Tahini for breakfast
Updated: Oct 18, 2022
Breakfast. It is the first meal of the day, the one to break the previous night’s fasting period.
Breakfast meals vary in different cultures and places around the world. In France, breakfast is a café au lait and a croissant with butter or jam. The American continental breakfast includes pancakes, waffles, bacon, and scrambled eggs. In England, breakfast is not a decent breakfast without beans, and in China, we were served rice noodles soup, and unsweetened tea for breakfast.
Here's what a typical Israeli breakfast looks like: fresh vegetable salad, an omelet or shakshuka (eggs baked in a tomato sauce spiced with dry and fresh herbs), various kinds of white cheeses - labneh, cottage cheese, feta, and what is generally called yellow cheeses (hard cheese such as Edam or Gouda), these often served with cracked olives, tahini sauce, halvah, homemade fruit jam, and crusty bread.
It is hard to believe that this rich breakfast feast has evolved from the simple and economic mid-morning meal, consisting of locally available produce, that has been served in the Kibutz's communal dining room for early morning workers as they returned from the fields. At that time tahini was a dominant ingredient in the local Arabic Kitchen, it becomes a staple in Israeli households only in the '60s, as a commercial, canned, ready-to-eat tahini savory spread. Decades later, in the early years of the new millennium, the Israeli kitchen finally learned to embrace the tahini paste and to use it as a base ingredient for savory and sweet dishes, from there it has quickly found its way to every meal, including breakfast.
Why add tahini to your first meal of the day? well, there are many good reasons for that. Tahini is packed with numerous vitamins and minerals, contains a high level of protein and calcium, and it’s a source of iron. It’s a great starter for the day.
You can enjoy your morning salad with tahini savory sauce, add it to your yogurt bowl, or blend it into your smoothie. A common Middle Eastern breakfast is a slice of bread topped with tahini paste and date syrup. Check out our recipes page for more ideas on how to start your morning tahini-strong!