But it happens that tahini paste has a much wider use than this in one of my favorite sweets. As a matter of fact, some of the best-known meals with tahini are certainly hummus and baba ganoush.
Anyway, I wanted to make some hummus recently, and I was shocked by the extremely high price of tahini paste near me. I mean, it has gone through the roof! So, I decided to make some on my own. After all, it's a simple paste of roasted sesame seeds and oil. A delicious one! Of course, it cost me a few times less than the store-bought version, and the preparation was a piece of cake and took no more than 15 minutes!
I made the paste a bit thicker so that I can use it as spread, but you can made it runnier if you want. Keep in mind that you can add some more oil later, if needed. You will need:
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- First, you need to roast the sesame seeds. Be careful not to burn them as paste will have an unpleasantly bitter flavor later.
Arrange the sesame seeds in a pan in thin layer. Dry roast them over low heat, constantly stirring, until they get a very light brown color and you start feeling some nutty aroma. Do not over-roast or burn them! - Once you remove the pan from fire, put the seeds in another dish to stop the cooking/roasting process, as sesame can burn with just being in the hot pan, even if it's not on the stove.
This is how they should look before and after the roasting:
3. Put roasted sesame seeds in a blender and run it to make crumbly mixture without whole seeds left.
It should look something like this:
So, add oil, a tablespoon at a time while mixing the ingredients into the blender. You may need to stop and scrape the sides. Add as much oil as you want until you get the desired consistency.
As mentioned above, you can use it as a spread, or as an ingredient for other meals: hummus, baba ganoush, sauces, desserts...