Tahini is an essential ingredient in dishes such as humous and falafel, and can be expensive to buy ready made. A simple recipe for tahini made with toasted sesame seeds.
Tahini, or sesame seed paste, may be made of hulled or whole sesame seeds. This recipe for home made tahini, using a food processor with metal blades, uses whole sesame seeds which is more nutritious, but it does have a slightly stronger taste than tahini made with hulled seeds. The texture may also be slightly coarser than store bought tahni, but it has the same delicious flavor, and may be far cheaper!
When you make your own tahini, you are on your way to making tasty homemade homous and falafel which are delicious and economical.
Sesame seeds are rich in minerals such as calcium, zinc and manganese. They also contain useful quantities of some B group vitamins including thiamin and B6, and are a useful source of vegetable protein. Sesame seeds are a useful addition to your diet, particularly if you eat little or no meat. It is said that the nutrients of sesame are more easily absorbed when the seeds are ground, as is the case in tahini.
Ingredients
It is worth making tahini in bulk to reduce waste as the sticky paste is difficult to empty cleanly from your food processor. This is the proportion of oil to sesame seeds to use, increase the quantities to suit your needs
¼ cup vegetable oil to 1 cup sesame seeds
Method
Preheat your oven to 340°F (170° C).
- Spread your sesame seeds on a roasting tray, and toast in the oven for 15 minutes, stirring regularly to toast evenly. Do not allow to brown as this impairs the flavor.
- Remove the sesame seeds from the oven and allow to cool briefly.
- Put the toasted sesame seeds in your food processor, with metal blades fitted, and add half the oil.
- Process the mixture on a high setting for a minute, stopping to clean the sides of the food processor with a spatula from time to time.
- Add the rest of the oil, and continue to process the seeds to a paste, again cleaning the sides regularly and ensuring that the paste still covers the blades. Ensure that all the mix is blended to a paste. This can be a somewhat messy process but stick with it. The results will be worth it!
- When the mixture is evenly smooth, and further processing does not further refine the texture, transfer your tahini to a tight fitting glass jar using a flexible spatula, if you have one, to reduce waste.
Tahini may be kept in the refrigerator for many weeks in a well sealed jar.
Home made tahini is just one idea on how to save money on food while eating well.
