Easy Balsamic Tahini Dressing
This Balsamic Tahini Dressing is perfect to drizzle over your favorite salads and bowls. It’s creamy, tangy and sweet and comes together in just 5 minutes.
Why You’ll Love This Tangy Dressing
- If you love tahini dressings, this is a lovely spin on the traditional ones you see. It’s balanced with sweet notes of maple and paired with the tangy flavors of balsamic vinegar.
- Easy to put together. You just need a small bowl and a fork to mix everything together. This dressing is made in under 5 minutes.
- Easily customizable. While I give you a framework to make this dressing, you are absolutely able to tweak it to meet your needs. Add more or less sweet or salty to find the right balance for you. Also feel free to double so you have more throughout the week to use to top your favorite bowls.
Key Ingredients and Substitutions
- Tahini: This is our base ingredient that also helps make this a creamy dressing. If you are not a fan of tahini, using a neutral nut or seed spread can still work. Think natural and creamy almond butter, cashew butter or sunflower butter.
- Balsamic Vinegar: The quality of your vinegar will determine the flavor or adjustments needed to make your dressing. Higher quality balsamic vinegar tends to taste more on the sweet side, while average vinegars will be more tangy. Feel free to adjust the sweetness depending on the type you use.
- Maple Syrup: Helps to balance the natural bitterness in tahini and the tang from the vinegar.
- Mustard: I used whole grain Dijon mustard for an extra kick in this recipe. If not available, you can add a little more balsamic vinegar.
- Herbs: Used some dry thyme and oregano, but you can also substitute the dry thyme with some dry basil.
- Garlic: I used a fresh clove in this, but you can also use garlic powder too.
- Nutritional Yeast: I love using nutritional yeast because it’s an umami booster, but if you don’t have it on hand, feel free to adjust the amount of soy sauce you use to provide those umami notes.
How to Make This Dressing
Finely mince your garlic and add it to a bowl along with your tahini, vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, herbs, and soy sauce.
Mix everything together and you’ll notice that the dressing will start to seize up. At this point, start pouring in a small amount of cold water at a time while mixing to help thin out your dressing.
Add more water as needed until your desired consistency is reached. Then adjust the flavor as desired.
Tips for the Perfect Creamy Tahini Dressing
- Use cold water. The use of cold water helps make this dressing more creamy and fluffy. I like to place an ice cube in a cup of water to keep it chilled while gathering my ingredients. It usually melts by the time I’m ready to use it.
- Slowly pour in your water. Pour a small amount into your dressing at a time and mix to combine. If you add too much at once you might end up with a really thin dressing.
- Taste and adjust as you go. When you mix everything together, give your dressing a taste. Based on your ingredients, you may need to add more vinegar or a little more syrup or even a pinch of salt to help bring more of the flavors together.
Frequently Asked Questions
You want to make sure that you use a tahini that is of good quality. It should be smooth and creamy and made with only mechanically hulled sesame seeds listed in the ingredients. If you notice that your tahini has separated, make sure to give it a good and even mix before using. I recommend Soom Foods Tahini as it is perfectly creamy and doesn’t have the common bitterness of other brands on the market.
If you are noticing that your dressing is tasting more bitter, it likely has to do with the quality of your tahini. Either opt for a different brand of tahini or you can reduce some of the bitterness by adding a little sweetener as well as a pinch more salt. Both ingredients help dull the bitter notes on our tongue receptors.
How to Serve
This dressing was originally designed to compliment this Maple Balsamic Brussels Sprout and Chickpea Sheet Pan. But this dressing works really well to top over various nourish bowls or even on your favorite salad. I also find that if you make the dressing a little thicker, it makes for a perfect vegetable dip as well.
More Sauces & Dips to Try
- Miso Ginger Tahini Dressing
- Ginger Sriracha Dressing
- Cashew Mustard Dressing
- Ginger Green Goddess Dressing
- Herby Tahini Dressing
- Creamy Avocado Dip
Easy Balsamic Tahini Dressing
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Dressings
- Method: One Bowl
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This Balsamic Tahini Dressing is perfect to drizzle over your favorite salads and bowls. It’s creamy, tangy and sweet and comes together in just 5 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup tahini
- 1 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp soy sauce or coconut aminos
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp dry oregano
- 1/2 tsp dry thyme
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced or crushed or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 3–4 tbsp cold water
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a bowl add everything except the water and give a good mix until you notice your tahini starts to seize up.
- Slowly pour in your water, about 1 tablespoon at a time and mix it well until you get the consistency for your dressing that you want.
- Store in an airtight container in your fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Use cold water. The use of cold water helps make this dressing more creamy and fluffy. I like to place an ice cube in a cup of water to keep it chilled while gathering my ingredients. It usually melts by the time I’m ready to use it.
Slowly pour in your water. Pour a small amount into your dressing at a time and mix to combine. If you add too much at once you might end up with a really thin dressing.
Taste and adjust as you go. When you mix everything together, give your dressing a taste. Based on your ingredients, you may need to add more vinegar or a little more syrup or even a pinch of salt to help bring more of the flavors together.
If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.
★ Catherine
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This was delicious! All the ingredients wen together beautifully. ❤
So glad! Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind comment. Thanks Mel!
This is great! It’s so creamy. I am happy to have a quick dressing to make whenever I need, since I have always have the ingredients on hand.
I want to drink this strait up its so good.
Awww so sweet Shannon. I totally agree, this dressing is that good!
Just what I needed! Quick, easy, made it in the tahini jar with the last of it. Thanks! 🙂