Making Fresh Tahini Paste from Roasted Sesame Seeds

Tahini paste is a very versatile food and is used in a variety of dishes including hummus, used as sandwich spreads and in many soups. It is commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking. It is commonly served in sauces in Middle Eastern restaurants. To buy tahini in the grocery store can be quite expensive. Making your own tahini can be very cost effective. Sesame seeds can be bought in bulk in many grocery chains, Middle Eastern stores, Indian Stores, or online. You can check out my article on making Hummus.

By making your own tahini, you can control the freshness of the tahini. You can also reduce the roasting time to change the bitterness of the tahini (get it just the way you like it). Tahini can be made with white or black sesame seeds. You can make as much or little as you need, since the tahini will store in the refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.


What you need:
3-4 cups of sesame seeds
¼ -1/2 cup of olive oil
Baking sheets

If your sesame seeds are not already roasted, spread the sesame seeds out on a baking pan (for 4 cups of sesame seeds – two – 8 by 11 inch cake pans will work). Preheat oven to 350°F, place pans in oven for 10 minutes to lightly roast the sesame seed. Stir the seeds once at about 5 minutes and stir again when removed from the oven.

Pour the toasted sesame seeds into a high speed blender, pour in the ¼ cup olive oil and blend on high. Do not try this with your average blender. I use a Blendtec, but any very powerful blender should work. You might have to adjust the amount of olive oil.

• Can be spread on bread like peanut butter (although it doesn’t taste like peanut butter).
• Also great on vegetarian sandwiches as well as your cold cut sandwiches.
• Used in soups as a soup base
• Even used in sweet desserts
• Is becoming more common in European cuisine and found more often in American restaurants as well.