The technique of blending whole unpeeled garlic with lemon to make tahini sauce was something I read in Michael Solomonov's Zahav. With this much garlic you'd think it'd be overwhelming, but don't worry, it stays quite mild due to blending it in the lemon juice.
I've been making versions of this salad with crispy tofu, avocado, and grapefruit, flavored with za'atar and topped with a miso and tahini dressing, on and off for the last couple of months, each time tweaking the ingredients a bit. I've come to the conclusion that the base is delicious no matter what you do with it, and it all comes down to the texture of those three main ingredients: crisp tofu, creamy avocado, and juicy grapefruit.
In this recipe from Kimberly Hasselbrink's new cookbook, Vibrant Food, she tosses roasted cauliflower with fresh parsley, Kalamata olives, sweet currants and a lemony, earthy tahini dressing. While this is a recipe from the book's 'Winter' chapter, it's light and accessible enough to work year-round.
Black tahini offers a sweeter, nuttier flavor than tahini made with white sesame seeds. With such black gold at my finger tips, I decided to add it to a hummus that could stand up to it, pigment-wise. The color alone is sure to turn a few heads at your next gathering.
Butternut squash is a staple in my kitchen during fall and winter, but I never stray far from simple roasted cubes or a creamy pureed soup when it comes to preparing the gourd. After preparing the Roasted Butternut Squash and Red Onion with Tahini and Za'atar in Jerusalem: A Cookbook, however, I am a total devotee of pairing winter squash with sesame.
[Photograph: Paulette Phlipot] With its lush purple leaves and white veins, radicchio is an undeniably beautiful. But it's bitterness can be polarizing. Those who appreciate the tart, bracing flavors love it, but there are many who aren't fans of this...
Chicken Salad is great and all, but it's definitely been done. You can vary the ingredients a little bit—grapes and slivered almonds is one of my favorites—but the basic chicken + mayo base doesn't change much. And frankly, it gets a little boring. Which is why this recipe from Patricia Wells is so intriguing.
Hummus with pita chips is my go-to snack (anyone else?). Until recently, I lived off the storebought variety, with my homemade hummus never being up to snuff with the likes of Sabra. But then I had a revelation in hummus-making.
I was never quite happy with the hummus and baba ganoush coming out of my kitchen until I decided to take tahini into my own hands. Making it is actually really simple. I've never looked back to the bottled stuff.
I'm a fan of the falafel, the bright green variety. The crisp little chickpea fritters are brightened up with tons of finely chopped parsley and cilantro, and the added greenery does wonders for what can sometimes be a dauntingly dense sandwich. Silvena Rowe, author of Purple Citrus & Sweet Perfume has taken the green falafel concept one step further with these fantastically light Crunchy Red Swiss Chard Falafel.
They're an advanced riff on classic spicy Buffalo wings with blue cheese and celery sticks—fried wings sauced with a sweet-hot chile glaze and cooled with a salad of crisp cucumbers in a minty yogurt sauce. The secret to the chile sauce is the unexpected addition of tahini—its nuttiness rounds out the rest of the Asian-inspired ingredients, giving the sauce a great thickness, perfect for coating.
Just when I thought I had the Wing Week, line-up all figured out, I was thrown for a loop when Erin sent me this recipe for chile hot wings from the new cookbook Michael's Genuine Food. I read the ingredient list and was immediately captivated—Thai sweet chile sauce mixed with tahini. The traditionalist in me couldn't fathom what this clash of cultures would taste like. I needed to know.
I am a well-roasted cauliflower fanatic. It's one of my favorite vegetables to roast. Roasting can bring one of the most boring vegetables to life. Gorgeous nutty aromas start coming out, the color changes to brown, and the flavor transforms from flat to multidimensional. So I was all over this recipe from Saveur, which roasted the vegetable with a dusting of cumin in a 500°F oven and served it with a tahini sauce. My only question was how to make this more of a main dish.
Carrots may sound like an odd dessert ingredient, but they're certainly not just health food. They're starchy and sweet, and when cooked down slowly with milk, practically become candy on their own. Consider them an alternative sweetener, like honey, but with an even more complex sweetness. In a dessert, carrots can build a mild but flavorful base for more intense ingredients to play. Our result is something of a hybrid between Indian and Middle Eastern halvah.
