Homemade tahini and taratur sauces

Arabic cuisine would not be the same without these two sauces. They are used in countless recipes as an essential ingredient - hummus doesn't taste the same without tahini - but also as independent sauces to "dip" fish, meat and vegetables.

The tahini sauce is made with sesame seeds while the taratur (sometimes you will find it as tarator) is a kind of thick sauce that also incorporates tahini, so you could say that it "descends" from it. In Arab countries it is possible to find both sauces packaged but they are still so easy to make using common ingredients that it is worth making them at home.

TAHINI SAUCE:

• Sesame seeds (one cup / 200 ml) *
• Water
• Salt

First we roast the seeds if they are not. For this we can use a frying pan or the oven. In a very hot pan, we are stirring them without stopping until they are golden brown, but without exploding. If a seed explodes it indicates that it is time to remove them.

Then we take them to a large mortar and with a quarter of a teaspoon of salt we slowly crush them so that they release the oil. Once we have the base pasta, we add water little by little until we get a homogeneous paste that is somewhat more liquid than mayonnaise but thicker than grated tomato, for example. If you want to dress a salad with it, make it more liquid. If you want to spread on the bread or mix with the chickpea paste to make hummus, you can leave it thick.

TARATUR SAUCE:

If we already have tahini sauce, making taratur is very simple.

• 6 cloves of garlic (we remove the green germ)
• Half a cup of tahini sauce
• Half a cup of lemon juice
• Salt
• Chopped parsley
• Water

In a mortar, crush the garlic gently with a quarter teaspoon of salt. When we get a smooth paste we add the tahini sauce. Mix well and add the lemon juice until obtaining a sauce with the consistency of yogurt. Add the chopped parsley (a tablespoon will be more than enough) and if the consistency is too thick we can reduce it with a few teaspoons of water.

We can use tahini sauce and taratur for many Arabic recipes and taratur especially to accompany fish dishes, fried vegetables or dipping pita bread.