Green tahini sauce
This pale green herb-and-garlic-flavored tahini sauce gives a Middle Eastern twist to this great vegan stand-in for egg-yolk-based aioli. Serve it with a colorful assortment of cooked vegetables, like carrots, broccoli, radishes, roasted eggplant and shiitake mushrooms. Add baby potatoes, cauliflower, green beans or whatever is freshest at your market. Toasted sesame seeds sprinkled over the vegetables make a nice crunchy garnish.
Tahini should be labeled 100% pure sesame; use the paste, not prepared tahini sauce. Like natural peanut butter, tahini paste separates on standing. Stir tahini to incorporate the oil before measuring.
In a small food processor, mince the garlic. Add the parsley and chop it by pulsing a few times. Hold the cilantro sprigs together and cut it in 2 or 3 pieces to fit in the food processor; add the cilantro to the processor and chop it. Add one-fourth cup of water. Blend the mixture to a puree (if you have trouble pureeing the garlic and herb mixture, add an additional tablespoon or so of water for extra liquid, or add a spoonful of the tahini paste so there is enough substance to puree).
Spoon the tahini paste into a medium bowl. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice, the garlic herb puree and salt to taste. Stir to blend well. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice and 1 tablespoon water. The sauce should be thinner than mayonnaise; if it is too thick to pour, gradually stir in more lemon juice or water, depending on how tart you would like the sauce. Taste, and add more salt or lemon juice if desired. Add cayenne pepper to taste, or serve the sauce with cayenne sprinkled on top.
The sauce thickens when refrigerated. Just before serving, if necessary, stir in more water by teaspoons to bring the sauce back to the consistency you like.
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