Tahini Pasta (Vegan & Dairy Free)

It's finally here. A deliciously creamy pasta but without all of that heavy dairy. This vegan tahini pasta is going to make your creamy guilty free pasta dreams come true. It's so delicious with garlic, chilli, lemon, and basil flavors shining through. Bonus part: the sauce is made in 2 minutes and you basically just need to boil pasta.

Tahini paste is so delicious in a variety of sweet and savoury recipes. But I had the idea to incorporate it in a pasta dish and use common Asian ingredients because it's similar to your classic peanut noodles. It has a similar nutty taste and works so well in this dish.

This tahini pasta sauce is so well balanced. You get the nuttiness of the tahini, combined with spice from chilli flakes, sweetness from the honey, saltiness from the soy sauce and tartness from the citrus. You're hitting all the right notes: salty, sweet, sour and spicy. Trust me - when you get all 4 of the "S" words action, you know it's going to be well balanced.

Tips for making Tahini Pasta

This is one of the easiest pasta dishes you will ever make! The sauce comes together in no time and the rest of the recipe takes 5 minutes once the pasta is cooked. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

• The tahini pasta sauce comes together in 1 bowl - simply mix all the ingredients in. When you're mixing, it's likely that the tahini sauce will seize up and get really thick, but continue mixing and it'll loosen up again. That's also why we add a few tablespoons of water
• Once the sauce is ready and the pasta is cooked, the final steps is to throw everything together and this is best done in a pan over low heat, to allow the sauce to melt onto the pasta
• Cook the garlic and chilli flakes in the olive oil, then add the pasta, green onions, basil and the sauce. Add the sauce in 2 parts to control how saucy you want your pasta to be. I find that some people love it saucy and some not so much. This way you can taste and adjust
• Also be sure to reserve some pasta water to add to the pan and help loosen the sauce a bit and make it more creamy.
• When re-heating any leftovers, you should also re-heat in a pan on low heat with a splash of water

That's pretty much it! It doesn't get any easier than that. I love having mine with tons of fresh basil on top (which is awesome because I always have lots of fresh basil in the summer). If you give this tahini pasta recipe a try, definitely let me know what you think and leave me a review.

For more recipes that use tahini, check out:

• Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Shawarma
• Cardamom & Tahini Energy Date Balls
• Easy kale Tahini Salad
• Eggplant Fatteh

Tahini Pasta (Vegan & Dairy Free)

This easy vegan tahini pasta has just made your dairy free creamy pasta dreams come true! Garlic, chilli, tahini, honey, and basil are the star flavors in this unique and super easy dish.

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Mains

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Tahini noodles, Tahini pasta, vegan pasta

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Servings: 3

Author: Amina Al-Saigh

Ingredients

For the sauce:

• ▢ ½ cup tahini paste
• ▢ 2 tablespoons honey or substitute maple syrup or any other liquid sweetener
• ▢ 2 teaspoons chilli garlic sauce or substitute with 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
• ▢ 2 tablespoons soy sauce or substitute with liquid aminos
• ▢ Juice of 2 lemons approximately ¼ cup lemon juice
• ▢ 3 tablespoons water

For the pasta:

• ▢ 300 g spaghetti or any other pasta about ⅔ of a 454g package
• ▢ 3 large cloves garlic
• ▢ 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ▢ 1 teaspoon chilli flakes optional
• ▢ 2 green onions
• ▢ 1 large handful chopped basil approximately 10-15 leaves

Instructions

• Start by boiling the pasta in salted water according to package instructions
• In a bowl, mix together all the sauce ingredients in a bowl. The sauce might seize up due to the tahini, but continue to mix and it will loosen again. Add the 3 tablespoons of water to help loosen it
• Finely dice the green onions and cut the basil in a chiffonade by piling the leaves and rolling them to form a cigar, then finely chop
• Once cooked, either drain the pasta and reserve a few cups of pasta water, or leave it in the pot with the water and use tongs to transfer the pasta
• In a pan, heat the olive oil. Add the crushed garlic and chilli flakes and cook for 30 seconds until fragrant. Add the drained and cooked pasta
• Add ¾ of the tahini sauce and a few tablespoons of pasta water and mix together over low heat
• Taste the pasta and either add the rest of the sauce if you like it more saucy or leave as is
• Toss in the green onions and basil and mix well
• Serve with extra chilli flakes and basil leaves, per preference

Notes

• To heat the leftovers, simply add to a pan over low heat with a few tablespoons of water to loosen the sauce
• If you don't have chilli garlic sauce, you can replace with chilli flakes
• You can also toss in vegetables that are quick to cook such as spinach, kale, mushrooms or peas

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