This lemon tahini dressing recipe is creamy, bright, and super flavorful. Ready in 5 minutes and made with simple ingredients, it's so delicious you'll look forward to eating salads every day! Vegan, dairy free, and oil free.
Although I have several tahini sauce recipes on the blog, this is my first tahini dressing recipe; and trust me, it's a good one! It's sooo luxuriously creamy and silky without any dairy, mayo or added oil.
The texture and flavor pair particularly well with kale salads, but it's incredible on all salads and bowls or served falafel pita. Once you have a jar in the fridge, I'm sure you'll find a million ways to enjoy it.
Recipe Quick Look
- Prep time: 5 minutes, easy to make, no blender needed!
- Dressing profile: Creamy, lemony, garlicky, slightly sweet and nutty with a kiss of heat if you add the red pepper flakes.
- Use it on: Kale salad, grain bowls, roasted vegetables - as a dip or drizzle.
- Keeps: Up to 2 weeks in the fridge - great for meal prep!
- Dietary: Vegan, dairy free, plant based, gluten free, oil free.
Love tahini? Here's a few vegan tahini sauces to try next: Easy Garlic Tahini Sauce, Sweet and Spicy Tahini, Spicy Green Tahini.
Ingredient Notes
Ready to make some homemade tahini salad dressing? Simple ingredients, but far from basic. The dijon and maple takes this lemon tahini dressing straight to flavortown:
- Tahini: Tahini is the dairy-free, creamy base of this dressing. If you haven't used Tahini before, it's made of ground sesame seeds and has a slightly bitter, nutty taste. Find tahini paste in the international aisle or the peanut butter aisle. Try brands like Soom, Cedar or Trader Joe’s for example.
- Dijon mustard: Adds tang and depth of flavor and helps emulsify the dressing for a velvety smooth texture without any oil added.
- Fresh lemon juice: Makes the dressing bright and tangy.
- Maple syrup: Balance tahini's bitterness and lemon’s acidity with just enough sweetness. Can sub with agave or another sweetener of choice.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic adds a sharp, pungent flavor.
- Salt & pepper: Salt helps to balance the tahini and makes the flavors pop! Black pepper adds some heat (It's optional, but we love it.).
- Spicy: Optional add in. If don't like too much heat, start with ½ the amount or skip altogether. I use hot chili flakes but sriracha or your favorite hot sauce would work as well - but not too much.
- Oil: I don't add olive oil to this tahini dressing, I like the viscosity and mouth feel as is. However, if you want a slightly richer tahini dressing, feel free to add 1 - 2 tablespoons olive oil.
Find the complete recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Tahini Dressing
Simple ingredients and simpler method. No blender or food processor required to make this creamy tahini dressing.
- Combine and customize: Add all the ingredients (except the water) to a bowl and whisk to combine. You can see how it's starting to thicken in the photo.
- Sauce consistency: Add the water 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time as needed to thin out the dressing. Pro Tip: The dressing thickens as you are whisking in the water, that's normal - don't worry, keep stirring until you have a smooth, creamy tahini salad dressing adding splashes of water as needed for the consistency you desire (dressing, dip or drizzle).
- Customize: Add more lemon for tang, more maple for sweetness, more salt if it tastes flat, more garlic to suit your taste. Add red pepper flakes if using.
- Storage: Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. This dressing thicken as it chills. Just add a bit more water then stir to combine before serving.
Ways to Serve Lemon Tahini Dressing
Keep a jar of this all purpose tahini dressing in the fridge - it's so versatile - the kind of dressing that goes with everything! Here's a few delicious ways to enjoy it:
- Go-to salad dressing: This is a wonderful tahini dressing for salad - kale crunch salad (above), green salad, coleslaw or instead of caesar dressing on caesar salad.
- As a sauce: Spoon it over your favorite grilled veggies, It's especially good on roasted Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, falafel wraps, and herby potatoes.
- As a drizzle: A delicious bowl sauce for rice bowls, quinoa bowls or Buddha bowls. Make your own bowl with fresh vegetables, crispy quinoa, rice, roasted edamame, tofu (baked tofu, air fryer tofu) and/or roasted chickpeas.
- As a condiment: Slather it on your favorite veggie sandwiches, smashed chickpea sandwiches or burgers to add extra flavor.
More Homemade Dressings
Here's are some of my most popular dressing recipes to liven up your salads:
- White Balsamic Dressing - creamy, tangy family favorite
- Miso Sesame Ginger Dressing - blog favorite
- Italian Dressing - classic Italian
- Carrot Ginger Dressing - flavor bomb and creamy salad dressing!
- Thai Peanut Dressing - seriously addictive!
If you make this creamy lemon tahini dressing recipe, please snap a photo and tag me on Instagram. Also I'd love it if you would leave a comment below, and give the recipe a rating! Thank you so much.
Creamy Tahini Dressing (vegan)
Rate this recipe!
INGREDIENTS
- ½ cup tahini
- 1 - 1 ½ tablespoons dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup (more to taste)
- 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- black pepper, coarse ground
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 4-8 tablespoons cold water (for thinning as needed)
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a bowl, whisk together the tahini, dijon, maple syrup, lemon juice, garlic, and salt until smooth. Stir in a sprinkle of black pepper and red pepper flakes if using.
- The dressing will be quite thick, add the water 1 tablespoonful at a time until it’s a pourable, dressing consistency. For a veggie dip, add less water to make the tahini sauce suitable for dipping.
- Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks in a jar or container with a lid. The dressing will thicken as it chills, just add water to loosen it before serving.
Leave a Reply