Seriously Meatless: Tahina
Note: Michael Natkin of the vegetarian blog Herbivoracious drops by every Wednesday to share a delicious recipe to expand our vegetarian repertoire.
If you just looked at the picture and didn't read the title, you probably just thought this was hummus, right? Wrong! While they look superficially similar, hummus is made primarily of chickpeas, while tahina is a puree of sesame seeds seasoned with lemon juice and garlic.
Hummus is well-known in the west, inspiring frightful variations with textures comparable to drywall cement, while tahina's praises go unsung. Which is a shame, because it is easy to throw together, delicious, and very nutritious.
To make matters more confusing, tahina can also be spelled tehineh or tehina, and its main ingredient is tahini. All you have to keep in mind is that tahini is just the pureed raw sesame seeds, while tahina is the prepared sauce.
Once you've made it, which takes all of five minutes, serve your tahina as a simple appetizer with toasted pita and olives, as a sauce with mujadara or falafel, or as one component of a larger meze.
Tahina
- serves 8 -
Ingredients
1 cup raw sesame tahini
2 cloves garlic, completely crushed into a paste
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cumin
Juice of 3 lemons (or more as needed)
Optional garnishes (pick any or all): extra virgin olive oil, sumac, paprika, toasted pine nuts, parsley, olives
Procedure
1. If the oil has separated in your tahini, stir it back together, then measure 1 cup into a good sized bowl.
2. Mix the garlic, salt, cumin and lemon juice into the tahini.
3. Start vigorously beating in cold water, 1/4 cup or so at a time, until the mixture becomes smooth and creamy. You'll see it start to emulsify, lighten in color and become easier to stir. It will probably take about 3/4 cup of water total.
4. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt, lemon juice, or cumin as needed.
5. The traditional way to serve tahina is in a large, flat bowl. Form a swirl with the back of a spoon, and then apply any of the garnishes listed above.
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14 Comments:
Yum. O!, yummmmm.
BobbieAnne at 2:43PM on 11/04/09
Doesn't tahini have loads and loads of fat? Like a Halvah bar- sesame seeds have lots of oil. Just a little bit of tahini and olive oil go into hummus, which makes it a lot less fattening than straight tahini.
DanielJ at 2:44PM on 11/04/09
Best sandwich on the planet, though, is tahini and honey on dense and grainy bread. I think I gotta go home and make one.
BobbieAnne at 2:57PM on 11/04/09
@DanieU That is correct that tahini is high in fat; you wouldn't necessarily eat a cup of tahina. The fat is almost entirely unsaturated, and it is quite high in protein and calcium and some other minerals. So it is pretty darn good for you in moderation.
MichaelNatkin at 3:06PM on 11/04/09
I think I'd need a lot more than 3 lemons to make it palatable for me. I've had too many bad hummus' where all you taste is the peanut buttery tasteless taste of the tahini.
latenac at 3:51PM on 11/04/09
I'm wondering what the best, most authentic brand of tahini is available in the U.S.? I am loving a darker, Turkish fire-roasted one by Tohum.
heidirobb at 3:55PM on 11/04/09
@heidirobb - Joyva of course is the most widely available; I haven't seen Tohum but now I'm sure going to be looking out for it.
MichaelNatkin at 4:32PM on 11/04/09
I just don't love Tahini on it's own. For my taste, it's a little too bitter without something else to tame it down a bit. I usually mix two cans of chickpeas with about a 1/4 cup of tahini, juice of half a lemon, 1 clove garlic, and a little salt.
Mandyhello at 7:35PM on 11/04/09
we usually add some water to, and reduce the lemon to thin the tehina...which leads me to a funny story:
There is on any given day, usually a tupperware of tehina in our fridge, the go-to snack with some pita. So one day dad comes home from work, takes out the tupperware, heats some bread and has at it. Except...hm, maybe that wasn't what he thought it was, it was PANCAKE BATTER!
veggieout at 10:16PM on 11/04/09
As a native Arabic speaker, I'd just like to point out that tahini and tahina are the same thing. Tahini is merely the pronunciation in the Lebanese dialect, Tahina is how most other Arabs would pronounce it. They're both written the same way, if anyone can read Arabic: طحينة
Hassouni at 10:46AM on 11/05/09
@Hassouni Good to know; so how would you distinguish between the plain sesame paste and the prepared sauce described above? Is it just from conversational context or is there a separate term?
MichaelNatkin at 11:11AM on 11/05/09
I'm not @Hassouni, but the prepared sauce above basically is a combo of tahini paste, garlic, lemon and sometimes yogurt. The "prepared sauce" often has another name in Lebanese/Arab cuisine - "taratoor". It's usually eaten as a dip with fish or a topping in meat shawarma (but not chicken, which is usually served with a straight up garlic paste).
lebcook at 11:33AM on 11/05/09
@lebcook - re: taratoor, I'd totally forgotten about that name, but now that you mention it, sounds familiar. Just goes to show you how confusing food names can be. I've learned not to be absolutist about this stuff, because it can vary so wildly from place to place.
My current favorite example: in Mexico, chilaquiles are usually fried tortilla strips in a tomatillo sauce, while in the U.S. they are often scrambled eggs and tortilla strips. Except those are more often called migas. But then in Spain, migas are more typically day-old bread and meat!
(I know, someone is going to be writing in with a different version of those facts in just a second! Lay it on me :))
MichaelNatkin at 11:42AM on 11/05/09
I'm Middle-Eastern, and grew up loving tehina but until I got my own kitchen I didn't know there was a difference between the tehina on the shelf in the supermarket and the tehina served on my falafel at the place don the block. I don't think we make a distinction between the two in my culture. Now, tehina has become my #1 condiment. I usually just mix up a few tablespoons of the sesame paste with equal parts water and use it as a dressing, dip, or spread on sandwiches. My favorite is simply tehina and tomato on toasted sprouted heat bread...oh my, my mouth is watering. Gotta go make myself one.
Ilana Z at 10:39PM on 11/08/09