Tahini 101: How do you store tahini? (2024)

FAQs

Tahini 101: How do you store tahini? ›

You often see this separation with high-quality, natural nut butters. Once you open a container of tahini, store it in the refrigerator to prevent it from going rancid quickly. It's best to keep your tahini for no longer than 6 months.

We recommend storing your tahini in a cool and dry area, away from heat and moisture. Ideally, a pantry a cabinet would be ideal. Like peanut butter, you can also store tahini in the refrigerator if you like it thicker.

Refrigerated tahini is stiffer and harder to work with than room-temperature tahini, which is loose and pourable, and she believes that refrigerating tahini does not appreciably extend its shelf life.

Storing: Keep tahini in an airtight jar in the refrigerator for a month. After some time in the fridge, it might separate like natural peanut butter. To fix this, stir it well before using it. Sprouted and black sesame seeds: You can make tahini from sprouted or black sesame seeds.

With the boom in hummus popularity and global cuisines, tahini paste can now be found in most large supermarkets, Start by heading to the condiments section, looking near gourmet olives. You might also find a jar in the ethnic foods department.

The taste will be sour, kind of metallic, and just plain weird. Utilizing a trusty sniff test is another way of finding out if it's time for your tahini to take a one-way trip to the bin. But something that's important to remember is that ground sesame seeds do naturally have a slightly earthy, bitter aftertaste.

Homemade tahini can be refrigerated in an airtight jar or container for up to 1 month. (Before each use, be sure to give the jar a good stir to recombine any separated oil.) Or you can also freeze tahini for 3-4 months, which is a great way to extend its shelf life.

Although its shelf life can vary depending on factors related to how it is made, such as roasting, it will generally stay good for months, if not years. Like other nut and seed pastes, expired tahini has a musty, stale smell and tastes noticeably bitter and funky.

Tahini is an excellent source of minerals and heart-healthy fats and additionally, a versatile food that can be featured in every meal of the day, for five very good reasons. Sesame seeds contain sesamin and sesamolin, two powerful antioxidants that protect cells from free-radical damage and may prevent heart disease.

Besides eating it straight out of the jar, spreading it on a sandwich or mixing it with chickpeas, garlic and lemon juice to make hummus, there's a laundry list of ways to use tahini.

Do you stir tahini before using? ›

Once you get your jar of tahini home, you want to open it up and give it a stir to make sure it's incorporated. (If the oil has fully separated, such as in the photo above, Food editor Joe Yonan uses an immersion blender to reincorporate it, after which he says it stays emulsified.)

Kitchen Tip ~ Tahini How to keep Tahini from separating: Simply store your tahini jar upside down. The oil that accumulates at the top of the jar will slowly work its way to the bottom, redistributing throughout and leaving you with smooth, creamy tahini. Shake well before use.

Tahini is a versatile ingredient that can be used in various recipes. Some common uses of tahini include making dips and hummus, adding a nutty flavor to desserts, using it in vegetarian dinner recipes, or as a base for salad dressings.

Bitterness is generally part and parcel of tahini - it's how ground sesame seeds taste. What you will find, however, is that some tahini can taste more bitter than others. This is down to a few things; like how that particular tahini is processed, or the levels of something called oxalic acid in the hulls of the seeds.