If you’re a fan of Middle Eastern food, then you’ll love tahini! Alongside hummus, tahini is one of the most popular Middle Eastern condiments. Its unique texture and taste mean it is incredibly versatile and can be integrated into your diet as a sauce, dip or spread.
Many Middle Eastern restaurants serve tahini in a traditional way, which is as a spread that can be enjoyed with an assortment of freshly cooked bread (Omg that tastes so good). Unfortunately, eating tahini with bread is out of the question on keto. But you can substitute bread for keto-friendly vegetables, such as cucumber.
Before we get carried away however, is tahini keto?
In this article we’ll answer a range of questions, including; what is tahini, is tahini keto-friendly and lots more!
Table of contents
What is tahini and how is it made?
Tahini is a traditional Middle Eastern condiment made from sesame and used in a wide variety of different dishes. While it can be used as a standalone dip, tahini is also used as an ingredient in a number of other Middle Eastern foods. These include the aubergine (eggplant) dish baba ganoush, as well as an ingredient in hummus.
In order to make tahini, sesame seeds are first softened by adding them to a bowl of water. This allows the sesame to be crushed, enabling separation of the bran from the desirable kernels. These kernels are then toasted and ground into a thick and oily paste; And voila, you have tahini.
Tahini is usually topped with lemon juice, salt and garlic to make it even more delicious. While the sesame paste that is created is quite thick, water can be added to make it slightly more dilute. In this way, tahini can be used as more of a sauce than a spread.
Although tahini is traditionally a Middle Eastern dish, sesame paste (which is the same as tahini) is used in cuisines from all over the world, including Asia, North Africa and Europe.
What’s the difference between hummus and tahini?
While similar in texture and appearance, tahini and hummus are actually quite different.
The main difference arises from the use of distinct core ingredients. For example, tahini is made from sesame seeds while hummus is primarily made from chickpeas. Tahini is really versatile and is often added to hummus to improve the texture and flavour profile. The added tahini gives hummus that extra bit of creaminess that we all love so much.
So, tahini is a condiment made from crushed sesame seeds. Hummus on the other hand is made from chickpeas, with tahini added for extra flavour and texture.
Is tahini keto?
Now that we know what tahini is, can you eat it on keto?
The keto diet is a restrictive eating pattern that ultimately limits carbohydrate intake. This means that around 70% of your daily calories should come from good sources of fats, with 20-25% coming from protein. This leaves you with the remaining 5-10% of your calories coming from carbohydrates. In practice, this means restricting carbs to around 20-50g per day.
As a result, in order to answer the question “is tahini keto,” we’ll need to take a look at its nutritional composition.
How many carbs are in tahini?
Per 100g, tahini contains around 21.2g of carbohydrate, which can be classed as high for a keto-friendly food. However, tahini also contains 9.3g of fibre per 100g. This results in a total of 11.9g net carbs per 100g. When taking into account the fibre content, you can see that tahini is a lot more keto-friendly[1].
A typical serving size of around 15g has only around 3.4g of carbs, 1.4g of which are fibre. This means per serving, tahini only contains 2 net grams of carbs, making it keto friendly[1].
So, is tahini keto-friendly?
So it tahini keto? Yes, tahini is keto-friendly as it contains a generous proportion of fat with a minimum amount of net carbs, per serving size. Given that you’ll want to keep your carb intake between 20-50g per day on the keto diet, a few servings of tahini fits quite nicely into this plan.
So, yes, tahini is keto-friendly!
How many calories are in tahini?
Tahini is high in fat which means it contains a lot of calories. Per 15g serving, tahini has around 90 kcal. While this might not seem like much, it can easily add up. That’s because tahini is often used as dip or sauce and is therefore more challenging to portion without using a scale[1].
If you’re using tahini as a sauce or dip, it can be quite easy to get carried away and consume a lot more calories than you realise. So although tahini is keto-friendly, it can still lead to weight gain.
When it comes to sauces and dips in general, you’ll want to exercise portion control to ensure you’re not over-consuming. And tahini is no exception. Just ensure you’re not overdoing it and you’ll be able to integrate tahini into your keto diet.
Health benefits of tahini
Did you know that tahini also has a whole host of health benefits associated with it? That’s right, not only is tahini a delicious, keto-friendly option, it can also provide numerous health benefits.
These health benefits are due to the nutritional composition of tahini, or more specifically, the components of sesame. Sesame seeds are rich in many beneficial nutrients, such as fibre, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, magnesium and B vitamins.
All these components can help to promote optimal health and wellness.
May reduce blood glucose levels
A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials found that sesame product consumption (including tahini) was associated with lowered fasting blood glucose levels. This implies that tahini (or other sesame food) consumption could be associated with greater glycemic control and therefore beneficial to the keto diet[2] .
However, the same study did not find any impact of sesame consumption on insulin resistance. Still, it’s likely that sesame has an overall benefit on blood glucose levels[2].
Could reduce inflammation
Sesame products are rich in vitamins and minerals which have been linked with anti-inflammatory effects. For example, a systematic and meta-analysis of 7 randomised clinical trials found an improvement in certain inflammatory biomarkers after sesame consumption[3].
However, certain other markers of inflammation showed no significant change. Overall however, there appears to be an association between sesame consumption and a reduction in inflammation[3].
May lower blood pressure
Studies conducted in men have shown that tahini consumption may help to lower blood pressure. For example, one study found that after young men consumed 50g of tahini, they observed reductions in blood pressure as well as improved endothelial function[4].
To be precise, there was a reduction in diastolic blood pressure as well as a decrease in resting heart rate[4].
Could act as a pain reliever
There is some evidence that components with tahini could improve pain sensitivity and therefore provide pain relief. For example, a study conducted on trauma patients examined the effect of topical sesame seed oil (extracted from tahini) application to injury sites[5].
The study found that topical application of sesame seed oil led to pain relief, in addition to less discolouration of trauma sites after bruising[5].
How to make homemade tahini
Tahini can be bought in stores across the UK but we prefer to make our own. It’s super simple to make homemade tahini and it will taste much fresher! So if you’re interested in making your own tahini, read on to find out how.
Ingredients:
- Sesame seeds (preferably hulled)
- Keto-friendly oil, e,g. coconut oil, olive oil or avocado oil (optional)
- Paprika
Before we can start making tahini, it’s important to remove the hulls. For convenience, you can buy pre-hulled sesame seeds saving you the effort of removing the hulls yourself.
Step 1: Toast the sesame seeds
Start by adding the sesame seeds to a frying pan and begin to gently heat. By toasting the sesame seeds you’ll get a much richer flavour. Be careful not to keep the heat too high as the seeds can easily burn.
Spread the sesame seeds over a pan and heat on a low flame. Heat for around 5 minutes on low heat, until the sesame seeds start to slightly brown and you can start to smell their aroma.
Step 2: Crush the sesame seeds
Now that the seeds are lightly toasted, you’ll want to begin crushing them to make the sesame paste. You can do this with a blender/food processor or with a pestle and mortar.
Keep crushing/blending the seeds until they form a finer mixture, which will eventually become the sesame paste.
Depending on whether you want to use the tahini as a sauce or dip, you may consider adding some oil during this process. Adding a few teaspoons of oil can also help give the tahini a smoother texture. Try 1-2 teaspoons and adjust as desired.
Step 3: Top with paprika and serve
And there you have it. In a few minutes you can have yourself some delicious tahini. As a final step, we recommend adding a bit of paprika. The extra spice can give it that little extra bit of flavour. You can mix some into the tahini or just add some as a final topping.
Conclusion
Tahini is a delicious condiment that can be easily integrated into your keto diet. With a high fat, moderate protein and low carbohydrate content, tahini has a great nutritional composition and can be classified as a keto-friendly food.
Give our simple recipe for homemade tahini a try and feel free to play around with spices and garnish.
