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.
- 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
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Tahini Sauce Recipe (How to Make Tahini)
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- 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
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup tahini paste
- ½ cup freshly squeezed lime juice (or lemon juice, if you prefer)
- ¼ 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.
- Category: Dips and Appetizers
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Keywords: Tahini, Tahini Sauce, How to Make Tahini Sauce
*This post first appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2016. It has been recently updated with new information and media for readers' benefit. Enjoy!
Any tips on how to make this sauce without a food processor? 40 Year old processor died last month and I have no plans to replace it at this point but I would really like to make this sauce.
Hi, Beth! I blender would also work.
Simple and Perfect!!
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Thanks, Teresa!
Is it possible to freeze tahini sauce?
Hello! I have not tried freezing this particular recipe, but it could work. The only issue is that the texture may be affected… it can separate. If you give it a go, I'd love to hear how it worked out!
Delicious. I feel like the chopped parsley really makes the difference.
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This Tahini Sauce Recipe reminds me of what I got overseas from the street vendors. It is Awesome. Put it on my Beef Shawarma. This is the best Mediterrnean Diet Website I have found. I have been making a bunch of your recipe's. I also follow you on FB and Instagram. Keep up the great work!!!!!
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i saw a few tahini sauce recipes calling for raw tahini paste...do you think raw or roasted makes a difference?
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Hi there, the tahini I use daily is Soom https://shop.themediterraneandish.com/product/organic-tahini-by-soom/ which is from 100% roasted and pressed organic Ethiopian White Humera sesame seeds. I love how nutty and rich this tahini is. Others might prefer tahini from raw sesame seeds, though, and that is fine to use here.
There is an error in the yield for your tahini recipe. You have posted 12 Tbsp (5 servings), Well, the lime juice and water alone equal 12 Tbsps, so when you add in 3/4 cup tahini, there will be much more..
Thank you for mentioning, Michael. We'll take a look.
What a FABULOuS website !!! Having lived in the ME, have been eating this kind of food for decades and this website expands all previous experience, plus Suzy adds charm+. THANK YOU !
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Awww! Thank you, Lynne!
Have only made this absolutely rich and creamy tahini sauce and yummy falafels. Look forward to making more recipes from Suzy. I'm of the "waste not want not" culture so I zested the lemons used for the juice and added the zest to the tahini and which gave it an even fresher and more lemony flavor. Could cut back on the juice if it's too much. Worth a try!
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Thanks for sharing, Lucy!
Easy. So delicious. Makes me WANT to eat veggies--or literally anything else.
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Yay! 🙂
Beautiful dish, full of freshness and zing! The straining of the garlic is genius.
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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
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So glad you enjoyed it, Alen!
Followed the recipe and it was sooooo yummy! I'll be putting that sh*t on everything! ?
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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.
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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.
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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.