Homemade Tahini Recipe
A homemade tahini recipe is not at all complicated. Just put some sesame seeds in a high-quality food processor, whirl it until smooth and spreadable, and voila! It’s as easy as that.
Or, is it?
Well, it could be. If you like the bitter taste of store-bought tahini. But I don’t. Until a couple years ago, I could only eat a little bit of tahini at a time, preferably with something sweet like fruit.
Then I learned about the importance of soaking nuts and seeds before eating them. Like grains, nuts and seeds contain a chemical called phytic acid. If left to its own devices, it will bind certain minerals to itself during the digestive process, preventing the minerals from being absorbed by the body.
In other words, phytates can cause mineral deficiency. Since mineral deficiency leads to illness and disease, this is not good.
Soaking nuts and seeds, however, neutralizes the phytates. Some say that the soaking process also makes them easier to digest, which is, in my experience, true. And when you soak walnuts and sesame seeds, the bitter taste disappears.
But not many people get excited about soggy nuts and seeds, and you can’t make nut or seed butter from them.
So, here’s my
Homemade Tahini Recipe
- about 4 cups sesame seeds, either unhulled or hulled
- Purified water
Soak the seeds in a large bowl in purified water for 8 to 12 hours. Spread the seeds on dehydrator trays. Put trays in food dehydrator, and dehydrate for one hour at the highest temperature. Then turn temperature down to about 105-110 degrees. Dehydrate for another 24-36 hours.
Place seeds inside food processor. Process until you have a spreadable texture. Enjoy your sweet tahini!
NOTE: I dehydrate the seeds in this way in order to not kill the enzymes. I also stop the food processor and test the temperature of the mixture once in a while. If it’s getting very warm, I leave them alone to cool down for a while, then finish the processing a couple hours later. This also is to keep the enzymes in tact. (This step is not necessary for hulled seeds, as they have already been heated high enough to kill enzymes. I always use hulled seeds.)
