Christoph and Steffi's Food and Travel & Christoph and Steffi's Food and Travel
A jar of pale ivory tahini dressing pouring in a smooth ribbon over roasted vegetables, with a lemon half and sesame seeds beside it
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Sauce LevantineMiddle Eastern VeganVegetarianDairy-freeGluten-free no-cookquickmake-aheadfresh

Tahini lemon dressing

Four ingredients, vegan, and the only dressing here that gets thicker when you add water. That reaction looks like a disaster the first time and is the whole reason it works.

Prep5 min
0 0
Servings8
Cook mode

The standard Levantine tahini sauce, thinned for a salad

Ingredients

Units
Temperature
Servings
8

Dressing

  • 150 g tahini, stirred smooth from the bottom of the jar before weighing
  • 60 ml lemon juice
  • 120 ml cold water, added in stages, and the amount varies with the tahini
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with salt
  • 6 g fine salt
  • 3 g ground cumin, optional, and it points the dressing at roast vegetables (optional)

Dietary labels are a guide, not a guarantee. If you have an allergy, read the ingredients yourself.

Method

  1. Whisk the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt together first. It will seize into a stiff, pale, unpromising paste. This is correct.
  2. Add the water a splash at a time, whisking. It loosens suddenly and turns much paler.
  3. Stop when it pours in a ribbon. Different tahinis need noticeably different amounts of water.

Why it seizes

Tahini is an emulsion of sesame oil and finely ground solids. Adding acid and a little water breaks it, so the solids clump and the mixture stiffens. Keep adding water and it re-emulsifies the other way round, this time as a water-continuous sauce rather than an oil-continuous paste, and it goes pale and smooth.

The colour change is the signal. Ivory means it has flipped; the colour of the jar means it has not.

Notes

  • It thickens in the fridge and needs a splash of water to come back. Expect that rather than treating it as a fault.
  • It keeps 5 days, longer than any dairy dressing here.
  • It is a sauce as much as a dressing. Over roast cauliflower, falafel, grain bowls or grilled fish, and thinner still it is the sauce for masabacha.
  • Bitter tahini cannot be rescued. If the jar tastes bitter neat, more lemon will not fix it, and the dressing will be bitter too.

Ingredient substitutions

  • Lebanese and Palestinian tahini are the benchmark and are smoother and less bitter than most supermarket own-label. It is the only ingredient here, so it is worth the difference.
  • For a creamier, higher-protein version, replace half the water with Greek yogurt, which is no longer vegan but is very good.

Sources consulted

Good with

Sources consulted

From Christoph Mayer

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