tahini

If you’re like a lot of people I know, uses for tahini end at adding a spoon or two of the crushed sesame seed paste to home-made humous , or if you’re really into your Greek/Cypriot/Middle-Eastern cooking perhaps you’ve even tried tahinosalata, which Cypriots just call ‘tahini’ for short. It’s basically like humous, but without the chickpeas!

Yup, takes a few seconds for the brain to work that one out. 😉

Tahini is nothing short of amazing with pork souvlaki in pitta – one of the first things we rush to eat whenever we go to Cyprus, from the street vendors, wrapped in white paper. Just the best kind of street food!

But have you ever tried tahini as a sweet spread?
It’s simply heavenly mixed with honey and smeared on a wholewheat bagel (two tbsp of tahini to one tbsp of honey) and a great alternative to the ubiquitous peanut butter and jam! In fact, consider it the Greek version of PB&J 😉

Do try it! Chock full of minerals, calcium and good fats. 🙂

I had my family round yesterday and spent most of Saturday and half of Sunday cooking for them, it’s a complete and utter joy for me to do that and I’d love to do it more often, it’s just that work commitments and space ‘issues’ sometimes get in the way.
Nothing makes me happier than having all four of my children around my table and I’m lucky enough to not only have my parents, but my adorable Grand-mother too who is 97 years old!

Humous is a real family favourite of ours at our big Greek parties. We love it! Plain with pitta bread, sometimes topped with a few whole chickpeas and ground cumin, or as I made it yesterday, topped with small lamb cubes and pomegranate.

It’s such a pretty dish! The jewel of the pomegranate and the sweet sour tang of the molasses really lift it to another level.

Humous topped with lamb cubes, pomegranate and pomegranate molasses.
(Makes 1 large serving bowl, suitable as part of a buffet/meal)

2 x 410g tins of chickpeas
4 tbsp tahini
30ml olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
Juice of two lemons
Pinch of salt
A little water or plain yoghurt (or both)

300g lamb, boneless, in small cubes.
1tsp oil (vegetable is fine, or olive)
Pomegranate seeds (from half a pomegranate)
1-2 tbsp pomegranate molasses.

Whizz up the chickpeas, tahini, oil, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a little whizzing machine 😉

Alter the consistency to your liking using a little water, or yoghurt, or both. Yoghurt seems to lighten the texture making it paler in colour, while water just makes it more liquid.

Fry the lamb cubes until just cooked through in a teaspoon of oil.

Top the humous with the lamb, pomegranate and the molasses.

So pretty!