Tahini sauce
The beliefTahini sauce is thought of as a restaurant thing, expected to come out bitter or stiff as a rock at home.
The truthTahini does not thin with water: it seizes first and then loosens. Adding the water little by little is the whole thing.
How to make it
What you need
- 150 g tahini
- 120–150 ml iced water
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- Half a teaspoon of salt
- A pinch of cumin
How the engine read this list (6 lines)
| 150 g | Tahini | tahini |
| 135 g | Iced water | water |
| 40 g | Lemon | lemon |
| 5 g | Garlic | garlic |
| 3 g | Salt | salt |
| 0 g | Cumin | cumin |
An empty weight means that line could not be turned into grams — either the amount is open ("to taste") or the ingredient has no record here. Neither enters the sum as zero; they do not enter it at all.
Whisk the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt together in a bowl. It will seize; do not panic, this is the expected stage.
Add the iced water a spoonful at a time, still whisking. The first spoonfuls make it stiffer still.
At some point it suddenly loosens, turns pale and flows. That is the phase change.
Use the rest of the water to set the consistency: pourable as a sauce, thick enough to hold on a spoon as a meze.
Scatter the cumin over and taste. Bitter, a little more lemon; flat, more salt.
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