Tahini for Breakfast

Breakfast is the day's first meal, breaking the previous night’s fasting period.

Breakfast dishes differ across cultures and regions globally. In France, breakfast typically consists of a café au lait paired with a croissant, often accompanied by butter or jam. The American continental breakfast features pancakes, waffles, bacon, and scrambled eggs. In England, a proper breakfast must include beans, while in China, breakfast offerings include rice noodles, soup, and unsweetened tea.

A typical Israeli breakfast today includes a fresh vegetable salad, an omelet or shakshuka (eggs cooked in a spiced tomato sauce), a variety of white cheeses like labneh, cottage cheese, and feta, as well as what are commonly referred to as yellow cheeses (hard cheeses such as Edam or Gouda). It also features cracked olives, tahini sauce, halvah, homemade fruit jam, and crusty bread.

It's astonishing to think that this lavish breakfast spread has its roots in the simple, economical mid-morning meal made from locally sourced produce, served in the Kibbutz's communal dining area for workers returning from the fields. Back then, tahini was a prominent ingredient in the local Arabic cuisine. Still, it only became a household staple in Israel during the '60s as a commercially available, canned, ready-to-eat savory spread. In the early 2000s, the Israeli kitchen began to embrace tahini paste, using it as a fundamental ingredient for both savory and sweet dishes. Since then, it has swiftly become a part of every meal, including breakfast.

Why include tahini in your breakfast? There are several compelling reasons. Tahini is rich in various vitamins and minerals, offers a high amount of protein and calcium, and serves as a source of iron. It's a fantastic way to start the day. You can enhance your morning salad with a savory tahini sauce, mix it into your yogurt bowl, or blend it into your smoothie. A traditional Middle Eastern breakfast might consist of a slice of crusty bread with tahini paste and a drizzle of date syrup on top.

Before the shelves in grocery stores were filled with flavorful yogurts—those that come with fruit jam at the bottom of the jar, flavoring extracts, and sweeteners—there was the plain, simple yogurt made from whole milk, known for its smooth texture and natural sour taste.

Adding something sweet to your yogurt is a great idea; it offsets the sourness (caused by the bacterial fermentation of milk protein) and introduces an extra layer of flavor and texture. In the past, my father would open a yogurt cup and remove a scoop to make space for a spoonful of homemade jam. My mom would slice fresh strawberries into mine and sprinkle them with sugar. Nowadays, with my pantry often stocked with tahini, date syrup, and sweet dukkah, these have become my preferred additions to the breakfast bowl.

Now, let's get into the kitchen!

Seven Species Breakfast Bowl with Tahini

This breakfast bowl features the Seven Species (in Hebrew: Shiv’at HaMinim) - wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates - the seven agricultural foods mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as special to the Land of Israel. These foods are traditionally associated with abundance, harvest, and the land’s fertility, and they often appear in Jewish cultural and culinary traditions - especially around harvest festivals like Shavuot and Sukkot.

Makes 1 serving

Ingredients

• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt or thick Mediterranean-style yogurt

• 1 tablespoon tahini

• ½ tablespoon date syrup (or honey)

• Figs (fresh or dried)

• Grapes (or raisins)

• Pomegranate seeds

• 1-2 tablespoons of oats (symbolizing wheat & barley), lightly toasted in olive oil

Preparation

1. Spoon the yogurt into a bowl.

2. Drizzle the tahini and date syrup over the yogurt.

3. Top with figs, grapes (or raisins), and pomegranate seeds.

4. Finish with the toasted oats and serve immediately.