By Christie Vanover | Published August 15, 2015 | Last Updated December 29, 2022

Even though I have experimented with many, many ingredients from around the world, I have never worked with tahini…until now.
Tahini is a sesame seed paste used frequently in Middle Eastern dishes. If you’ve had hummus or baba ghanoush, chances are you’ve tried tahini.
Sesame King reached out to me on Twitter and invited me to test two of their six flavors: light roast, roasted, honey, garlic, Cajun and tomato basil. Being the Zestie girl that I am, I had to go with the Cajun and garlic.
This stuff is really good. When you open the jar it’s separated like natural peanut butter, so you want to give it a good stir. Then, have at it.
My first instinct was to try it on the grill. I put a dozen raw shrimp in a bowl and coated them with the garlic tahini. Then, I set the grill to medium-high and let the skrimps get their sesame on.
You want to be sure to oil your grill grates because the tahini does have a tendency to stick, but the result was awesome. It gave the shrimp a nice nutty crust like you get with frying. We had to make another dozen right away.
For the Cajun tahini, I decided to go semi-traditional by making Cajun hummus. I picked up some brined cherry peppers and roasted garlic from the Whole Foods olive bar. You can throw the ingredients in a food processor and have a beautiful, filling dip (or for us weeknight dinner) in less than 5 minutes.
Cajun Hummus
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Sesame King Cajun tahini paste
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 5 roasted garlic cloves
- 4 cherry peppers
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 15- oz. can garbanzo beans plus liquid
- olive oil
- smoked paprika
- pita bread
Instructions
- Place the tahini and lemon juice in a food processor. Blend for 30 seconds.
- Add the garlic, peppers and salt, and process until smooth.
- Drain the garbanzo beans, saving the liquid. Add the beans to the processor and blend until smooth.
- Add in 2-3 tablespoons of the liquid from the beans and process until it reaches a smooth consistency.
- Scrape the hummus into a serving bowl. Run your spoon in a spiral on the top. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Serve with warm pita triangles.
This estimate was created using an online nutrition calculator
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