Ready within 10 minutes, this creamy and spicy tahini ranch is the perfect addition to your weekly meal prep. It’s made with simple ingredients, like tahini, hot sauce, lemon juice, Tamari, water, and agave nectar, and requires only a quick whisk to bring it together. Filled with zippy and zesty flavours, as well as fresh dill and chives, this lush sauce is a great companion to any salad, roasted vegetable, or as a dip with a tray of crudités and crackers! It’s also naturally vegan and nut-free.
My love for tahini holds no bounds. Its potential for the creamiest and dreamiest sauces is key in the world of plant-based cooking. The spread made of ground sesame seeds is naturally nutty, a touch sweet, and a teeny bit bitter. Just so well-balanced on its own! I am also a lover of ranch dressing/dip, especially spicy variations. I knew that I could make this classic condiment work with wholesome tahini as my base.
Spicy Tahini Ranch Ingredients:
- Tahini and cold water: when you combine these two, you get such a luscious and rich sauce. My preferred tahini brand is Soom.
- Lemon juice: this adds the *tang* that is so key for tahini ranch dressing.
- Olive oil, Tamari & and agave nectar: traditional ranch is made with buttermilk/sour cream (or both) and mayonnaise as the base. The dairy has a natural hint of sweetness and depth, and the mayonnaise is extra rich. Adding olive oil, Tamari, and agave nectar helps us get closer to those flavour profiles.
- Hot sauce: because we want it spicy! Use your go-to brand.
- Onion powder and garlic powder: more classic ranch flavours, and so much easier to use here than their fresh counterparts.
- Fresh dill and chives: I love the punch of fresh herbs (and always have these two on hand), but offer measurements for dried herbs in the recipe notes.
My favourite thing about this recipe is that it simply needs a quick whisk in one bowl. No blender necessary! You can keep it in a sealed container in the fridge for about a week–making it excellent for meal prep. The sauce will firm up a bit in the fridge, so I recommend stirring in a teeny splash of water when you pull it out.
Baked sweet potato fries are excellent dipped in this spicy tahini ranch recipe! Any crispy, roasted vegetable is great though. For more recipes using tahini, check out my Maple Tahini Glazed Cauliflower with Chipotle, One Jumbo Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookie, and these Loaded Shawarma-Siced Fries with Lemony Tahini.
Spicy Tahini Ranch
A drizzle or dip of my spicy tahini ranch makes any salad or roasted vegetable so much better. With only 10 ingredients, this creamy and zesty vegan sauce is ideal for meal prep.
Servings 1 cup
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup tahini
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon agave nectar
- 1-2 tablespoons hot sauce
- ½ teaspoon Tamari
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
- sea salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- ¼ – ⅓ cup cold water
Notes
- My favourite all-purpose hot sauce is Cholula. Use your personal favourite here! In these photos I used Brooklyn Delhi’s Guntur Sannam hot sauce, which added some extra dimensions of flavour for sure!
- To sub fresh herbs with dried, I would take the amounts down to 1 teaspoon each.
Instructions
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In a medium bowl, combine the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, agave, hot sauce, Tamari, onion powder, garlic powder, dill, chives, salt, pepper, and ¼ cup water. Slowly whisk to combine. Speed up your whisking once everything is unified and creamy. If you need more water to loosen up the dressing, add it by the tablespoon and whisk it in.
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Taste the dressing and adjust the seasoning if necessary (more salt, hot sauce, lemon etc). The spicy tahini ranch will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for about a week.
