With the weather oppressively hot, lunch nowadays is more often than not a salad with a refreshing citrus based dressing. My go to salad dressing is the easy lemon honey one, but this tahini citrus salad dressing with honey is my favourite when it comes to leafy salads. Like the Kale Mango salad I made recently. Kale, swiss chard, spinach, fenugreek are all great in salads and I love to pair them with a lemony orangey slightly sweet dressing.

Making the Tahini Citrus Salad Dressing

Using store bought Tahini, this dressing takes minutes to make. Zest the lemon, squeeze the juice from a lemon and an orange, add the ingredients (in the order I have given in the instructions) and whisk them in with a tasty extra virgin Olive oil. Check the seasoning, and there you go.

I have kept the honey at just ½ a tablespoon so that the flavours of the tahini come through. You may add more honey, but I suggest you try it my way first. I'm sure you will love it!

The tahini citrus salad dressing keeps in the fridge for about a week. I have given the recipe for just a small quantity though, as it tastes best when fresh or about a day old. And its not difficult to make!

The tahini had to be store bought as I have had disastrous results whenever I tried to make it at home. The chutney jar of my sturdy Indian food processor which can normally crush anything, hasn't been able to grind the sesame seeds to the level required. Perhaps I should have used more sesame seeds and that would have done the trick.

Right now though, I am hopeful I can make tahini paste at home. On a recent trip to Chennai, my friends helped me source a cute little conventional flat grinding stone. (Little, yes but weighs 15 kg). It is now ensconced at a corner of the kitchen slab, along with a round stone mortar and pestle, both ready to turn out nicely ground pastes and powders. The next time I make the tahini citrus salad dressing with honey, hopefully it will be with homemade tahini!

This recipe is adapted from one of my favourite cook books, viz the River Cottage Veg Everyday, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

I love to browse through its pages for the sheer pleasure of reading about the different flavour profiles and how delicious food can be easily made from fresh seasonal produce.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to products. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click the link and make a purchase through it.

Other Recipes you may like to try from this blog:

Garlicky Honey Lemon Salad Dressing

Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing with Chia Seeds

Classic Hummus with Tahini

"Recipe"

A fat round glass jar half filled with a pale creamy tahini citrus salad dressing, with flecks of black pepper, on a grey beige self checked napkin on a yellow wooden background

Tahini Citrus Salad Dressing With Honey

Sujata Shukla

Tahini Citrus Salad Dressing with Honey. Quick and easy, tahini whisked with fresh lemon juice and orange juice, honey and extra virgin olive oil. Takes minutes to make and brightens up any salad specially leafy ones like Kale and Mango Salad

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Prep Time 10

Total Time 10

Course Dips, Salad dressing

Cuisine continental

Servings cup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons tahini /sesame paste
½ teaspoon lemon zest or zest from one Indian lemon
1 tablespoon Fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Fresh orange juice
½ tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon Black Pepper Powder freshly ground/ or to taste
1/16 teaspoon salt a pinch/ or to taste
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water if required to thin down the tahini

Instructions

Pour the tahini into a bowl large enough to have space to whisk in. Add lemon zest, freshly squeezed lemon juice and orange juice. Whisk it all together. If the mixture is thick and stiff, add water a little at a time and whisk till the dressing is creamy and fluid. I added 1 tablespoon of water to get this effect
Add honey, whisk it in. Add salt and black pepper, stir it in. Drizzle in the olive oil, stirring as you add. Taste for seasoning and add a little more if required.
Store the Tahini Citrus Honey salad dressing, covered, in the fridge till required. This salad dressing pairs well with leafy salads such as kale and mango salad and other salads with spinach or swiss chard. Keeps for about a week, in the fridge, but this dressing is best when made fresh.