Make smooth, creamy tahini (a delicious sesame seed paste) at home with a blender! Takes just two simple steps and 10 minutes of your time. Better than store-bought and easy to make! Use in hummus, salad dressing, and cookies.
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Tahini is an incredibly important ingredient in Middle East and Mediterranean cooking.Made from just white sesame seeds, salt, and a few drops of oil, this savory seed paste is ground or blended until smoothy and silky. It adds creaminess and nuttiness to what you are making or eating.
If you’ve noshed onmy white bean hummus, you’ve eaten tahini, as it plays an essential role in this dip’s flavor and texture. But I use tahinifor a lot of things beyond hummus, including a chocolate chip cookie skillet, brownies, and many of my gluten-free dinner recipes.
Like many ingredients, I’ve noticed a difference in the flavor and texture depending on what brand you buy. Some are too thick, some too grainy, and most commonly, too bitter.So I decided to start playing around with homemade tahini, until I got it just right. And in my eyes, that means super silky smooth, in-between drippy and nut butter thick, with a toasted, nutty flavor.
How to Make Homemade Tahini:
Theprocessis very simple: toast raw sesame seeds, then grind with 1 teaspoon oil (using high speed blender or food processor, scraping down the sides as you go. It will start crumbly, but continue to evolve into the smoothest, creamiest tahini.
The velvety smooth texture is achieved by using raw,HULLEDwhite sesame seeds. You can also buy them unhulled, which means the thin outer shell is left on,but you will end up with a grittier end result.
LIGHTLY toasting the sesame seeds is critical for two reasons:.
imparting the subtle toasted, flavor
coaxing out some of the natural oils, which will also help it grind down smoother
Both the type of sesame seed (hulled) and the toasting takes away the bitterness that might otherwise linger.
Use a neutral oil, like sunflower, to keep the flavor pure.
If you’ve had trouble grinding nut butters because they are so rough and tough, you are going to love making tahini the sesame seeds are tiny and thin! Here’s an inside look at how the consistency will change as you grind. Just keep scraping down the sides, and blending. You’ll get to the endpretty quickly.
How to Use Tahini
I love how mild tahini is, a neutral slate when compared to nut butters. Perhaps what I love most is the rich, smooth, creaminess it adds to whatever your stirring it into or drizzling it on top of.It contributes some subtle flavor, but not overwhelming. And because of that, it’s extremely versatile, naturally working it’s way into both sweet and savory recipes.
My favorite way will always be avocado toast, made with my sourdough bread, a sprinkle of za’atar and a little extra olive oil. It doesn’t get old, ever. Other savory ideas:
this fluffyOmelette,Filledwith Sweet Potato Noodles and Tahini Drizzle
thesecrispy Roasted Brussels Sproutswith Lemon Tahini Sauce are my all time favorite
out with italian meatballs, in with these mediteranean inspiredLemon CardamomMeatballs, swimming in Garlic Tahini Sauce
Make the smoothest tahini at home by toasting white sesame seeds and blending them until they turn into a smoothy, creamy paste. Use tahini to make hummus, salad dressings, or cookies.
Lightly toast sesame seeds on top of the stove over medium high heat, until just barely brown. You don’t want to overdo it. Remove seeds from pan and let cool in a bowl for 10 minutes.
Add to high speed blender or food processor (I use the smaller, dry container of my Blendtec blender, I find this to be very key), and process for 20 seconds.
Then add oil and salt. Process in increments of 20 seconds, scraping down sides and blending until completely smooth. You can see the stages above of how it will look above. Just keep going, it will get there! This will take about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes depending on the strength of your blender.
Store in glass jar in the refrigerator.
Notes
Stir tahini very well before using, as some of the oil can rise to the top and you need to keep that within the mixture.
We always use a food processor to make tahini. We've found that it's much easier to control and we're better able to scrape down the sides for even blending. If you choose to use a blender, be sure it is a high power blender (like a Vitamix), preferably with a tamper so you can keep the mixture moving.
I love my Vitamix blender and it works great. Just remember to use the tamper to help push the seeds down into the blades. For a Ninja blender, readers have said this blender works just fine, but you might need a bit more oil as you're blending.
The velvety smooth texture is achieved by using raw, HULLED white sesame seeds. You can also buy them unhulled, which means the thin outer shell is left on, but you will end up with a grittier end result.
Tahini that hides in the fridge for too long (or stored in fridges that feel more like freezers) can turn chunky and hard. So hard you'll feel like you need a cement mixer to get things moving again. That's why, if you are storing your tahini in the fridge, make sure the temperature of your fridge is not too cold.
How long does homemade tahini last? Homemade tahini can last up to 6 months when you store it in an airtight container in the fridge. It must be refrigerated and be sure to always use clean, dry utensils every time you open the jar.
Karaerler Tahini Machine is strong, high quality industrial grinder made entirely of stainless steel, is designed to grind sesame seeds in just a few minutes to 40 microns, while continuously recycling the grinding, by a spinning system and a built-in pouring tap.
Yes, the tahini that you make at home is better than the tahini you buy in the store. And yes, it is great to understand exactly what is going into your food. And we tend to assume that making food at home will be cheaper than buying it at the store.
Once you get your jar of tahini home, you want to open it up and give it a stir to make sure it's incorporated. (If the oil has fully separated, such as in the photo above, Food editor Joe Yonan uses an immersion blender to reincorporate it, after which he says it stays emulsified.)
Some people may experience an allergic reaction to sesame. Foods to avoid if they have a sesame allergy include foods containing sesame seeds, sesame oil, and tahini.
As the amount of water is increased, more clumps develop, causing the tahini to thicken overall. If you keep adding water, eventually you'll cross over the threshold of thickening it; enough water in the system will cause the tahini to loosen and thin out.
Refrigerated tahini is stiffer and harder to work with than room-temperature tahini, which is loose and pourable, and she believes that refrigerating tahini does not appreciably extend its shelf life. Refrigerating tahini certainly won't harm it, however, and keeping it cold will slow the process of oil separation.
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.
The blender is a food processor's close relative in the kitchen and makes a great food processor substitute for a few tasks. These two countertop appliances are sometimes interchangeable for things like emulsifying and pureeing, but a blender can more thoroughly break down foods for ultra smooth results.
While you may be able to grind nuts in a blender with a watchful eye, the rapidly rotating blades can overprocess your ingredients, leaving you with a nut paste instead. When chopping or grinding nuts, a food processor is best for achieving the desired coarse or fine texture for your ingredients.
It will certainly be just as delicious if you use a food processor to make it, but it won't get quite as smooth. What is this? Stage 1 – Dry roasted peanuts and salt ready to blend. Stage 2 – Peanuts are beginning to break down into a paste.
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