Joe’s Ridiculously Cuminy Tahini Salad Dressing

During our 2014 West Oakland garden build with City Slicker Farms, Joe of Numi Organic Tea made mountains of the best kale salad ever. His ridiculously cuminy tahini dressing takes it over the top. Make it immediately!

Alright salad friends, here it is! My salad dressing is never the same twice, and in the spirit of our lesson at 18 Reasons, you should use your intuition instead of exact measurements.
 
• Raw tahini (This can be tough to find in some areas. Okay to substitute organic or other tahini). 
• Sunflower oil  
• Ume plum vinegar 
• Freshly ground cumin (a lot) 
• Spirulina 
• Lemon juice (optional) 

I usually start with a clean small mason jar or old nut-butter jar (16 oz capacity) and begin by filling it 1/4 – 1/3 of the way full with tahini and then match that amount with sunflower oil. 

Next, I add a few healthy dashes of ume plum vinegar. Have a taste of the vinegar if you’ve never used it. It’s very salty and this is the primary balance to all of the fats in the dressing. Don’t go crazy with it and add it last if you are nervous. 

Put a ton of cumin in. Like, an inappropriate amount. Then add a bit more. Cumin is key. 

Stir, then check the consistency. I like mine thick if it’s going onto greens, or a bit thinner if it’s destined for kale. Add more tahini or sunflower oil to get to your desired consistency. Taste. Adjust flavors as needed. 

Lately I’ve been adding lemon or lime juice to my salad instead of the dressing, but you can add it to the dressing and cut back on the plum vinegar if you want. I first had this dressing on fresh spinach leaves, that was the whole salad and it was awesome. For my salads I like some combination of curly kale covered with lime juice, a bit of salt, and massaged, with raw ginger and turmeric grated on top, plus sweet potatoes, avocados, nutritional yeast, hemp seeds, whatever fruit is in season (peaches!). Play around with those ingredients and make it your own, that’s how I learned! Let me know how it turns out!