Easy Tahini Recipe – Better Than Store-bought

Homemade tahini is very easy to make. Our recipe is quick and makes way better tahini than anything you can buy at the store. Jump to the tahini recipe

What is tahini?

Do you know what tahini is? Want to know how to make it at home instead of buying expensive jars at the store? We’ll tell you all about tahini, what you can use it for (yes, it’s more than just hummus) and we’ll show you how easy it is to make at home.

Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds. and is a staple in many cuisines, particularly Mediterranean and Middle Eastern. It’s vegan, gluten-free, has a nutty flavor and is easy to make.

Store-bought tahini is usually made from shelled sesame seeds. That’s our preference too, but you can make it with sprouted, hulled sesame seeds.

Shelled sesame seeds are what you see most often in stores. Here is a photo of sesame seeds with and without the shell. Shelled seeds are the lighter color on the left. On the right, the hulled seeds are much darker and still have their shell or outer shell intact.

In our experience, tahini with shelled sesame seeds tends to have a more bitter taste and doesn’t come out as smooth as with shelled sesame seeds.

Ways to use tahini

Perhaps the most well-known way to use tahini is to make hummus. While we’re big fans of hummus, we use tahini in many other ways in our own cooking.

Here’s a list of suggestions for using tahini other than in hummus.

Once you have tahini in your fridge (it keeps for over a month), we bet you’ll be adding it to a multitude of dishes without being told!

How to make tahini in minutes

Tahini is very, very easy to make. If you’ve ever made a nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter before you realize it’s pretty much the same process: Grind the sesame seeds in a food processor with a little oil until they’re a smooth consistency.

We have a 10 cup Magimix food processor. It’s pretty powerful, but most food processors on the market today should work.

Tahini ingredients

You only need THREE ingredients to make tahini.

Sesame seeds — As I already mentioned, we prefer to use shelled sesame seeds. Most of the time, we lightly toast the seeds to bring out some of their natural nutty flavor, but you can skip this step if you’d like.

petroleum — To make the tahini a smooth and creamy paste, we add a few tablespoons of unflavored oil. A variety of oils will work, try avocado oil, slightly fruity olive oil, vegetable oil, and grapeseed oil.

Salt it’s an optional ingredient, but I always use it. It just makes the tahini taste better.

Our easy way to make tahini

Making tahini is easy and only requires a few simple steps.

Step 1, Toast the sesame seeds. I love toasting sesame seeds before making tahini. The taste is far better this way.

If you plan on toasting the seeds, we recommend doing it on the stove rather than in the oven. Sesame seeds are small, so they burn very easily.

To toast the sesame seeds, I toss them in a large saucepan and dry them over medium-high heat, then stir constantly with a spoon until the seeds darken slightly and are fragrant.

Step 2, process the sesame seeds until crumbly. When the sesame seeds have cooled, we toss them into the bowl of our food processor, close the lid and grind until a crumbly paste forms.

Step 3, add oil and process into a smooth cream. To make the tahini an extra smooth paste, we added a few tablespoons of unflavored oil.

You can remove some of the oil if you’d like, but the tahini won’t turn out as smooth and runny. To achieve a store-bought consistency, we’ve found that 3-4 tablespoons of oil should be enough.

After more processing, a few stops to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and a little more processing after that, the tahini is done. Extra smooth and ready to use in any recipe.

FAQ: Can I use a blender?

Since we posted the recipe, some of our readers have asked whether or not a blender would work instead of a food processor when making tahini. I prefer to use my food processor, but if you have a powerful blender (like a Vitamix) you should be able to use it to make tahini. If you do this, be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the blender often so all of the seeds are absorbed into the sauce.

storage tips

You can keep the tahini covered in the fridge for a month, maybe a little longer. It’s possible for it to separate after a while in the fridge like natural peanut butter would. All you have to do to solve this problem is mix well.

Easy Tahini Recipe – better than store bought

Makes about 1/2 cup

Watch us at the recipe

Nutritional value per serving: Part 1 tablespoon / calories 136 / protein 3g / carbohydrates 5g / fiber 3g / total sugar 0g / total fat 12g / Saturated Fatty Acids 2 g / cholesterol 0 mg

AUTHOR: Adam and Joanne Gallagher