I see you looking skeptical over there. Can tahini sauce really be “the best”? Isn’t it all the same? Au contraire, my friend! This tahini sauce is the best I have ever encountered.
This tahini sauce is rich, creamy, perfectly smooth, nutty and tangy. Its subtle garlic flavor enhances the toasted sesame flavor, rather than overwhelms or detracts.
This tahini sauce adds irresistible creaminess and tang to anything it touches, whether that be fresh or roasted vegetables, salad, falafel or pita bread.
When I set out to make tahini sauce, I read everything I could about the subject, like I do. Chef Michael Solomonov gave me some clues, via Serious Eats. (I don’t know the guy, but his techniques also guided my hummus recipe, which has been a smashing success.)
Are you ready to over-analyze tahini sauce with me? Hope so.
How to Make the Best Tahini Sauce
First, marinate the garlic in lemon juice for 10 minutes. The acidity of the lemon juice prevents the garlic from becoming too harsh (here’s why). This way, your lemon juice is infused with delicious, mellow garlic flavor.
Strain the garlic out of the lemon juice. I know, this sounds like extra work, but it’s worth it (I tried both strained and non-strained versions). This step ensures perfectly smooth tahini sauce and prevents the garlic flavor from stealing the show after all.
Time saver: If you’re in a hurry, skip the garlic altogether and whisk in the lemon juice during the following step.
Whisk in tahini, salt and cumin. You can’t make tahini sauce without tahini, and the salt and cumin enhance the other flavors.
Whisk in ice water until the mixture is gloriously smooth and creamy. When you add the tahini to the bowl, it will seize up. It loosens with the addition of sufficient amounts of ice water. It’s a really cool transformation, just wait!
Adjust to taste, if necessary. Add more water for a thinner consistency, more salt for more overall flavor, and/or more lemon juice for more tang. Your tahini sauce is good to go!
Watch How to Make Tahini Sauce
Uses for Tahini Sauce
Generally speaking, tahini sauce complements other Middle Eastern recipe components and flavors. Use it as a dip or a sauce. It’s also lovely with vegetables and other fresh, herbed flavors. Tahini sauce goes well with the following:
- Falafel
- Fresh vegetables
- Roasted vegetables
- Flat bread or toasted pita wedges
- Whole grains, such as farro
- Used as salad dressing (thinned with water as necessary)
- Served as an appetizer with hummus and/or baba ganoush
The Best Tahini for Tahini Sauce
The best tahini comes from Ethiopia. Solomonov recommends Soom Foods, which I bought on Amazon (affiliate link). It’s delicious and I can see why it’s his favorite.
My other go-to? Trader Joe’s organic tahini, which is made from Ethiopian sesame seeds like Soom’s. Whole Foods 365 used to be my go-to, but I encountered a few bad jars that tasted so bad, I’m afraid to try again.
Variations on Tahini Sauce
If you want to change up your traditional tahini sauce, just add herbs! You can whisk in chopped fresh, leafy herbs, such as fresh parsley, cilantro, dill, or basil. If you would like more of a uniformly green sauce, just blend the herbs with the tahini sauce in a food processor or blender. See recipe note for more details.
Please let me know how your tahini sauce turns out in the comments! I bet you come up with some more delicious variations and I’m looking forward to hearing about them.
Best Tahini Sauce
- Author:
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Learn how to make ultra creamy tahini sauce! The best tahini sauce is ultra creamy, deliciously tangy and irresistible. This recipe is easy to make, too. You’ll just need a whisk! Recipe yields 1 to 1 ¼ cup; double if desired.
Ingredients
- 4 medium-to-large cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup tahini
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- Pinch of ground cumin
- 6 tablespoons ice water, more as needed
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the garlic and lemon juice. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes, to give the garlic time to infuse the lemon juice with flavor.
- Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into another medium bowl. Press the garlic solids with a spatula to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the garlic.
- Add the tahini, salt and cumin to the bowl. Whisk until the mixture is thoroughly blended.
- Add water 2 tablespoons at a time, whisking after each addition until smooth. (It may seize up, don’t worry.) After about 6 tablespoons, you will have a perfectly creamy and smooth, light-colored tahini sauce.
- If desired, thin with additional water for a more drizzly sauce. Adjust if necessary—if you’d like more tang, add more lemon, or for more overall flavor, add another pinch of salt. Your tahini sauce is ready to serve!
Notes
Recipe adapted from Michael Solomonov’s cookbook, Zahav, via Epicurious.
Shortcut option: Simply skip the garlic altogether and stir the lemon juice in with the other ingredients in step 3. You’ll end up with a great, basic, tangy tahini sauce this way.
Storage suggestions: This tahini sauce keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 1 week. The tahini may thicken with time; whisk in additional cold water as necessary to thin. Solomonov suggests that the tahini sauce can also be frozen for up to 1 month.
Herbed tahini sauce: Whisk ¼ cup (or more, to taste) chopped fresh, leafy herbs into the tahini sauce. Great options include fresh parsley, basil, dill and/or cilantro. If you would like a well-blended green sauce, simply blend the tahini sauce and herbs together in a food processor or blender.
Food processor option: (This makes more sense if you’re doubling the recipe and/or making the blended herbed sauce option.) You can actually toss unpeeled garlic cloves into the food processor, blitz until finely chopped, add the lemon juice, and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then strain the garlic out of the mixture in a strainer as described, and return the garlicky lemon juice to the food processor. Add the tahini, herbs (if using), salt and cumin and blend until creamy. Thin with cold water, added 2 tablespoons at a time, until you have a perfectly smooth sauce.
Vegetable enthusiast. Dog lover. I'm probably making a big mess in my Kansas City kitchen right now. 
Debbie Harbatkin
Way too salty. Wound up mixing in 3 tbs. sour cream and another tbs. Of tahini to dilute the saltiness. Leave out the sea salt and it will be delicious!
★★★
Kate
HI Debbie, I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I appreciate your feedback.
Jennifer
It’s interesting that you found it too salty at only 1/4 tsp. Sea salt has that same effect on me, and sometimes table salt. This is good to know.
Matt
Very quick, very easy, very tasty. I changed a couple things to suit my taste, but at it’s core this recipe is solid. I didn’t add salt, but I thinned the sauce with a couple shakes of tamari which seasoned it and gave it some depth. I also added a pinch of sumac and a little hot curry powder.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Matt!
Iswari
I love lemon, but found this too tart. I added more tahini, water, and salt to balance it.
★★
Kate
I’m sorry you didn’t love it. I appreciate your feedback.
NR in NYC
Everything you make is fantastic, Kate!! Thank you. I’ve tried to make tahini sauce in the past, and the garlic flavor was always overpowering. Your method in this recipe is perfect. I made the sauce exactly as you wrote it here – and I’m going to continue to do so for a long time!
Kate
You are kind! Thank you for your comment.
Chandler
Added roasted red pepper, and now use the tahini first before chickpeas for hummus
★★★★★
Mark
What a great sauce this is! I mean GOOD! Tahini, lemon, and garlic – you’re dealing with 3 major league flavor players here, each with strong personalities, but the ice water chills ’em all out and let’s them play together like a single unit. It’s a home run, a real winner, and the salt and cumin are the laurels decorating their victory. I finally got around to making my own falafel, and falafel balls without tahini sauce is…not worth mentioning. So stoked to find this excellent recipe! This wil go into my arsenal of essential sauces, right up there with bechamel, bearnaise, barbeque and creme Anglaise!
★★★★★
April
Best tahini sauce by far! Took this to a family dinner where it was raved about and your recipe shared! I always have fresh herbs on hand and makes a lovely addition to this sauce.
★★★★★
Fernanda
I look for recipes online every single day and this is the first time ever that I’m writing a review. I just had to.
Before trying this recipe I tried 2 others that were also highly rated and none of them was really good. But this one is AMAZING.
Super tasty and easy. Highly recommend!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you love it, Fernanda! I appreciate your review.
Aa
The texture is amazing!!
★★★★★
Kate
Great to hear, A!
Hediye Bromage
I am only going to add on, no comments on the recipe:
Tahin or Tahini goes very well with grilled fish. I make it all the time and it is a wonderful substitute for carbs like potatoes or rice.
Karen
Do I need to refrigerate leftovers?
★★★★★
Kate
Yes, you will want to store in the refrigerator.
Alice
Yummy and super easy! I went a little lighter on the cumin and threw in a little smoked paprika for fun! Served on a quinoa and spinach salad with roasted veggies and garbanzo beans. I love the idea of infusing the lemon juice with garlic. Gave it a nice garlic flavor without being over the top.
★★★★★
Faye
Oh this was perfect. I used it with roasted potatoes and broccoli.
★★★★★
Jan
This tahini sauce recipe saved the evening! My husband & I picked up some falafel burgers for takeout on a Saturday night. When we got home, we discovered that although they came with the lettuce, tomato, and onion, the tahini sauce was missing, leaving us with two dry burgers. I called the restaurant and was told they forgot to mention they were out of tahini sauce. Kind of a key ingredient to forget to mention. I had a container of tahini in my fridge, so I grabbed my computer in search of a tahini sauce recipe. Yours was the first to pop up, and because I’ve made many of your recipes (and have your cookbook), I knew it would be good. I made the shortcut version to save time, but it was oh, so delicious. I literally poured it on. I will be trying your falafel recipe in the future! Thanks, Kate!
Kate
That’s not a great surprise! I’m glad you made this recipe and enjoyed it, Jan.
Jenn
Used this sauce on a vegetable chicken mix I made, was so good! I used normal table salt and a pinch of MSG. It was perfectly salty for me.
Jeanene
This really is the best tahini sauce I’ve ever made. I love the method of flavoring it with garlic but straining it out. I worried there wouldn’t be enough garlic flavor (which I think is essential in tahini sauce!) but there absolutely was. It worked like a charm. Super easy and so delicious.
★★★★★
Kate
Great to hear, Jeanene! I appreciate your review.
Jeanene
This really is the best tahini sauce recipe! I love the technique of flavoring it with garlic but straining out the garlic. It really works well. Garlic is an essential flavor in tahini sauce for me but this method ensures a lovely smooth texture AND plenty of garlic flavor. Perfect! Highly recommend.
estelle
had to make a few adjustments because i, like a few other commenters, found this too tart. with a little more water and some maple syrup, it was great for me! went really great with your falafel recipe.
★★★
Clorinda
I tried this for the first time and it was a hit !!!!!!!! Everyone loved it. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Roni
I rarely make a recipe as written but I figured I’d start as-is and adjust as needed. I adjusted nothing. It IS the best tahini sauce I’ve made or tried. I blended in a bullet and could’ve eaten it all with a spoon. Drizzled it over harissa chicken lettuce wraps for a sublime mid-week supper.
★★★★★
Kate
Great to hear you enjoyed it, Roni! I appreciate your review.
Isabella
SUPER salty! Way too intense. I put 1/4 tsp of salt (1/2 tsp listed in recipe), and it was already oversalted to my family’s taste. It was also way too intense and you could use maybe a teaspoon of it on something flavorless. I made hummus out of it, which turned out great, so I’m glad I didn’t waste these ingredients. But, this is not a good recipe at all :(.
★
Kate
I’m sorry you didn’t love this. I appreciate your feedback, Isabella.
John Rhoe
Have not made this YET. Oh, I will. The author impressed me.
★★★★★
Kirsten
This is absolutely my favorite recipe for tahini sauce. I use unsalted tahini so I feel the half teaspoon is just right. Thanks for such a great recipe!
★★★★★
Kate
You’re welcome, Kirsten!
KayDubb
WOW!!! I have made a lot of Tahini sauces and dressings, not sure why I haven’t done this one (especially since I’m a huge C + K fan). It is truly the best tahini sauce I’ve ever made, the garlic-infused lemon juice makes all the difference. I did dial back on the salt a bit based on personal preference. Thanks for another great recipe.
★★★★★
Kate
I’m glad you loved it, Kay!
Carol Coven Grannick
Yum! Making it away from home with fewer familiar utensils, etc. and still delicious!
★★★★★
Kate
I’m happy you enjoyed it, Carol!
Jennifer
Hi Cookie & Kate:
I just discovered your recipe on my lunch break while eating my “Green Goddess” vegan power bowl from the grocery freezer. It’s great but since I live in a rural area, the closest stores don’t carry it regularly.
And I want to try it on my own to save money and vary the veggies, so I searched for a tahini sauce recipe. I’m glad that I found yours because of how it mitigates the fresh garlic’s strength.
My family had a dog named Cookie when I was a kid. Very sweet. She looked much like a Collie with black hair and a white chest, though her snout wasn’t quite as long. When I see “Cookie” as a name or a dog who looks like her I feel happy.
Thanks for the recipe!