🥣 Tarator (tahini sauce)
Tarator is a Levantine sauce of tahini thinned with lemon juice and water and sharpened with crushed garlic. Whisked properly, it turns pale, smooth and pourable, with a nutty, tangy taste. It is finished with chopped parsley and served with grilled or fried fish, falafel, shawarma and roasted vegetables.
Diets
Allergens
Contains (in a typical recipe):
What it is made of
Recipe
Ingredients
- 120 g tahini
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- Juice of 1–2 lemons
- 80–100 ml cold water
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- Salt
Method
- Crush the garlic with a pinch of salt.
- Whisk the tahini with the lemon juice; it will thicken at first.
- Add the cold water a little at a time, whisking, until smooth and pourable.
- Stir in the garlic and parsley and adjust salt and lemon.
How to make it lighter
- Thin it with more water and lemon so a smaller amount of tahini covers the dish.
- Measure it — 1 tbsp of tahini is roughly 90 kcal — rather than pouring freely.
- Use it as a dressing for salads and grilled vegetables instead of oil-based dressings.
History
Sauces based on sesame paste have long been part of Levantine cooking, and tarator is especially linked to fish dishes in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. The same name is used for different sauces elsewhere in the region, including nut-based versions in Turkey. Today the tahini version is a standard side across the Levant.
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Values are estimates per 100 g for a typical recipe; home and restaurant versions vary. Diets and allergens are worked out from the ingredients of a typical recipe — always check with whoever cooked the dish. Not medical advice. Nutrition data: Me Nutrition dish database v13. How we count →