Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing
Ditch the store-bought dressing and whip up a batch of homemade Lemon Tahini Dressing. With just a few pantry ingredients, you’ll have a versatile, delicious dressing for salads and roasted veggies.
Meet Your New Favorite Everyday Dressing
In culinary school, the instructors always told me I made GREAT salad dressings, and you know what? I believed them.
Old-school, gloppy, heavy dressings won’t find many friends around here. We prefer them to be light, made with fresh ingredients, and almost always, lots of lemon juice.
This Lemon Tahini Dressing is made using the same guidelines from culinary school. It’s rich and creamy from the tahini while being light enough to use as more than than just a salad dressing. It’s a dip, a sauce, and yes, a really, really good dressing.
Why You’ll Love This Lemon Tahini Dressing Recipe
- It can be used in a variety of ways, making it a go-to condiment to keep in the fridge. Not only is it a great salad dressing, but it makes a nice sauce for grilled vegetables, spread for sandwiches, or dip!
- Naturally vegan and gluten free, so it’s a great choice for those with dietary restrictions.
- It lasts up to a week in the fridge, meaning you can making a big batch and use it for several meals.
What Is Tahini?
The easiest way to understand tahini is that it’s just like peanut butter, except that instead of peanuts, it’s made with ground sesame seeds.
Check the label of tahini before purchasing. The only ingredient should be ground sesame seeds!
Tahini is common in Mediterranean and North African cuisine. It’s often served by itself as a dip or sauce (my local Lebanese restaurant serves it as the sauce for falafel). It’s also an important ingredient in dishes such as hummus and baba ghanoush.
Lemon Tahini Dressing Ingredients
A full recipe card, including exact ingredient amounts, appears at the bottom of this post.
- tahini – the creamy sesame paste that forms the base of the dressing.
- lemon juice – nice and bright to balance the richness of the tahini. Add a bit of lemon zest as well if you’d like it extra lemony.
- Dijon mustard – adds just a little of heat.
- garlic – adds a punch of flavor!
- paprika – adds a subtle warmth and color. Try smoked paprika for extra depth!
- salt and pepper – seasoning is essential to a great dressing.
- olive oil – thins the dressing and adds richness.
How To Make Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing
- WHISK. In a bowl, stir together the tahini, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika.
- OIL. Gradually add the olive oil, while whisking, until it’s fully incorporated. The dressing may look separated at this point – that’s OK!
- WATER. Gradually add warm water, while whisking, until the dressing is a smooth consistency.
Tahini Lemon Dressing Home Chef Tips
- The quality of your tahini really matters, and not all brands taste the same. You may need to try a few brands to find your favorite. The flavor should be nutty, creamy, and not overly bitter. We like Soom brand a lot.
- Adjust the flavor to your preferences. You can add a sweetener like maple syrup or honey, add a splash of apple cider vinegar to make it more acidic, or a pinch of cayenne to make it spicy.
- If you have time, let your tahini dressing rest in the fridge for 1 hour before serving to give the flavors time to meld.
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How To Use This Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing Recipe
Once you make a batch, you’ll soon discover that there is hardly anything this dressing is NOT good on.
One of our favorite weeknight side dishes is just arugula, sliced cucumbers, and some Quick Pickled Red Onion, with some lemon and tahini dressing drizzled over everything. Sometimes we’ll add cooked quinoa or chickpeas for extra fiber.
But it goes so far beyond that, too. Grilled chicken kabobs? They get a drizzle of this. Falafel? We dunk them right into this dressing. Grilled zucchini? Roasted carrots or sweet potatoes? A Green Bean Side Dish? Yes, yes, yes.
Lemon And Tahini Dressing Storage
Keep this tahini lemon dressing in a mason jar or other airtight container in your fridge for up to one week (if it lasts that long!).
Lemon Tahini Dressing FAQs
Because the only ingredient in tahini should be ground sesame seeds, it is absolutely vegan.
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Lemon Tahini Dressing Recipe
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons tahini
- 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon paprika
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons warm water
Instructions
- In small bowl, whisk together tahini, lemon juice, mustard, garlic, salt, pepper and paprika.
- Gradually add olive oil, while whisking, until all oil is fully incorporated. Dressing may look separated at this point – that's OK.
- Gradually add warm water, while whisking, until all water is fully incorporated and dressing is smooth.
- Dressing can be stored in a jar or other airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Makes about 2/3 cup.
Love this. I don’t buy dressings or vinaigrettes! I love making them myself to pair with salads – I mean, it’s so smart and so much fun. I have little experience with tahini, except for hummus I think, so I wanted to print this. Happy New Year!
I hope you get a chance to try this dressing, Mimi!
No problem getting me to ditch store-bought salad dressings: I did that years ago. I usually put olive oil and balsamic vinegar on my salads (I grew up on a seasoned oil/vinegar dressing), and my husband just does straight balsamic vinegar. I can see where this dressing would be very nice on roasted veggies. Ooh! Just realized that maybe I should make this dressing for the steak salad with roasted veggies that’s on my menu for this week, instead of the usual with red wine vinegar… Thanks for a great idea (except for the fact that I’ll have to stir up a new can of tahini…). 🙂
Stirring up a new can of tahini is truly like Steps 1-9 of this recipe. LOL!