Many people keep a bottle of yellow mustard in their fridge, but if you reach into mine for a similar-looking condiment, you’ll find lemon tahini sauce instead. Both yellow mustard and lemon tahini sauce get their coloring and some of their earthy, subtle bitterness from turmeric. Yet when you close your eyes and take a taste, you’ll instantly distinguish these highly versatile condiments.
The core component of tahini sauce comes from hulled white sesame seeds ground into a thick paste. The crunchy whole seeds taste mildly nutty and sweet, but grinding transforms their texture and flavor, releasing slightly bitter polyphenols as it smooths out the seeds. Tahini gives distinctive flavor to everything from savory spreads like hummus and baba ghanoush to sweet desserts like halvah.
You’re unlikely to spoon straight tahini into a celery stick or onto a cracker the way you might use peanut butter, but combining it with just a few other flavors creates a sauce with endless uses. The bright acidity of lemon juice and pungent bite of garlic balance the bitterness of tahini. I start by briefly soaking raw garlic in the lemon juice to reduce its harshness, but sometimes I swap in roasted garlic instead. Tamari adds umami undertones that you won’t get from table salt; soy sauce works as a substitute but doesn’t taste quite as rich. Try this sauce with lime juice for a different twist on the flavors.
Thin the tahini mixture with just a couple of tablespoons of water, and you can spread it on burgers and sandwiches like you would mustard. Spoon the sauce onto baked chickpea falafel or fatteh, which resembles a Middle Eastern version of nachos built on a layer of crispy pita chips.
Stir yogurt or fresh chopped herbs like parsley, chives, dill, mint and cilantro into lemon tahini sauce to make a dip for raw radishes, snap peas and carrots. Thin it enough with yogurt or water to drizzle on last week’s Chickpea Vegetable Skillet with Couscous and Feta recipe. Keep thinning the sauce until it pours like a salad dressing and toss it with fresh greens.
Lemon Tahini Sauce or Dressing
Makes 1/2-1 cup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup tahini
1 teaspoon tamari, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
Pinch of ground cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons to 1/2 cup water
In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and minced garlic, and then let them sit for a few minutes to mellow the flavors. Whip the tahini with a fork, if separated, and then stir it and the tamari, cumin, turmeric and cayenne into the lemon–garlic mixture.
Mix in water to your desired consistency, using 3 tablespoons for a thick sauce and up to 1/2 cup for a salad dressing. For a smoother sauce, puree the mixture with an immersion blender or in a food processor. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to a week, or freeze portions in cube trays.
Julie Laing is a Bigfork-based cookbook author and food blogger at TwiceAsTasty.com.