Green Goddess Tahini Dip
Serve this green goddess tahini as a dip or drizzle it as a sauce! This delightful vegan recipe is a great appetizer with crudités and pita.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
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Bored by your dinner plans? This green goddess tahini will liven up any basic meal! I’m always so happy to have it in the refrigerator to serve as an appetizer or snack.
A dollop or two brings together random leftovers and simple meals made with veggies, greens, whole grains or beans. You can also spread it onto your sandwiches or wraps. Green goddess tahini is here to save the day. You’ll find many more serving suggestions below.
This recipe was inspired by a similar dip that I grabbed at Whole Foods before hosting girls’ night (Falafel King brand). A couple of my friends follow dairy-free diets, so I’m always looking for fun options that satisfy our requirements. As the night went on, we all fell in love with this vegan dip—it’s creamy, rich yet fresh, and satisfying. It’s irresistible.
So, I combined my Best Tahini Sauce (truly the best) with the herbs from my Easy Green Goddess Dressing, and here you have it. You can make this recipe with any combination of cilantro, parsley, basil, dill and/or mint. Add a small handful of fresh tarragon if you can find it for that characteristic green goddess flavor. This dip (or sauce) is lovely in any season. I hope you fall in love with it!
How to Make Green Goddess Tahini
You’ll find the full recipe below, but here’s how it works and why. You’ll want to fill a bowl with ice and water while you wait on step one.
- Soak freshly minced garlic and lemon juice for 10 minutes. This step infuses the lemon juice with fresh garlicky flavor, and it’s worth the wait. Otherwise, we’d blend garlic directly into the sauce, but I find that the garlic continues to become more intense as time goes on and eventually tastes harsh. Always use fresh garlic, not pre-minced garlic from a jar.
- Strain the garlic out of the lemon juice. This is easy to do with a flexible spatula and a fine sieve.
- Combine the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Add the infused lemon juice, tahini, herbs, salt and a little pinch of cumin. For these photos, we used 1/2 cup parsley, 1/4 cup cilantro and 1/4 cup basil for our fresh herbs.
- Blend until the mixture is a smooth green and the herbs have broken into tiny flecks.
- Add ice-cold water, two tablespoons at a time, while running the food processor. You’ll notice that at first the sauce thickens, but then loosens into a beautifully creamy sauce. Cold water is key when making anything with tahini; it helps yield a pale white (vs. yellow), extra creamy sauce.
Watch How to Make Green Goddess Tahini Sauce
Green Goddess Tahini Serving Suggestions
This recipe can serve as a dip or sauce. Offer it as a creamy vegan appetizer, like you would hummus. In fact, it would be a great addition to a full spread with Mediterranean dips like hummus, baba ganoush, and feta dip.
Spread it onto a fresh sandwich or wrap, like this Green Goddess Hummus Sandwich. Or use it to bring together a healthy bowl with veggies, beans and whole grains, like this Farmers’ Market Bowl with Green Goddess Sauce.
Here’s a short list of components that go well with green goddess tahini:
- Chickpeas
- Crackers, crostini, pita wedges or pita chips
- Falafel
- Greens, like arugula or spring greens
- Raw vegetables: Broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, fennel, etc.
- Roasted vegetables: Roasted asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, Delicata squash, green beans or these Colorful Roasted Vegetables
- Whole grains, like farro, quinoa or wild rice
More Fresh Dips & Sauces
These herbed dips will brighten any meal! I have many more dips, dressing and sauce recipes here.
- Creamy Avocado Dip
- Green Goddess Hummus
- Homemade Ranch Dressing
- Tzatziki
- Zhoug! (Spicy Cilantro Sauce)
Please let me know how your recipe turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you, and I’m eager to hear how you serve this dip.
Green Goddess Tahini Dip
Serve this green goddess tahini as a dip or drizzle it as a sauce! This delightful vegan dip is a great appetizer with crudités, crackers or pita wedges. Green goddess tahini livens up basic vegetables and makes any meal more exciting. Recipe yields a generous 1 cup.
Ingredients
- 4 medium-to-large cloves garlic, pressed or minced
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- ½ cup tahini
- 1 cup lightly packed fresh herbs (tender stems are fine): use cilantro, parsley, basil, dill and/or mint
- Optional: Up to 2 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- Pinch of ground cumin
- 5 to 6 tablespoons ice-cold water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine the garlic and lemon juice. Let the mixture rest for 10 minutes, to give the garlic time to infuse the lemon juice with flavor.
- Pour the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into the bowl of a food processor. Press the garlic solids with a spatula to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the garlic.
- Add the tahini, herbs, salt and cumin to the food processor. Blend until the herbs are tiny green flecks, scraping down the sides and bottom of the food processor as necessary.
- While running the food processor, drizzle in water 2 tablespoons at a time, scraping down the sides and bottom of the food processor as necessary. After about 5 to 6 tablespoons, you should have a lovely, creamy green sauce. It will thicken further as it cools.
- If desired, thin with additional water for a more drizzly sauce, at which point, you may want to adjust as necessary. (If you’d like more tang, add more lemon, or for more overall flavor, add another pinch of salt.) Your tahini sauce is ready to serve! Leftovers will keep well in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 1 week. The tahini may thicken with time; whisk in additional cold water to thin as necessary.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my Best Tahini Sauce and Easy Green Goddess Salad Dressing.
Serving suggestions: Serve with raw or roasted vegetables, like carrots, bell peppers, celery, cucumber, broccoli or tomato. Try it with toasted pita wedges, pita chips, whole grain crackers, or crostini. These are only a few uses, go wild with it!
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I always prepare food from a recipe. I’m the girl who measures 1/8 tsp of pepper. Now that you understand the type of person I am in the kitchen, I need some help with this recipe. When you say, “1 cup lightly packed fresh herbs: use cilantro, parsley, basil, dill and/or mint,” can you break it down for me? Which herbs and how much of each do you typically use or recommend? Thank you in advance for the help. This recipe sounds amazing and I can’t wait to try it.
Hi there! I really try to write my recipes for your type and then expect everyone to follow the recipe to whatever degree they feel like. :) I wanted this one to be flexible and you really cannot go wrong with any quantity of those herbs—even just one of them would be lovely. For these photos, we used 1/2 cup parsley, 1/4 cup cilantro and 1/4 cup fresh basil. Great combo! I’ll add that to the post for anyone else who might be wondering the same.
Surprisingly satisfying and absolutely bursting with fresh flavor. Comes together in a snap. I will be putting this on everything.
Hooray! Thank you!
I like the sound of this but I’m intolerant (not allergic) of garlic and raw onions of any sort. Do you think the dip/sauce would still have the impact without the garlic?
Hi Sue! I think you’d still really enjoy this dip without the garlic.
I made a double batch tonight with mint, parsley and cilantro – delicious as written. Would have used tarragon but they were out. I also roasted a pan of yellow onion, zucchini, yellow squash and red bell pepper. Cooked a pot of farro, which I toss in a little Better than Bouillon’s No Chicken “Chicken” base right after draining. Made a bed of spring greens, sliced cucumber and grape tomatoes, topped with the farro, roasted veggies, and crumbled feta, then drizzled the tahini dip over that while it was still on the runny side. Divine and just want I needed after a week of freezing temperatures and rain! Next plate, I’m adding toasted pepitas a la classic C&K ;) Thanks!
That sounds like an incredible feast! Glad you enjoyed this tahini, Eve! Thank you for sharing.
Delicious! I will be making this again. This week.
I just wanted to say thank you for the endless amount of goodness you bring to my world. Our daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition this past year and we’ve gone diary and gluten free at our house. While she isn’t terribly open to new foods, I find your recipes so incredibly delicious and well balanced. I’ve tried so many and learned to trust your combinations. I just keep praying that one day she will too. Thank you for what you do.
Thank you for your kind comment, Heather. I’m so glad my recipes as a place you can go to try new recipes.
Another great cookie and Kate recipe. I made this the other day because I had some parsley that was about to go bad. SO TASTY – have been eating it with meals/leftovers. Thank you!!!
Happy to hear it! Thank you, Jo!
Can this dip be frozen and used later? Thanks!
Hi there! I haven’t tried that, but I believe it would freeze well. The greens might not look quite as fresh, but it should still be nice. Please let me know if you try it!
Cookie and Kate strike again! I don’t know why I even bother to “test drive” your recipes before serving to guests. Never been a miss. This recipe turned out perfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.
That is the greatest compliment! Thank you, Amy. That is what I strive for. :)
Yummy and unusual. Thank you!
This was absolutely amazing!!! The recipe came at a great time with opened tahini at hand, as well as the fresh herbs. We found so many vegetables and some carbs we enjoyed it with as well. Thank you! I’m always looking for and trying new things from you. This one will be used often.
Could this recipe be made with dried herbs? I know it won’t look the same, but what matters to me is the taste.