Tahini sauce is one of our go-to toppings for a variety of savory dishes. It’s made from tahini, a dense paste made from crushed sesame seeds. Tahini sauce is a mixture of tahini paste, lemon juice, garlic, and water. This traditional sauce is served in Israel and in Arab countries throughout the Middle East. The sauce is used as a condiment to accompany dishes like hummus, falafel, and babaganoush. It can also be served alongside a kosher meat meal as a dairy-free alternative to cream sauce.
Tahini Sauce Recipe & Video – How to make creamy, delicious tahini sauce with garlic and fresh lemon juice. Step-by-step video below!
Tahini paste can usually be found in the peanut butter aisle or the Middle Eastern section at the grocery store. Middle Eastern stores sell pre-mixed tahini sauce, but my husband swears by making it from scratch. The flavor of homemade is fresher, creamier, and more delicate. My husband walked me through the process, step by step, just like his mother used to make it when he was a child in Ramat Gan, Israel.
While I would love to give you the definitive tahini sauce recipe, making it properly is a bit of an art form. It’s best learned in the kitchen beside somebody who has been making it their whole life. I have included the basic process and ingredient measurements here, but bear in mind that each batch of tahini sauce is different. Ingredients must be added slowly, and the cook should keep a close eye on consistency and flavor throughout the process.
Once prepared, this recipe can be stored in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks in an airtight container. This sauce is gluten free, vegan, healthy and tasty. Enjoy!
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Video by Entice Films
Tahini Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup tahini sesame seed paste - I prefer the paste made from light colored seeds
- 3/4 cup lukewarm water, or more for consistency
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
- 2 teaspoons fresh parsley, minced (optional)
NOTES
Instructions
- Grind tahini paste, lukewarm water, garlic, lemon juice and salt together in a food processor or blender until sauce is creamy and ivory-colored. A food processor is the easiest way to make this sauce; scrape the sides of the processor periodically during processing. If using a blender, you may need to use a long-handled spoon to break up the thick part of the sauce once every 30 seconds; this will keep it from clogging your blender blades. After a few minutes of blending, sauce will turn into a rich, smooth paste. If mixture is too thick, slowly add more water until it reaches the preferred consistency. You may need quite a bit of water depending on the thickness of your tahini paste.
- If using tahini to top hummus or a meat dish, keep it thick and creamy. As a condiment for pita or falafel, a more liquid sauce is usually preferred. Taste often during the blending process; add more lemon juice or salt, if desired.
Nutrition
This is simply splendid, splendid!! Thank you, and ditto Scott re: built-in serving calculator.
I added more lemon juice, and it was still pretty thick. I think it may depend on which brand of tahini you start with. The big Indian supermarket here had four or five different brands. ☺ But it is delicious! And thank you for the built-in serving calculator on the page!
Thanks for noticing the serving calculator Scott! I’ve been working on updating the whole site to this new system which allows for customization and adjustments. It’s been a major task, glad to hear you like it!
Tried it today and my family loved it. Thank you.
I choose this recipe out of hundreds of recipes online….to be used as a sauce for my falafel sandwich. Cannot wait to try this on my husband’s homemade pita bread. I taste tested…..and, it’s DEVINE!
Thank you…… 🙂
Wow! Glad you picked this one out of all the choices out there, and happy it worked out for you!
Hello,i am an Iranian woman,but i do love Others,as my own people of my country And my own relatives,and these foods Are delicious and i do love them.
Absolutely delicious and so easy to make. I found that putting the garlic, water and lemon juice first, then adding tahini, made it very easy to blend with no scraping.
Amazing, perfect tahini sauce! Tori, I just discovered your site (where have I been?!) and can’t wait to try more of your recipes. I made this per the recipe, with a wee bit more garlic. I added about a half teaspoon of honey, and OMG, that put it over the top. It was not enough to make it sweet, and you could not taste the honey at all – but like adding salt, it just made the other flavors pop. Served it alongside falafel, and then licked a bunch off a spoon, with no shame 🙂 Thank you!
If you have an immersion blender, it is a lot easier since you don’t have to clean out a food processer or blender. I got 32 oz organic tahini on Amazon for abbout $12. I love this as a salad dressing. Healthy and delish.
Hi, can I freeze Tahini sauce? btw, your falafel recipe is fantastic. we make several batches at a time and freeze them for quick lunches – perfect 🙂
Hi Stefanie, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Yes, you can freeze the tahini sauce.
Allergic to sesame seeds and tree nuts…. is there any other seed that would work in making mock tahini? I asked this question before and your assistant said no, but let’s be creative…. some other fatty seed?
Using another seed, it wouldn’t be tahini sauce. Tahini relies on sesame for flavor. You could try subbing another seed (sunflower perhaps)? but I wouldn’t call it tahini sauce because the flavor would be so different.
Tahini sauce has unique flavour due to the sesame seeds. That’s why humus also can’t be done with anything else except chickpeas and tahini paste. I would just recommend you to make any other creamy dipping sauce like tzatziki or tartar sauce. Both will work well with fish cakes.
I have been a raw foodie for a while now, and while tahini sauce needs tahini, hummus can be made as a raw food by substituting cashews for cooked chickpeas. Always soak raw nuts overnight in salt and warm water to activate them (it starts the sprouting process and makes them more digestible) and keep all other ingredients the same- makes a yummy alternative……
well, if you think about it, peanut sauce used in thai and vietnamese food is very similar to tahini. sweeter though. so it wont be tahini, but it will be something. if you wanted to get a much lower fat sauce, try making hummus without tahini, just garbanzo bean paste with lots of water and lemon and garlic. but again, you are drifting away from the mouth feel and flavor of tahini with each sub. but you might find a little flavor island in there that works for you. ginger would be a good addition, for example.
So simple and tasty! I make sure to always have some on hand it’s so damn good!!
How can I keep it longer in the refrigerator say for a month?
Hi Mo, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. The tahini should be just fine in the refrigerator for a month.
great recipe thanks
I do everything on your list and the quantity is perfect, now the only difference I manually whisk the mix thoroughly in a stainless steel large bowl till smooth and creamy, This way I don’t waste any residue in the processor. Blender is useless to me! I add it to the kefta in the oven with potatoes 3-5 minutes before it’s done. Thank you
Agree. Hand whisking worked well for me too and no big cleanup.
Used an expressor type of garlic press to make sure that would blend in well…
Thank you for the recipe. I find some olive oil makes all the difference. Extra virgin if you really want the taste to come through, but be careful not to overwhelm it. Use 1 or two TBS depending on the amount you’re making. I add water at the end — 1 TBS at a time, until desired consistency. great for pita sandwiches, salads, or on the side to dip your pita in during dinner. Delicious!
This is amazing. I did exactly as you suggested, by tasting the sauce often. I had some nutritional yeast on hand, so added a bit of that….maybe 1 Tablespoon. I also added a small amount of dujon mustard and a small -very small- pinch of cayenne pepper. I served it on some sauteed cole slaw mixed with chopped cashews. It was delicious. I think I’ll also try it on a plate of brown rice and chopped figs.
Thank you so much for the ideas. I hope my “additions” don’t mean I didn’t deviate too far from the purist idea of this great sauce.
I tried you alterations and they were wonderful! You might want to try adding a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar and a couple teaspoons of ranch dressing mix to really add some zing!
Hi there! Do you recommend using tahini paste made of raw or roasted sesame seeds? Or does it matter?
It doesn’t really matter – the flavor will be nuttier if you use the roasted kind. Use whichever paste you like the flavor of best.
For me if your making a thin topping sauce I don’t brown but for making hummus I brown them and have experimented with light brown to med-dark for variety of flavor. I would imagine it’s made different depending on which part of the Middle East you hail.
Hi, I dont think my bender was quite right for the job and it also tasted very very nutty/strong, so I have mixed in some greek yogurt, is this a massive no-no?! (It tastes good to me but Im not quite sure what it is meant to taste like! I should add I am also not adding salt as Im going to give my 10 month old some with her falafel too. Maybe that is why it tastes a bit unbalanced? I also just made your falafel recipe and I think they have turned out well. They look good anyway! Xx
Hi Sarah, Tori’s assistant Ashley here. Tahini can have a bit of a strong nutty flavor, so it doesn’t sound like you did anything wrong. If you add yogurt it’s no longer tahini sauce, but if you like it that way then I don’t see any problem! 🙂
Too yummy
Thanks for sharing
Mmmm. Very tasty indeed. Looking forward to trying out more of your stuff, which I have all lined up. Just soaking chikpeas for hummus.