I Will No Longer Stir My Tahini—I’ll Only Shake and Squeeze

This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are eating, drinking, and buying right now. Here, Alaina Chou writes about the squeezable tahini she drizzles on just about everything.

Tahini is to me what garlic is to garlic girls. It’s one of my favorite ingredients to use in both savory and sweet contexts—I love a tahini-based dressing for my salad just as much as I love to drizzle it over a bowl of brown sugar-laced oatmeal. But for years I felt I couldn’t use tahini without the potential of greasy countertops and a ruined shirt. Despite my best efforts, I’d somehow always end up sloshing separated oil over the sides of the jar as I tried to stir and homogenize its contents. It’s a process I would reluctantly commit myself to for recipes that required a decent amount of the stuff, but the vigorous mixing was a major annoyance when all I wanted was a drizzle or spoonful—which, to be honest, is nearly every day. 

Mighty Sesame’s tahini squeeze bottles, though, allow me to add a touch of my favorite ingredient to anything I’m making, without even dirtying a spoon. With just a shake, the nutty condiment is ready to be squeezed onto whatever my heart desires, without so much as a hint of streaky separation. 

Because tahini is made purely from sesame seeds, which have a high oil content, even the highest quality brands will separate over time. That doesn’t mean it’s unsafe to eat, just that you’ll find it pretty difficult to reincorporate the layer of oil into the brick of sesame putty without the use of a mini food processor. But Mighty Sesame’s squeezable format means I can shake the bottle to reincorporate any separated oil, no haphazard stirring required. Oh, and did I mention that Mighty Sesame tastes great? Like all the best tahinis, it’s nutty and toasty and just bitter enough—a perfect food, in my book.

If you love tahini as much as I do, it’s not just an ingredient in dips, sauces, and baked goods—it’s a condiment in its own right. For me, tahini is to most things as ketchup is to fries. Whether I’m drizzling it over crispy shawarma roast chicken before it hits the weeknight dinner table or squeezing some over my work-lunch grain bowl as I’m rushing out the door in the morning, I love that I can buy tahini in this easy-to-use, mess-free form that celebrates it as a standalone sauce. Why reserve the squeeze bottle treatment for ketchup and mayo? Tahini deserves a place in your condiment lineup, too.