CREAMY TAHINI SAUCE

Thick as cream it meets your mouth with all the largess of a full fat dairy mouth swaddle. Across the Middle East and parts of the Mediterranean its found as commonly on every table as knives and forks here, but we seem to have been slow getting to know one another. Much like cashew cream cheese, it’s a one stop meal maker and takes your half hearted fridge forage to somewhere you could gladly spend some time.

It’s the kind of richess you find beautifully potted in an LA deli, for little more than your weeks wages you can enjoy the pleasure of this poured all over your ‘rainbow bowl’’; you might, in the heat of your all consuming enjoyment, even forget that you now have little money to spare for less immediately gratifying but no less significant indulgences like loo roll.

It’s so very simple to make and really does sit in your fridge like a reliable hound dog, guarding against any potentially deflating mid week lunch fridge forages. Almost all it touches turns to gustatory gold and if you felt like a perfectly plant based alternative to a Caesar dressing to pour all over your salad and greens then you’ve arrived at the right spot.

You can play with the quantities of lemon juice and water depending on your taste buds but here’s a bottom line for you to work off -

1 cup tahini

1.5 cups water

juice of one lemon

big pinch of salt

• Stir or shake it together in a jar - if you want it more runny - add more water but just a tbs at a time, it’s easy to go overboard and make slurry.

• It will look like its curdled and all gone horrible wrong at start of the stir but keep on keeping on and it will come together and emulsify

A million ways in which I love you…..

-        all over my steamed greens

-        as a dunking puddle on top of my dhal

-        inside Vietnamese spring rolls, then dunking said rolls back for a final smooch

-        with hunks of apple  as a dipper

-        In a chopped salad of anything I found in my fridge

-        Drizzled over charred red peppers/ hispi cabbage/pumpkin/anything charred…

-        Drizzled over honey/ coriander seed roast carrots

Its rich and sustaining, full of protein and feels like a delicious kind of fuel for your body. There are many many things you can add along the way like herbs and garlic, or if you wanted to take it in a more Asian direction: ginger, garlic, mirin, chilli, miso. If you do go this way, it might be better to mix it all in a Nutribullet, so that everything is silky and combined.

However, whichever, way you eat it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.