The BEST authentic tahini sauce recipe with garlic, lime juice and fresh parsley! Be sure to watch my video and grab my tips below. This rich, flavor-packed vegan sauce is popular throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East, and it can elevate any meal from kabobs to falafel sandwiches and everything in between. Perfect served as part of mezze with some warm pita and fresh veggies too!
More Middle Eastern recipes to try: Baba Ghanoush; Mujadara (Lebanese Rice and Lentils); Fattoush Salad; Grilled Lamb Chops; Za’atar Chicken
It used to be such an obscure and exotic ingredient to most North American Cooks, but it seems tahini is everywhere now. This humble Middle Eastern staple has made a splash in the health-food market, trendy restaurants, and in home kitchens–adding nutrition, irresistible creaminess and depth to many dishes. And this tahini fanatic does not mind one little bit!
What is tahini? Where to Find It? ETC…
Before we get to today’s tahini sauce recipe, let’s address a few questions you may have:
– What is tahini? Tahini (pronounced te-hi-ni or ta-hi-na) is a staple of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Cooking. Tahini is a super creamy, rich vegan paste made by finely grinding roasted sesame seeds until buttery smooth. I’ve heard some referring to tahini as a “nut butter” of sorts. It’s important to remember though that seeds–sesame, sunflower, poppy, and pumpkin–come from plant families that are not closely related to nut-producing trees.
– What does tahini taste like? Good tahini should be rich and luxurious and should taste mildly nutty and savory. Bad tahini paste, on the other hand, could taste bitter and chalky.
– Where to find tahini paste? I often get questions about where to buy tahini and which brands to use. You can find tahini paste at some specialty Mediterranean and Middle Eastern stores, but why go there when you can purchase it directly from us! We found the best tahini out there and decided to carry it in our store to make it easier for you to purchase. For a full guide to this incredible Mediterranean ingredient, check out our What Is Tahini article.
– How to Use tahini paste? Tahini is used in many things from the ever-popular classic hummus (a must-try!) to sweet desserts like these tahini brownies–quite possibly the best brownies I have ever tasted.
But today, we tackle a super important use of tahini: Tahini Sauce, known at my house as awesome sauce!
BEST Tahini Sauce!
Tahini sauce is popular throughout the Mediterranean and the Middle East. This simple, tangy, and flavor-packed sauce is made by blending rich, nutty tahini paste with citrus (lemon juice or lime juice), fresh garlic, and a little bit of water to aid the consistency.
If you like your tahini sauce spicy, add a pinch of cayenne or a little mild aleppo pepper.
In this recipe, I add a large handful of fresh chopped parsley to make a popular Egyptian version of tahini sauce we call tahini bqaudoonis or tahini with parsley. Fresh mint or dill can be used in place of parsley, if you like.
You can make this easy tahini sauce ahead of time and save it in the fridge for 2 to 3 days or so.
Step-By-Step for this Tahini Sauce Recipe
-Place crushed or minced garlic (with salt), tahini paste, and lime juice (or lemon juice to the bowl of a food processor. Blend.
– Tahini sauce will first get thick as it emulsifies. Add a little bit of water at a time and blend again until you reach the desired consistency similar to salad dressing. Taste and adjust salt.
– Transfer to a serving bowl and stir in fresh parsley. Serve with warm pita and a side of veggies (more ideas below!)
How to Serve Tahini Sauce?
There are so many ways to enjoy tahini sauce. I use it more often than I can count as part of a big mezze table; to jazz up sandwiches like falafel pitas or chicken shawarama; or to drizzle on top of grilled kabobs, roasted fish, or roasted cauliflower. I also serve it just with a few fresh veggies and some warm pita bread. The possibilities are endless!
Watch the Video for How To Make Tahini Sauce
NEVER MISS A RECIPE! JOIN MY FREE E-MAIL LIST HERE TO RECEIVE NEW RECIPES, WEEKLY MEDITERRANEAN DINNER PLANS, AND MY FREE E-COOKBOOK WITH 15 HEALTHY RECIPES TO TRY!
SHOP OUR ONLINE STORE FOR QUALITY OLIVE OILS, ALL-NATURAL SPICES AND MORE.
Print
Tahini Sauce Recipe (How to Make Tahini)
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 12 tbsp (serves 5) 1x
Description
BEST tahini sauce recipe with lime juice, fresh garlic and parsley! Serve it as part of your mezze table, or use it to jazz up sandwiches like falafel pitas or chicken shawarma; or to drizzle on things like roasted cauliflower. The possibilities are endless!
Ingredients
- 1–2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup tahini paste
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (or lemon juice, if you prefer)
- 1/4 cup cold water, more if needed
- 1 cup fresh chopped parsley leaves, stems removed first (optional)
Instructions
- Using a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves with the salt into a paste (or mince the garlic and season with salt.)
- Add the crushed garlic, tahini paste and lime juice to the bowl of a food processor and blend (it will be thick as it emulsifies.) Add a little bit of water and blend again until you reach the desired consistency.
- Transfer the tahini to a serving bowl, and if you like stir in fresh chopped parsley. Enjoy!
Notes
- Cook’s Tip: Use only a little bit of water at a time until you reach your desired consistency. Generally, tahini sauce should have a runny, salad dressing-like consistency. But, if you prefer tahini more as a dip, simply use less water.
- Cook’s Tip: Double this recipe if you’re serving a large number of people, it will be consumed fast!
- Make Ahead Tip: You can make this tahini sauce ahead of time, refrigerate in a tight-lid container for 2 to 3 days.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Category: Dips and Appetizers
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
*This post first appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2016. It has been recently updated with new information and media for readers’ benefit. Enjoy!
Beautiful dish, full of freshness and zing! The straining of the garlic is genius.
Thank you :).
Mine came out rather bitter despite using mulled tahini. Any suggestions? I added a tiny bit of olive oil, but no luck.
Hard to say. Maybe the tahini was past it’s prime?
Add more lime juice 🙂
That looks delicious!
Thanks, Lisa!
I need to check out
Good recipe for tahini sauce, tastes great with falafel. I did order the suggested tahini and compared it to a Walmart brand. At three times the price, it tasted exactly the same, so I will be using Walmart’s tahini in my future sauce.
Thanks for sharing, Cathy
which one from Walmart did you use?
Amazing recipe! I havent use tahini from shop, i use roasted sesami seeds instead, and it came out just perfect! Thanks
So glad you enjoyed it, Alen!
Followed the recipe and it was sooooo yummy! I’ll be putting that sh*t on everything! ?
Ha! That’s great to hear!!
Thank you, Suzy! We discovered a farm down the road with fresh, local ground lamb! I am using your recipe for lamb burgers, and just made this tahini sauce for them as well. I did not have parsley, being limited with Covid etc…but I have fresh mint from my garden and I had just purchased some fresh spinach. So I chopped and combined them for the sauce and….perfection! Looking forward to dinner.
Love your website, and plan to return often.
Sounds like a great dinner, Jim!!
I add a little ground cumin and cayenne pepper to the tahini sauce. It’s really steps it up.
Great, Kathy! Thank you for sharing
This is delicious! I added some pparikanand cumin to it because I didn’t have any Lesley available. I’m looking forward to trying it as written next time.
Thank you for sharing! So glad you liked it.
I saw a recipe for coconut ice cream call for tahini, would this require sauce or paste and would this way of making work, less the garlic and lime
Hi, Joycelyn. I’m going to guess the recipe is calling for just the tahini paste. You may want to reach out to the original creator and ask to be 100% sure, though.
Loved the flavor! How do you keep the sauce white? Mine came out very green because of the mint and dill.
Hi, Nick. I don’t use mind or dill in my tahini sauce. Just some parsley. That may be why.
stir the fresh herbs in at the end, after your blending is done. then it will be white with a splash of colour.
Hi Suzy!
I made your recipe for falafels a few years ago. It didn’t have onion though but it tasted just like the ones I got in Israel.
I kept the recipe written on paper and now I found your recipe and turns out the same, I even wrote your name on it!
I don’t deep fry anymore, I have an air fryer. Do you think that will work?
I’m so glad I found you!
I will try the air fryer and let you know my results. Toda roba ??
Yes… please let me know! I often get questions about using an air fryer, but have never tried it myself. I’d love your feedback!
i Have a Trader Joe’s organic tahini. It is not white like yours. It’s tan. Is it still basically the same? Will it taste the same? Thanks!
It should work in this recipe, Becky. I don’t know for sure how it will taste, I have not tried TJ Tahini, the one I use is Soom: https://shop.themediterraneandish.com/product-category/tahini/
I’ve made this tahini sauce so many times! Always turns out so good! So simple but so delicious. Thank you thank you thank you! Lots of love from Melbourne, Australia
Wonderful! Thanks so much, Ivy!
Delicious and authentic. Served it with falafels but works great as dip for veggies too. Total keeper!
Thanks, Annette!
Thank you for the great recipes. We do not consume oil. Is there oil in your tahini paste? We want to have tahini without oil, but they all seem to be made with olive oil. Thank you for your guidance.
Hi, Marian! We use Organic Tahini Paste by Soom. Here is the link so you can check out the ingredients: https://shop.themediterraneandish.com/product/organic-tahini-by-soom/
This was AMAZING!! Just like the tahina sauce we used to get back in Middle Easr with grilled chicken! Thanks so much!!
My pleasure! So glad you enjoyed it!
Made this today 🙂 thank you for the recipe …it was delicious….i used it with the chicken gyro recipe
Great! so happy you enjoyed both recipes