Meet the Product: Black Sesame Tahini, How to Use It

June 4, 2025

Black sesame seeds

Black sesame tahini is a dark, glossy paste with a bold, nutty flavour. This guide is the practical one: how to stir it, thin it, store it, and cook with it in savoury dishes, where its slightly bitter, earthy edge is a real asset rather than something to hide.

Stirring: the first job

Open a jar and you will usually find a layer of oil on top. Our tahini is made from 100% organic whole black sesame seeds, kept raw and stone-ground at low temperature, with nothing added to hold the oil in suspension. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency explains the same effect in natural peanut butter: with no added stabilisers, the oils separate and rise, and this is completely natural and poses no health risk. The remedy is simply to stir the oil back in, or to store the jar upside down for a while and then turn it the right way up.

A few practical habits help:

Use a thin, sturdy knife or a long spoon and work from the bottom of the jar upwards, so the thick paste at the base is lifted into the oil.
Stir slowly and do not fill the jar to the brim before you start.
Once it is smooth, put the lid back on tightly and keep stirring each time you use it; a little at the surface is normal.

Thinning it: do not panic

For dressings, tahini is loosened with water or lemon juice. It can look as though it is going wrong at first. A well-known tahini sauce recipe says the mixture may thicken dramatically or look as if it is seizing, which is completely normal; keep adding water bit by bit until the sauce is smooth, creamy and thick. The trick is patience: add liquid a tablespoon at a time and whisk after each addition.

Recipe: black sesame dressing

Whisk 2 tbsp black sesame tahini with 1 tbsp tamari, 1 tbsp rice vinegar and 1 tsp maple syrup, loosening with a splash of water. Toss with blanched spinach or green beans.

This sits close to the Japanese spinach dish goma-ae, where ground, freshly toasted sesame is mixed with soy sauce and sugar. Tahini does the grinding for you, and the vinegar adds a sharpness that suits black sesame's earthiness.

Black sesame tahini on a spoon

Savoury ways to use it

Roasted vegetable sauce. Blend with lemon juice, garlic and water and spoon over roasted aubergine or cauliflower. This is the idea behind taratoor, which Britannica describes as tahini mixed with garlic, lemon juice and salt and thinned with water.
Black hummus. Britannica notes that hummus bi tahini is simply taratoor mixed with ground chickpeas, so swapping in black tahini gives a dark, earthy version.
Baba ghanoush. The same source describes baba ghanoush as mashed roast aubergine with taratoor and onions. Black tahini makes it darker and a touch stronger.
Noodle sauce. Whisk with soy sauce or tamari, rice vinegar and a little water, then toss through cold or warm noodles.
Miso mix. Our top tip is to stir a spoonful into your miso. Britannica describes miso as a fermented paste of soybeans, a grain, salt and koji mould, and notes that it is high in sodium, so taste before you add any salt.
Contrast topping. Drizzle over yoghurt, tofu or white hummus for a striking dark swirl.

Heat

We suggest adding tahini to sauces at the end of cooking, off the heat, rather than heating it directly in a pan. That keeps the flavour clean and avoids catching the paste on the base of the pan.

Pairings

The earthiness of black sesame works well with cocoa, coffee, ginger, miso and citrus. It also sits comfortably in both Middle Eastern and Asian cooking. Writers on Asian cooking describe black sesame in Japanese furikake seasoning and kurogoma tofu, and in Chinese and Korean rice-based sweets.

Storing it

Store in a cool, dry place, and use within 3 months of opening.
Keep the lid tight and use a clean, dry spoon each time.
Stir well before each use, as the natural oil rises to the top.

Good to know

Per 100g, the tahini has 21g of protein, 59g of fat and 3.4g of carbohydrate. It is gluten, dairy and soy free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Contains sesame, one of the 14 allergens that must be declared on food in the UK. May contain traces of nuts. Miso and tamari used in the serving ideas above contain soy, so check their labels if that matters to you.