Is Tahini Vegan Friendly? All You Need To Know In 2023

Tahini, a common and delicious ingredient in African, Asian, and Middle Eastern cuisine, earns favor for its versatile and smooth texture. Middle Eastern countries use tahini on many meals; its nutty flavor is mild enough to use at almost any mealtime. Is Tahini vegan?

You can serve tahini as a salad dressing, spread on bread, dip, or as a condiment for a meal like falafel. It frequently serves as the foundation for preparing tahini dressing, hummus, and baba ghanoush. Besides its rich flavor, it also includes a nutrient profile that can benefit health. 

One of the most abundant nutrients in tahini is the mineral copper. Copper^[1] is an essential mineral for blood clotting, absorption of iron, energy, and other important bodily functions.

Is tahini good food for a person following a vegan diet? Is Tahini dressing vegan? What about tahini sauce? Read on to find out if tahini is vegan-friendly.   

What Is Tahini Made Of?

Tahini is made of sesame seeds and olive oil. That combination creates a creamy texture that you can use in various ways. Its flavor is similar to nut butter, e.g., almond butter. You can purchase pre-made tahini, add it to your vegan meal delivery, or make it at home. 

Eating healthy food can include using tahini; you can spread it over bread, dip pita bread into it, or mix it with a meal. You can even use it as a vegan meal replacement for sweet baked goods like sweetbreads or cookies.

This swapping out can render a nutty flavor or can be an alternative to nut butter or ingredients in foods that are not vegan.  

Homemade Tahini

To make tahini at home, you need two ingredients, sesame seeds, and olive oil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit; place a layer of sesame seeds on a baking sheet. Roast the sesame seeds in the oven for about 10 minutes until they release their aroma.

Add the sesame seeds to a food processor. Then oil and blend, creating a sesame seed paste known as tahini paste.  

You can make tahini with either unhulled or hulled sesame seeds, and the difference lies in the taste of the tahini. With its hull, the seeds contain more nutrients but can be bitter. You can use unhulled seeds for better flavor but lose the benefits of the nutrients. 

You can use tahini paste on its own as a spread on bread. Other ingredients can be added to make different types of recipes. 

Tahini Sauce

To make a simple tahini sauce to add to meals or soups, you can combine the tahini paste, yogurt, lemon or lime juice, warm water, and salt to taste. You can improve the flavor by adding a garlic powder flavor. 

You can also use this sauce as a salad dressing. Remember to use yogurt from non-dairy plant sources like almonds, soy, coconuts, peas, oats, or cashews.

Hummus 

To incorporate hummus, add Greek yogurt, lemon juice, hot water, garlic powder, garlic salt, and salt, and blend. If you want a plant-based protein hummus to keep it vegan, you can switch out dairy-based yogurt for soy or almond yogurt.

 Once it’s done, adding oil and garnish can give it a nice presentation and flavor. 

Baba Ghanoush

For a more intense and smoky flavored dip similar to hummus, you add similar ingredients as you do with hummus. The ingredients lemon juice, salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and olive oil are added to the creamy tahini dressing with roasted eggplant. Blend all of them to create a creamy dip.  

The use of tahini doesn’t end there. You can also make a chocolate tahini spread, chicken soup, a quinoa salad, tahini brownies, various hummus with spices and vegetables blended in, tahini pudding, cookies, and whatever you can imagine. 

Tahini Nutrition Facts

The small sesame seeds contain small amounts of vitamins and minerals as well as other nutrients. When consumed in adequate amounts, they can help provide some nutrients for overall health. 

The nutrient profile can vary depending on how manufacturers make the tahini, such as using hulled or unhulled seeds. Keeping the seed intact can increase the nutrient potential of the tahini. 

You can also enhance the overall nutrient content by incorporating fruits and veggies as a dip. What is also special about tahini is that it includes monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat.^[2] Added from the oil and the sesame seeds, these are the healthy types of fats.

These healthy types of fats come from the oil and the sesame seed paste. It helps decrease risk factors^[3] related to high blood pressure, increased cholesterol levels, and insulin insensitivity.  

Also, in animal studies,^[4] it has been shown that sesame seeds help improve hyperglycemia, reduce inflammation, improve insulin resistance, and reduce^[5] inflammatory biomarkers. 

However, researchers need to conduct further studies, particularly human studies, to examine the longer-term effects of sesame seed consumption.

One tablespoon,^[6] or about 15 grams of tahini, contains

• Calories 88.8 grams.
• Carbohydrate 3.22 grams.
• Fat 7.95 grams.
• Protein 2.61 grams.
• Fiber 0.705 grams.
• Calcium 21.2 milligrams.
• Iron 0.66 milligrams. 
• Magnesium 14.2 milligrams. 
• Phosphorous 118 milligrams. 
• Potassium 68.8 milligrams. 
• Sodium 5.25 milligrams. 
• Zinc 0.693 milligrams.
• Copper 0.241miligrams. 
• Selenium 5.16 micrograms. 
• Vitamin C 0.63 milligrams. 
• Thiamin 0.238 miligrams. 
• Riboflavin 0.018 milligrams. 
• Niacin 0.846 miligrams. 
• Vitamin B-6 0.022 milligrams. 
• Folate 14.7 micrograms. 
• Vitamin A 10 international units.
• Fatty Acids, total saturated 1.11 grams. 
• Fatty Acids, total monounsaturated 3 grams. 
• Fatty Acids, total polyunsaturated 3.48 grams. 

Final Thought

Tahini is vegan, and as a delicious paste, it is a staple in Middle Eastern cooking and is a great base for any recipe. 

Middle Eastern countries and surrounding Asian countries use this rich and creamy paste or sauce for recipes that include salad dressings, dips, and sauces to add to meals. Vegan tahini has a similar flavor to almond butter.

You can buy it in most Middle Eastern specialty stores or make it homemade. Tahini has nutrients typically found in foods and supplements which can help reduce risk factors to your health and provide the body with a steady influx of essential nutrients.

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