Tahini on toast. My breakfast this morning, and it set me thinking, not for the first time, what a magical food tahini is. Surely, I thought, there must be one day in the year when this delicious, nutritious and versatile ingredient is celebrated. I searched online and to my surprise it appears there is no World or International Tahini Day.
Therefore, I hereby unilaterally declare the 25th day of June as World Tahini Day. Crushed sesame seeds. That’s all it is, but it’s also a lot more. Tahini provides nutrients such as copper, selenium, zinc, iron and calcium. It’s relatively low in calories but high in fibre and protein. More to the point it’s utterly, nuttily scrumptious.
It’s a store cupboard essential in this household. Tahini works in all sorts of dishes and snacks, and it’s one of those ingredients that lends itself to both sweet and savoury uses. Think of halva, and also humous and baba ganoush. Beans on toast, a winter lunchtime staple, can be elevated by spreading tahini on the toast before adding the beans. It’s also great added to tomato based pasta sauces, helping to thicken the sauce and give it a creamy, nutty flavour. Right now, as the temperature in London hits 30 degrees, I’m dreaming of vegan tahini ice cream…
I have another reason for celebrating tahini. It was the subject of my poem More than Fuel, which won the City Harvest Holiday Poetry Competition in 2018. In honour of the inaugural World Tahini Day, I thought I’d share the poem below. If you have any favourite dishes featuring tahini do let me know!
More than Fuel
A piece of toast
to start my day
from which a world expands
in every bite
a crunchy thought
to chew upon
and savour distant
olive groves
whose drizzled oil
anoints my toast
and with tahini
slathered on
thoughts shift
to countless seeds
and what each sesame
may open —
a hoard of ancient knowledge
dancing on my tongue.
Hilaire 
A splendid paeon to versatile tahini
Thanks Jeanne!