Tahini Yogurt Sauce
By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 06/09/2023 - Last updated on 08/10/2023
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This Creamy Tahini Yogurt Sauce is the best sauce for a pita sandwich, grilled meat at your next summer BBQ or to dip vegetables as a quick snack.
Plus, you will love that you barely need 10 minutes of prep time for this sauce and it’s also a healthy sauce: low in calories, high in protein, and packed with the best lemon garlic flavors.
Who doesn’t love dips, sauces, and dressings? I love them, especially the ones that are healthy and packed with proteins.
This new yogurt sauce with tahini is my new favorite sauce for dipping vegetables and for snacking in the afternoon.
It’s inspired by my garlic tahini sauce, but higher in protein, using Greek yogurt, and very filling. I also like to thin out this sauce with water and add a drizzle on top of the salad.
It’s thick and creamy with a hint of garlic tahini flavor that tastes like summer.
Bring this sauce to your next BBQ and try this with grilled chicken or grilled vegetables and everyone will fall in love with it.
How To Tahini Yogurt Sauce
This is the most easy sauce I made so far since it’s ready in 5 minutes and you don’t even need a food processor to make it.
Ingredients
All you need to make this protein-packed yogurt dip are a few staples ingredients:
- Tahini – I recommend using unhulled tahini. It has a less bitter flavor than hulled tahini.
- Olive Oil – You can also skip the oil, but the light olive oil flavor makes the dip extremely delicious.
- Lemon Juice – Feel free to use lime juice to create a different dip flavor.
- Plain Greek Yogurt – Plain full-fat Greek yogurt provide the creamiest texture. This said, the recipe works well with low-fat yogurt if you want to cut calories and fats.
- Garlic Clove
- Cumin – It’s optional, but I love its flavors married with lemon and garlic. You can also try sumac or Za’atar for more Mediterranean flavors.
- Sea Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
Preparation
Before you start, make sure you use a fresh drippy jar of tahini.
If your tahini is not fresh and a bit hard, it won’t mix very well in this yogurt tahini sauce. To fix that, you can prepare the dip in a food processor.
In a small bowl, add the tablespoons tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. Stir until thick, smooth, and well combined.
Now add the remaining ingredients: Greek yogurt, spices, and garlic. Stir until well combined.
Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour to give some time for the flavor to enhance.
Serving
This tahini yogurt sauce is the perfect summer appetizer to add to your charcuterie board along with raw vegetables and crackers.
Before serving, add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top, a pinch of kosher salt, and some sesame seeds or pomegranate seeds to decorate.
Snack or Appetizer
Since it’s a high-protein sauce it also makes this yogurt dip the perfect afternoon snack.
Serve the dip with healthy food to dip in like:
- Raw Vegetables – celery sticks, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, and gherkins
- Seed Crackers – try my Flaxseed Crackers.
- Pita Chips – Use my Homemade Pita Chips.
- Tortilla Chips – Try my low-carb tortillas chips for a healthy option.
- Crackers – Use my almond flour crackers recipe.
Salad Dressing
You can also thin out the dressing with water and use this as a tahini yogurt dressing to serve on top of your favorite salad.
Sandwich Spread
It’s a delicious sauce to spread into wraps with roasted chickpeas, lettuce tomatoes. Or add in a pita bread to make falafel sandwiches.
It’s a better option than mayonnaise as it’s lower in fat and packed with proteins.
Yogurt Sauce For Grilled Meat
This yogurt tahini sauce is the perfect side dish for grilled meat on the BBQ or any piece of chicken, like my cast iron chicken breast.
Storage Instructions
This yogurt tahini dip must be kept in an airtight container in the fridge. It lasts for up to 4 days or less depending on the expiration date of your yogurt.
Variations
Feel free to use this dip recipe and add different spices to create a range of flavors.
For example you can stir in:
- 1/4 cup of chopped fresh herbs – like fresh Parsley, coriander, or mint.
- 1/3 cup of grated zucchini or cucumber – make sure you squeeze out the juice from the vegetable before adding.
- Paprika or onion powder – add up to 1/2 teaspoon
Allergy Swaps
If you need some ingredients substitutions ideas, here are some options for you:
- Citrus-Free – The combo of yogurt tahini lemon is the best, but if you have a lemon allergy, you can swap lemon juice for white vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
- Tahini Swap – You can use nut butter, but they have intense flavors. You can also use 1/2 avocado and blend all ingredients to create a creamy dip without tahini.
- Dairy-Free – Any non-dairy plain yogurt with a thick and creamy texture provides excellent taste and texture. Try plain coconut yogurt, plain soy yogurt, or oat yogurt.
- Cumin – You can skip the 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin for the same amount of paprika, sumac, za’atar, and onion powder to create different dip flavors.
- Garlic Clove – Swap for 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder or skip if preferred.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are my answers to your most common questions about this yogurt dip recipe.
Tahini on its own is very bitter and won’t taste good.
Tahini is a condiment, and the best way to use tahini as a sauce is to first stir tahini with an acid like lime or lemon juice.
Then, add a creamy base like yogurt to make tahini yogurt sauce or cooked bean that you blend with the tahini mixture to make a hummus-like white bean hummus.
Finally, add spices, salt, and pepper for flavors.
Tahini is basically sesame seeds that have been oven roasted and blended on high speed to turn the seeds into a creamy paste.
It contains just one ingredient, roasted sesame seeds. On the other hand, Tzatziki is a Greek yogurt dip made from yogurt, lemon juice, garlic, and grated, drained cucumber.
Tzatziki is flavored with mint and doesn’t contain seeds or tahini.
While tzatziki doesn’t contain tahini, you can add a few tablespoons to make the tzatziki thicker and creamier.
The bitter flavor of the tahini marries very well with mint and lemon.
More Dip Recipes
Here are some more easy healthy dip recipes for you to try.
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Tahini Yogurt Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 cup Greek Yogurt plain, full-fat
- ¼ cup Tahini
- 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
- 2-3 Garlic crushed
- ½ teaspoon Cumin
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 2 teaspoons Olive Oil
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Pepper
To serve
- 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 tablespoon Sesame Seeds
- 1 pinch Parsley finely chopped
Optional
- 1 teaspoon Honey
- 1-2 tablespoons Water
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, whisk tahini, olive oil, and lemon juice together until well combined and a thick, smooth paste forms.
- Whisk in the remaining ingredients: Greek yogurt, cumin, crushed garlic, salt, and pepper.
- Taste and adjust, adding more salt and pepper if needed. If too thick, add some water to thin it out. If too bitter, add a teaspoon of honey.
- Serve with grilled meat for your next summer BBQ or as an appetizer or snack with crunchy vegetables to dip in.
Storage
- Store up to the expiration date of your yogurt in the fridge in an airtight container or glass mason jar.
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About The Author
Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, published author of a cookbook and many ebooks, and founder of Sweet As Honey.
I have an Accredited Certificate in Nutrition and Wellness obtained in 2014 from Well College Global (formerly Cadence Health). I'm passionate about sharing all my easy and tasty recipes that are both delicious and healthy. My expertise in the field comes from my background in chemistry and years of following a keto low-carb diet. But I'm also well versed in vegetarian and vegan cooking since my husband is vegan.
I now eat a more balanced diet where I alternate between keto and a Mediterranean Diet
Cooking and Baking is my true passion. In fact, I only share a small portion of my recipes on Sweet As Honey. Most of them are eaten by my husband and my two kids before I have time to take any pictures!
All my recipes are at least triple tested to make sure they work and I take pride in keeping them as accurate as possible.
Browse all my recipes with my Recipe Index.
I hope that you too find the recipes you love on Sweet As Honey!
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I absolutely love your tzatziki sauce — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve made it. I now want to try the tahini. yogurt sauce. A question for you — when a recipe calls for crushed garlic, how do you prepare the garlic clove? Simply crush it with a fork and put it in the recipce? Finely chop it? Other? Thanks!
Sliced and then crushed under a kitchen blade, or crushed with a garlic crusher.