggies.

How to store tahini sauce?

How to serve tahini sauce?

I like to serve platters of shawarma, eggplant, or fried cauliflower with a bowl of the sauce on the side. Sometimes I use a little pitcher that makes it very easy to pour the sauce. A shower of chopped fresh parsley or mint on top looks very appetizing.

What is the difference between tahini and tahini sauce?

Both tahini and tahini sauce have similarities, but they are not the same. Tahini is sesame paste. It is the main ingredient in tahini sauce, but not the only ingredient! The sauce includes lemon, garlic, salt, and water. Yogurt tahini sauce is also excellent, with great tang from plain yogurt (Lebanese laban).

Is tahini sauce vegan?

My recipe, and most sauces in this style, are vegan. Some recipes may call for yogurt, and those are not vegan recipes.

How to make tahini sauce thicker?

It is easier to make the sauce thinner than it is to thicken, so take care when adding water and lemon juice to begin with. Top make it thicker, add more tahini. It may also need a touch of water or lemon juice if the added tahini makes it lumpy.

How to make tahini sauce thinner?

Add more cold water or lemon juice, or a combination of the two, to make it thinner. Add the liquid slowly to achieve the desired thickness.

Recipes with Tahini Sauce

Garlic Tahini Eggplant

Fried Kibbeh Bites with Tahini Dipping Sauce

Lebanese Spicy Fish with Tahini and Pine Nuts

Roasted Butternut Squash with Tahini and Pine Nuts

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5 from 2 votes

Tahini Sauce Recipe

By Maureen Abood

There's a must-know secret to making authentic tahini sauce and the answer is at your fingertips: ice cold water, an important ingredient to smooth out the naturally occurring seizing (clumping) that tahini does when mixed with liquids.

Prep: 20 minutes mins

Servings: 6 servings

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Ingredients

▢ Juice of 1 lemon
▢ 3 cloves garlic, minced, or 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
▢ 1/2 cup tahini
▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
▢ 1/4 cup ice cold water, and more as needed

Instructions

If using fresh garlic, in a small bowl mix the lemon juice with minced garlic. Allow the mixture to “steep” and marinate for about 10 minutes. Strain the lemon juice into a medium sized bowl and discard the garlic.
Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice, garlic powder if using, and salt. The mixture will seize and become clumpy.
Add the ice cold water one tablespoon at a time, whisking with each addition, until the mixture is smooth. The finished sauce should be thin enough to pour but thick enough to dip, comparable to the thickness of stirred sour cream or labneh.

Video

Notes

Know that tahini seizes when first combined with liquid. Seizing describes what happens to tahini when it is mixed with liquids such as must-have lemon juice. In cooking, seizing means the smoothliquid (tahini, or melted chocolate) gets stiff and clumpy.

Knowing that tahini seizes, and how to fix it, is the key to how to make great tahini sauce! Fix the seized mixture with the addition of ice cold water.

Pay attention to your garlic. To soften the garlic flavor and to make an ultra-smooth sauce, use it to flavor the lemon juice, then discard (or use elsewhere). Or, simply use granulated garlic powder instead of fresh garlic in your sauce.

Take it slowly. Add the cold water a little bit at a time, taking care so the consistency of the sauce is not too thin or too thick. Look for the consistency of salad dressing, or slightly thicker.

Nutrition

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Author: Maureen Abood

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes