WHAT I DO WITH
WORDS HARRIET BOUCHER | IMAGES ASHLEE DECAIRES
There’s a good chance that if you’ve made hummus at home before, you have a jar of tahini lying around in the fridge. But have you thought of how else to use it? Tahini is a smooth paste made from grinding hulled and lightly toasted sesame seeds. The earliest mentions of this ancient paste date back to 3500BC! It is hugely popular in the Middle Eastern food scene and is also widely used in Israeli, Chinese, Korean, Japanese and African cuisines. PAGE 70 | WWW.NOURISHMAGAZINE.CO.NZ
It would be rude not to mention the importance of tahini in hummus. Creamy, nutty and rich, hummus would be bland without tahini. Andre Da Silvera from Elizabeth Café is in love with his beetroot hummus – vibrant, sweet and smooth, thanks to tahini. Along with smoothness and depth of flavour, tahini adds a range of vitamins and minerals to the already nutritious dip. Tahini has the same effect in baba ganoush, a smoky eggplant dip. Lisa Quarrie from Hayes Common in Hamilton told me that “many people mistakenly add oil for creaminess, but it’s the tahini that will give you that and keep your dips light”.
