Coconut and Berries

Healthy, Vegan Recipes by Emma Potts

Butternut & Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

T is for…Tahini!

Oh the trials and tribulations of food blogging! I made this dish last night but since I didn’t realize the time and got started on dinner too late, the light had gone by the time it was ready so I couldn’t get any good pictures Sad smile My apologies but this is definitely a repeater recipe so when I make it again I’ll update the post.

Repeater recipes are, in fact, rare around these parts, quite simply because I love to try new things and there aren’t enough meals in the day to allow me to eat the same thing over and over. This, however, is one of my all-time favourite meals and I’ve made variations on it many a time.

Warm Butternut Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

Tahini sauce has got to be one of the best things ever. I know many of you agree…

My Favourie Tahini Dressing

Drizzled (liberally) over sweet roasted squash and perhaps my favourite legume, puy lentils, it’s bound to be good.

The original recipe came from the Casa Moro Cookbook (Moro is a wonderful restaurant in London if every you get to visit. The dishes are Spanish, North African and Eastern Mediterranean inspired, and, although it’s not vegetarian, normally there are various veg or adaptable dishes on the menu) but I came across it on the blog Orangette a few years ago and and have adapted it to my tastes. I hope you love it as much as I do!

Warm Butternut Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

Warm Butternut & Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing:

1/2 Medium Butternut Squash (Approx 400g/1lb), cut into large chunks
1/2T Olive oil
2 Cloves garlic, squashed with the flat edge of a knife
Large pinch of salt
1/8t Cinnamon
1/2C Puy Lentils
1C Vegetable Broth
1/4 Red onion, finely diced
Fresh parsley to serve, coarsely chopped

Tahini Dressing:

1 Small clove of garlic, minced
Pinch of salt
1 3/4T Lemon juice
1 1/2T Tahini
2T Water (depending on thickness of your tahini)
1t Maple syrup

Preheat oven to 200C/425F

Toss squash, smashed garlic, olive oil, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl until all coated in the oil. Spread mixture into a roasting dish and cook for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through and edges are beginning to caramelize.  Set aside.

While squash is cooking, simmer the lentils, in the vegetable broth, covered with a lid, for approx 20 minutes, or cook according to your package instructions. Drain if any liquid remains and set aside.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, adding more or less water to reach your desired thickness

Stir the red onion into the lentils and add several grinds of pepper.

Spread lentils onto a serving platter, top with the roasted squash (remove garlic cloves), a generous drizzle of the tahini sauce and chopped parsley. Hold a little of the tahini sauce on the side, for dressing at the table.

Serves 2

PRINT RECIPE HERE

Warm Butternut Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

Of course, I use tahini for many other things than just this salad. Tahini sauce is great on almost anything. It’s commonly served with falafel. Rather than a falafel wrap I like to top a big salad with a few falafel balls and then douse in tahini sauce. I also love it on roasted beetroot, dark leafy greens or steamed broccoli.

These Tahini Noodles sound really delicious to me too. Of course tahini can be used in sweet recipes too. It’s great as an alternative to peanut butter, spread on a banana for a snack, or try these Raw Chocolate Caramel Tahini Delights.

Of course I love my own Chocolate-Sesame Biscotti too.

Even though it’s Saturday tomorrow and this month I haven’t been posting at weekends, check back here as I hope to bring you a post for the letter “U” to get through the last of the letters in the alphabet for my A-Z series.Print

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Comments

  1. Yum! This sounds delicious! I first met tahini when I had a Lebanese boyfriend, the guy who taught me how to make hummus and introduced me to pita bread and string cheese). I don’t think I’ve ever used tahini for anything else, or at least not that I remember. It just occurred to me that since I make my own nut butters, I should be able to make my own tahini, since I have a huge jar of sesame seeds… Thank you for the inspiration.

    • Definitely make your own tahini! I still haven’t ventured into making my own nut butters but I was actually thinking about trying to make coconut butter this weekend!
      I need a Lebanese boyfriend! You know Middle-Eastern is my favourite cuisine.

      • I just made coconut butter for the first time this morning. I used my mini-prep Cuisinart, and am not sure exactly how much coconut I put in, but it was too much (probably more than two cups). What happened is that it would not move at all when it got somewhat chopped up. So I took out about ⅓ of it finished what was in the work bowl & then added the rest back to it, and it finished fine. This is not the first time I’ve run into that problem, but it’s also possible to put in too little (less than 2 cups). Once I had the correct amount of coconut in the processor it went very quickly. With a little processor it can be tricky to not overload it, but apart from that it’s a simple process. I’m betting that when you get your coconut butter done and see how easy it is, you’ll be making all of your nut butters. The only ingredient you need for any nut butter is the nut itself. Have fun!

  2. I love tahini though am not a fan of it on soba noodles and find sometimes it works brilliantly and sometimes it doesn’t - most recently I think I used it in Ricki Heller’s halva and it was brilliant - I love how you have used it - looks so delicious

  3. Tahini dressing is the bomb! I love the simplicity of this meal and am certain that it is delicious. I mean, squash and lentils are incredible to begin with but with tahini dressing? I bet it’s spectacular!

  4. I’ve been experimenting a lot more with tahini recently, going so far as to add it to a smoothie (proof that it is so versatile!). Pumpkin and lentil sounds like a perfect match too!

  8. You’ve done such a good job keeping up with MOFO every day! Respect! I also loved your comment about repeater recipes…i often have the exact same problem as there are too many things that inspire me and I want to try out but not enough meals in the day… hence why i often do lots of 5 minute mini single serve snack type things (i can fit more food in) :-)

      • Thank you so much for trying the bites but wait for the next version which will be going on the blog as soon as I have time to make them! By the way your photos are fantastic but I really get what you mean about the light - soon I’ll be getting up early on a weekend so I can make and photo the recipes!

  10. Tahini sauce is the type of sauce I really appreciate. Thanks for mentioning Moro, I would love to try their vegetarian multicultural dishes one day in London! The butternut squash and lentils are a great combination - I love the sweet and earthy flavors combined, you’re making me excited for fall already! The tahini noodles sound great, too, I am a noodle lover, he he he!

  11. I have my own adpated version of that recipe too that I keep meaning to post! I’ve made it a nice few times, which is super weird because like you, it’s pretty rare that I make something more then once but I never think to photograph it until it’s too late. Tahini sauce is the best! I could smoother just about anything in that stuff.

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