Easy Tahini (Better than Store-Bought) (2024)

Homemade tahini is so easy to make. Our quick recipe makes tahini that tastes much better than anything you can buy at the store.

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Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds. It is a staple in many cuisines, especially in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It’s vegan, gluten-free, tastes nutty, and is simple to make.

Store-bought jars of tahini can be expensive, and our homemade tahini tastes better. Use tahini to make hummus, salad dressings, sauces, and more!

You Only Need THREE Ingredients to Make Tahini

• Sesame seeds— We use hulled seeds (pictured below on the left) and toast them in a dry skillet to bring out their natural nuttiness.
• Oil— To help the tahini become a creamy smooth paste, we add a few tablespoons of neutral-flavored oil. Try avocado, extra-virgin, olive, vegetable, and grape seed oil. Sesame oil (not toasted sesame oil) also works.
• Saltis optional, but I always use it. It just makes the tahini taste better.

You can also make tahini with sprouted and black sesame seeds. Unhulled sesame seeds, pictured below on the right, are much darker and still have their hull or outer shell intact. Tahini made from unhulled sesame seeds tastes more bitter and isn’t as smooth as when made from hulled seeds.

How to Make Tahini, You’ve Got This!

Tahini is very, very simple to make. If you have ever made nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter, it is basically the same process: Grind sesame seeds in a food processor with a bit of oil until smooth.

Step 1: Toast the sesame seeds.I love toasting the sesame seeds before making tahini. It tastes better. I toast them in a dry skillet on the stovetop. Sesame seeds are tiny and can burn quickly. Toast them over medium-low heat, stirring often, until they take on a light golden color.

Step 2: Process the sesame seeds until crumbly.Throw the toasted sesame seeds into the bowl of a food processor, shut the lid, and then process until a crumbly paste begins to form. We have a 10-cup Magimix food processor. It is powerful, which helps when making tahini. Most food processors on the market today will do the trick. Blenders are hit and miss — read through our comment section for tips from other readers who used a blender to make this recipe.

Step 3: Add oil and process into a smooth cream.We add a few tablespoons of neutral-flavored oil to help the tahini turn into an extra smooth, drippy paste. You can eliminate some of the oil if you would like, but the tahini won’t be as smooth or pourable. We’ve found that 3 to 4 tablespoons of oil does the trick to reach a similar consistency as store-bought.

After more processing, a few stops to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl, and a little more processing after that, the tahini is done. Extra smooth and ready to use in whatever recipe you like.

Waysto Use Tahini

Arguably, the most well-known way to use tahini is when making hummus. Even though we are hummus lovers, we use tahini in our kitchen in many other ways. Here’s a list of suggestions for how to use tahini other than in hummus.

• Make baba ganoush, an amazing roasted eggplant dip that may beat out hummus for our favorite dip.
• Make your own tahini salad dressing.
• I love this kale, white bean, and walnut salad with tahini.
• Turn it into a creamy sauce like this dreamy tahini sauce, which is delicious when drizzled over vegetables and meats. I love it over honey-roasted carrots and roasted asparagus drizzled over these chicken lettuce wraps.
• Serve tahini next to falafel — try our easy falafel recipe.
• Use it in dessert. Seriously. Drizzle over ice cream or use it instead of peanut butter or butter in your favorite cookies.

Once you have tahini in your fridge (it lasts over a month), we bet you will find yourself adding it to a variety of dishes without direction from us!

Can I use a Blender?

Since posting the recipe, quite a few of our readers have asked whether or not a blender will work in place of a food processor when making tahini. I prefer using my food processor, but if you have a high-powered blender, you should be able to use it to make tahini. When you do, scrape down the sides and bottom of the blender to incorporate all the seeds.

Tahini Storing Tips

Keep tahini in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for a month. You might find that it separates like natural peanut butter after some time in the fridge. All you need to do to fix this is stir it well before using it.

Easy Tahini (Better than Store-Bought)

Making tahini at home is easy and cheaper than buying from the store. We recommend looking for sesame seeds in bulk bins or at International, Asian, and Middle Eastern markets for the best deals. While tahini can be made from unhulled, sprouted, and hulled sesame seeds, we prefer hulled seeds for tahini. Tahini can be kept in the refrigerator for a month.

Makes approximately 1/2 Cup

Nutrition Per Serving Serving Size 1 tablespoon / Calories 136 / Protein 3 g / Carbohydrate 5 g / Dietary Fiber 3 g / Total Sugars 0 g / Total Fat 12 g / Saturated Fat 2 g / Cholesterol 0 mg

AUTHOR: Adam and Joanne Gallagher