Lemon Tahini Dressing

My friend, Jikan, currently the Tenzo at Great Vow Zen Monastery gave me the following recipe. This comes from Hollyhock Cooks, a wonderful cookbook from the Hollyhock Retreat Center in British Columbia, Canada.

This is a very nice dressing to top what Christie & I refer to as a 'Monk Bowl', as taken from a dish at Blossoming Lotus. Top your choice of grain (brown rice, qunioa, steamed barley...) with steamed or sauteed greens (yay, kale), some kind of legume (beans, tempeh, tofu would probably be good too), add other veggies if you want, and then a tasty dressing.

We've been playing with a few dressings. Our attempt to recreate the "Hollyhock", a nutritional yeast and tamari based dressing served at Great Vow hasn't been quite as successful, once I figure that out will post. Christie has made a great ginger one too, will see about getting that posted. Here's the lemon tahini batch that turned out very tasty.

Lemon Tahini Dressing

• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/2 water
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juic
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1-2 garlic cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin (optional)

Whirl all of the above up in a blender until smooth and enjoy.

We found at first that the garlic was VERY strong in this. Might be a vote for using roasted garlic instead. Once the garlic mellowed in the fridge a few days it was much nicer.