Salata Tahniyya

The dip at the centre of the Sudanese table: tahini and a little peanut butter loosened with lime and water into a pale, savoury cream, sharpened with garlic and cumin and sometimes a spoonful of yoghurt, scooped up with bread alongside ful and grilled meat at almost every meal

Origin: Khartoum, Sudan

From the journey of Sesame.

Sudan sits in one of the great sesame lands of the world, the Middle Nile, where the seed has been grown since the kingdoms of Kush and Meroë and where the country is, to this day, amongst its largest producers. Sesame oil is the everyday cooking fat, and tahini (taḥniyya) is a daily staple, most often in the form of this salad-dip that appears beside almost every Sudanese meal. What distinguishes the Sudanese version from the tahini sauces of the Levant is the addition of a little peanut butter (dakwa), the other great Sudanese seed paste, which rounds and deepens the sesame; it is sharpened with lime, garlic, and cumin and loosened to a pourable cream, sometimes enriched with a spoonful of yoghurt. Scooped up with bread alongside ful medames, salata aswad (smoked aubergine), and grilled meat, it is the savoury, everyday face of the seed that elsewhere became halva and hummus.

Ingredients

Salad

  • 4 tbsp tahini (well stirred)
  • 1 tbsp smooth peanut butter (dakwa)
  • 3 tbsp lime juice (about 2 limes), plus more to taste
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tbsp plain yoghurt (optional)
  • 0.5 tsp salt, or to taste
  • 60 ml cold water, or as needed

To finish

  • 1 tomato, finely diced (to garnish)
  • 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (to garnish)

Method

  1. In a bowl, whisk the tahini and peanut butter together with the garlic, cumin, and salt.
  2. Add the lime juice and whisk. The paste will seize and stiffen dramatically; this is expected.
  3. Whisk in the cold water a little at a time, and the yoghurt if using, until the salad becomes smooth, pale, and pourable, about the consistency of single cream.
  4. Taste and adjust: more lime for brightness, more salt to season, a little more water to thin. It should be tangy, nutty, and savoury.
  5. Spread into a shallow bowl, scatter with the diced tomato and chopped coriander, and serve with bread, alongside ful, grilled meat, or vegetables.

Notes

Salata tahniyya is endlessly adaptable: some cooks fold in grated cucumber or a chopped fresh chilli, others keep it plain to scoop with bread. The peanut butter (dakwa) can be left out for a purer tahini salad closer to the Levantine style, but the sesame-and-groundnut combination is the characteristically Sudanese touch. Use a good, light tahini whose only ingredient is sesame. It is a fixture of the Ramadan iftar table and of the everyday Sudanese spread alike.

The Gastrographer

The Gastrographer

Mapping Culinary History

To explore — select an ingredient below.

Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route
Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control
© 2026 The Gastrographer. All original research, narratives, and illustrations. All rights reserved.