Food

A ‘Tahini’ Set for Hanukkah

The Soom Tahini Gift Box includes top-quality tahini and a terrific little cookbook packed with ways to use it. Image by Mariana Fernandez

By Gayle L. Squires December 14, 2016

While you might associate tahini with a falafel stand (where they probably pronounce it t’china), a health food store or the iconic orange and brown Joyva can, the Israeli staple truly hit the American mainstream in 2016. Epicurious dubbed it “the new kale,” The New York Times ran a feature on the sesame-paste spread and its sweetened cousin, halva, and Executive Editor of Food & Wine Tina Ujlaki listed it as one of five ingredients to add to your pantry. (Her other Middle Eastern favorites were harissa and labne.)

Soom (kosher) tahini is the brand preferred by chefs including Michael Solomonov (Zahav, Dizengoff), Alon Shaya (Shaya), Brooks Headley (Superiority Burger) and Danny Bowien (Mission Chinese). The company was started by three sisters in Philadelphia, and their tahini is made from single-sourced Ethiopian White Humera sesame seeds. Soom comes in regular, chocolate and organic varieties, and can be purchased as a gift set with Adeena Sussman’s terrific “Tahini” (Short Stack Editions), a single-subject cookbook that’s smaller and skinnier than an iPad mini and contains over twenty recipes to turn your tahini into granola, glazed carrots, chicken Milanese, sandwich cookies and much more.

Gayle Squires is a food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Her path to the culinary world is paved with tap shoes, a medical degree, business consulting and travel. She has a knack for convincing chefs to give up their secret recipes. Her blog is KosherCamembert

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO