Garlic Tahini Sauce

Creamy, flavorful Garlic Tahini Sauce is perfect for drizzling over buddha bowls, salads, shawarma and more! It's easy to make in 10 minutes and so supremely creamy! The flavors of lemon and garlic shine through in this healthy, vegan and Whole30 approved recipe!

Try it drizzled over this Chicken Shawarma Salad or this Cauliflower Shawarma Bowl!

There's nothing I love more than a really good sauce! It doesn't get much better than a heavy drizzle of the perfect sauce on top of a bowl or salad. In addition to being incredibly flavorful, this Garlic Tahini Sauce is incredibly creamy!

This combination brings both wonderful flavor and texture to any recipe you make with the sauce! I used an interesting technique from Serious Eats to make the sauce.

The technique involves blending an entire head of garlic bulbs, skin and all, with lemon juice, then pressing it through a fine mesh strainer. This allows the garlic and lemon flavors to combine and shine through in the sauce, without overwhelming the sauce with garlic flavor.

The garlic lemon juice that's left behind is slowly mixed with tahini paste and cold water to form the seriously creamy consistency of the sauce. It's a winning combination that's quick and easy to make in just 10 minutes!

What You'll Need

• Head of Garlic
• Lemons - you'll need 2-3 lemons for juicing into ⅔ cup fresh lemon juice.
• Ground Cumin
• Kosher Salt
• Tahini Paste - is the base of tahini sauce. It's a Middle Eastern condiment composed of ground sesame seeds. It can usually be found at the grocery store near the peanut butter and other nut butters. You can also order Baron's Pure Tahini Paste that you see pictured in this post online. Always be sure to check the label to make sure the tahini paste only contains 100% ground sesame seeds, with no other added ingredients.
• Cold Water - it's important that the water used is very cold, as this helps make the sauce extra creamy!
• Blender - I used a NutriBullet for this recipe.
• Fine Mesh Strainer

How To Make Garlic Tahini Sauce

1. Remove the cloves of garlic from the bulb, but leave the garlic cloves unpeeled. Place the unpeeled garlic in a blender with the lemon juice and pulse for 15-20 seconds, or until a pulpy puree is formed.
2. Hold a fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl and pour the garlic lemon juice through the strainer.
3. Use a spatula or the back of a spoon to press the mixture through the strainer.
4. Keep pushing through the strainer until only the thick pulp is left behind. Discard this pulp.
5. You'll be left with garlic lemon juice in the bowl.
6. Add cumin, salt and tahini paste to the juice. This will form a very thick paste.
7. Drizzle in cold water 1-2 tablespoons at a time, while stirring constantly. Continue to add water 1 tablespoon at a time and stir until the sauce is smooth and creamy.
8. Store the prepared sauce in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks and use it to drizzle on your favorite salads, bowls or shawarma.

Ways to use the sauce

1. As a bowl topper - this is my favorite way to use the sauce. (No surprise there!) It's seriously delicious drizzled over Cauliflower Shawarma Bowls (pictured above), Roasted Broccoli Bowls, Greek Quinoa Bowls or Za'atar Roasted Vegetable Bowls.
2. Drizzled over a salad - use this tahini sauce as a creamy salad dressing or drizzle it over this Chicken Shawarma Salad or this Kale Beet Salad.
3. Paired with shawarma - there's no better pairing than garlic tahini sauce with shawarma seasoned meat or veggies! Use this easy Shawarma Seasoning to season chicken, beef, cauliflower and more, then drizzle your homemade shawarma with this garlic tahini sauce.
4. With roasted or grilled veggies - any roasted or grilled vegetables are even better when drizzled, dunked or dipped into this wonderful tahini sauce!
5. Drizzled over falafel - a little of this garlic sauce drizzled over this vegan falafel, oh yes, a match made in foodie heaven!
6. As a dip for fresh vegetables or pita bread - this sauce is so good, I don't blame you for just wanting to dip a carrot, bell pepper or slice of pita bread right into it!

More vegan sauces and salad dressings

Stock your refrigerator with all of my favorite gluten free and dairy free sauce recipes!

• Harissa Tahini Sauce - similar to this recipe, but with a nice little kick!
• Almond Butter Turmeric Salad Dressing - my go-to salad dressing right now. It's so flavorful and easy to blend up in less than 5 minutes!
• Zhoug Sauce - this spicy cilantro sauce will add a delicious zing to bowls, salads, pasta or sandwiches!
• Creamy Vegan Cashew Chipotle Sauce - the most popular recipe on the blog in 2020, this sauce is so delicious and always stocked in my fridge!
• Poblano Cashew Ranch Dressing - you've never had vegan ranch dressing like this! Roasted poblanos and fresh herbs add so much flavor to this creamy salad dressing.

Recipe