How to Make Tahini Paste, or Sesame Seed Butter (And a Recipe for Spiced Tahini-Yogurt Dressing)

From midEATS

I am willing to bet that there is no authentic Middle Eastern kitchen that doesn’t stock tahini paste. There’s just no way to go without it, especially if you’re having a seafood meal. Tahini sauce — made from tahini paste mixed with water, lemon juice, spices, garlic and sometimes, yogurt — has become a staple even in a lot of Western homes. What can tahini dressing not get drizzled on? At least all these make the cut: salads, roasted vegetables, stuffed vegetables, rice or quinoa, falafel, shawerma, seafood (and I’m probably missing lots more). The best thing about tahini is the smooth, nutty but mild taste, followed by the fact that it pairs well with pretty much any savory food, and certain sweet ones as well (halawa, anyone?). If you can get your hands on tahini made with organic sesame seeds, it’s a quite nutritious dressing to boot!

The origin of sesame seeds (and some benefits to eating them)

Before I dive into my post on how to make homemade tahini, I’d like to share a couple of cool facts I stumbled upon when researching sesame seeds (yeah, that’s really what I like to do in my spare time):

• It’s old! Ancient 4000-year-old Babylonian records mention sesame, and it made the cut in the list of medicinal drugs kept by the ancient Egyptians (oh, and I found it pretty cool that they called it sesemt). In fact, “sesame seed is considered to be the oldest oilseed crop known to man, domesticated well over 5000 years ago” (Wikipedia).
• Sesame is native to sub-saharan Africa and India, where it is cultivated in the largest quantities to this day.
• Sesame has one of the highest oil contents of any seed. The oil is considered quite stable as long as it is expeller pressed and stored properly.

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