While mindlessly scrolling through the digital equivalent of 500 tonnes worth of cat memes on Instagram, something stood out: a green chilli sauce. Usually, I'd slow clap the vibrant hue of green, give it a nod of approval and move on. But when I saw the word tahini in the ingredients let's just say my interest was piqued.
I absolutely love tahini and anything that it's in. I'm talking fan girl territory, a sweet ode to my Cypriot heritage with hummus being the obvious contender for most loved tahini recipe - until now. This sauce is capital letters LEGIT and I have been putting it on everything from steak to chicken, to mixing it into salad dressings and using it to add an extra dimension to the usual egg and avo combo. If you follow me on Instagram and have ever felt compelled enough to watch my stories, you may have noticed my new found obsession for this sauce because I have been preaching hard.
The recipe comes from my all time favourite bon appétit and is another example of why they are IMO the best food magazine out there - they deliver the goods time and time again (and can we take a moment to applaud them for likening this sauce to the summer sandals you wear with everything? So true.). But of course it wouldn't be like me to ever really follow a recipe to the T, so my take on this punchy little number uses some garlic scapes I picked up from the market along with a single clove of garlic, a little less lemon and a touch more heat from an additional serrano pepper. I promise if you try this you will be just as obsessed as me.
HOT GREEN TAHINI SAUCE
Makes 2 cups, lightly adapted from here
Ingredients
2 lemons (zest of one, juice of 1.5)
3 serrano peppers
1 garlic clove
2 garlic scapes, chopped (or just use an additional garlic clove)
3 cups curly leaf parsley, roughly chopped (discard stalks)
60ml extra virgin olive oil
120g tahini paste
Salt
Method
- In a blender, grate in the zest of a lemon and add the juice of 1.5 lemons, discarding any pips.
- Add the garlic, garlic scapes, serrano peppers, parsley, olive oil and roughly 75ml water and blend until you have a smooth sauce.
- Transfer the sauce to a bowl and stir in the tahini paste - season with salt to taste.
- That's it! Keep refrigerated in an airtight container.
I think this tastes better the next day, when the tahini has thickened the sauce and the flavours have developed and settled. Keeps well for a week. Maybe longer but I wouldn't know because I eat it too quickly.