Tarator (sauce)
Middle Eastern sauce made either from walnuts (Turkey) or tahini (Levant)
Tarator sauce
Levantine tarator with falafels
Alternative namestahinia sauce[1]
TypeSauce
Place of originOttoman Empire[2]
Serving temperatureCold
Main ingredientsgarlic, lemon juice, ground nuts or sesame[2]
VariationsTurkish, Levantine
  •   Media: Tarator sauce

Tarator (Arabic: طراطور), sometimes called tahinia sauce,[1] is a nut- or tahini- based sauce made with lemon juice and garlic that is found in Middle Eastern cuisine and usually served next to fish, falafel, or beef shawarma.[3] It is different from tarator in Balkan cuisine, which is a yoghurt-based cucumber soup similar to tzatziki.[2]

History

Vinegar and nut based sauces have existed in the middle east since medieval times; the 13th century Arabic cookbook kitab al-tabikh by author Muhammad bin Hasan al-Baghdadi mentions a condiment called khall wa-khardal (خل وخردل), made from pounded, peeled, almonds and vinegar.[4][5]

According to the Etymological Dictionary of Contemporary Turkish by Sevan Nişanyan, the earliest mention of tarator was by Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi in 1655, in his book Seyahatnâme. Evliya describes tarator as a sauce made from garlic and vinegar.[6] Dairy-free olive oil and nut sauces like tarator were popular among Ottoman Christians during fasts.[7]

According to historian Gil Marks, tarator was originally a ground walnut-based sauce from the Ottoman Empire.[2] The Ottoman cookbook Melceü't-Tabbâhîn, written in 1844 by Mehmed Kâmil at the Imperial School of Medicine, contained various tarator recipes, using ingredients like walnuts garlic, bread, and spices.[8]

The word "tarator" (Ottoman Turkish: تراتور, طراتور) appears twice in the 1890 dictionary by Turkish-to-English James Redhouse, A Turkish and English Lexicon, in which it is defined as "A sauce of pounded nuts and oil, eaten with bread".[9] Another description can be found in a 1923 Egyptian Arabic-English dictionary where terator is defines as "condiment of nuts, with garlic, oil, and curdled milk, used with fish."[10]

By region

Levant

In Levantine cuisine, tarator (Arabic: طراطور) is a sauce made from tahini, lemon juice, ground garlic, salt, and water.[11][12] It is often served with falafels[13] or fish dishes.[14]

Parsley is a common addition to tahini sauce,[15][16] this variation is sometimes called baqdunsieh.[17] Yogurt is also a common ingredient.[18][3] Nuts like almonds or pine nuts are sometimes added to thicken the sauce, similar to the Turkish variety.[3]

In Lebanon, tarator is traditionally served with cooked snails, in a dish called bzeh ma' tarator (Levantine Arabic: بزاق مع طراطور).[19][20]

In Palestine, tahini sauce is used in a kofta-and-potatoes casserole.[21][22][23]

Turkey

In Turkish cuisine, tarator is a sauce made from walnuts, bread, lemon juice or vinegar, ground garlic, and olive oil.[24] It is often served with fried calamari, for that reason it also called kalamari sos.[25][26][27] The sauce is also served with boiled vegetables.[28] There are also recipes of tarator sauce in Turkey that include yoghurt, or mayo.[25][27][29]

Turkish tarator may also use other nuts as bases, like almonds.[30][31] Regional variants of the sauce, such as that of Jehan in southern Turkey, may use tahini as thickener.[14][32]

Havuç Tarator, or carrot tarator is a Turkish dip made from grated carrots, yogurt, and garlic,[33] and sometimes walnuts.[34]

  • Turkish tarator with fried calamari
    Turkish tarator with fried calamari
  • Levantine Baqdunsieh, made with lemon juice, tahini, and parsley
    Levantine Baqdunsieh, made with lemon juice, tahini, and parsley

See Also

References

  1. ^ a b "How to make tahini sauce". SBS Food. 29 September 2020. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d Marks, Gil (17 November 2010). "Tarator". Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. HMH. ISBN 978-0-544-18631-6. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Baked salmon "tarator" style". SBS Food. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  4. ^ Roden, Claudia (22 March 2018). A New Book of Middle Eastern Food: The Essential Guide to Middle Eastern Cooking. As Heard on BBC Radio 4. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-1-4059-3778-8. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  5. ^ Lewicka, Paulina [in Polish] (25 August 2011). Food and Foodways of Medieval Cairenes: Aspects of Life in an Islamic Metropolis of the Eastern Mediterranean. BRILL. p. 345. ISBN 978-90-04-19472-4. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  6. ^ Sevan Nişanyan. "tarator". Nişanyan Sözlük (in Turkish). Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  7. ^ Isin, Priscilla Mary [in Turkish] (12 February 2025). Bountiful Empire: A History of Ottoman Cuisine. Reaktion Books. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-78023-939-2. Retrieved 28 September 2025.
  8. ^ "A Bibliography of Turkish Cookery Books up to 1927". Turkish Cultural Foundation. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  9. ^ Redhouse, Sir James William (1890). A Turkish and English Lexicon: Shewing in English the Significations of the Turkish Terms. American mission. pp. 525, 1234. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  10. ^ Spiro, Socrates (1923). Arabic-English Dictionary of the Modern Arabic of Egypt (in Arabic). Elias' Modern Press. p. 80. Retrieved 24 December 2025.
  11. ^ Bishara, Rawia; Bishara, Jumana (2018). Levant: New Middle Eastern Flavours. London: Octopus. ISBN 978-0-85783-551-2.
  12. ^ Abraham, Nabeel; Shryock, Andrew, eds. (2000). Arab Detroit: From Margin to Mainstream. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 536. ISBN 978-0-8143-3978-7.
  13. ^ "ميركل.. حملة انتخابية بطعم الفلافل" [Merkel: An Election Campaign with a Falafel Flavor]. EuroNews Arabic (in Arabic). 21 August 2017.
  14. ^ a b Roden, Claudia (24 December 2008). The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-55856-5. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  15. ^ Karadsheh, Suzy (21 June 2019). "BEST Tahini Sauce Recipe-How to Make Tahini Saue (Video)". The Mediterranean Dish. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  16. ^ Bishara, Rawia (11 June 2018). "The Friday Fish Fry Has Special Meaning to the Chef of Brooklyn's Tanoreen". Saveur. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  17. ^ Tamimi, Sami; Wigley, Tara (16 June 2020). Falastin: A Cookbook. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. ISBN 978-0-399-58174-8.
  18. ^ Ottolenghi, Yotam (16 Jun 2021). "Oven Fries With Tahini Yogurt and Smoky-Sweet Nuts Recipe". NYT Cooking. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  19. ^ "Snails and tahini: Lebanon's best kept culinary secret". Middle East Eye. 6 Apr 2018. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  20. ^ "In rural Lebanon, autumn's first rains summon an annual delicacy". L'Orient Today. 28 October 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2025.
  21. ^ Higgins, Lilly. "Palestinian one-pot wonder the whole family will love". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  22. ^ El-Haddad, Laila M.; Schmitt, Maggie (2016). The Gaza kitchen: a Palestinian culinary journey (Second ed.). Charlottesville, Virginia: Just World Books. ISBN 978-1-68257-008-1. Retrieved 24 May 2025.
  23. ^ Tamimi, Sami. "meet in your kitchen | Sami Tamimi's Kofta b'siniyah with Tahini Sauce". Meike Peters | eat in my kitchen. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  24. ^ "Turkish Tarator (Walnut and Garlic Sauce)". Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health. 18 September 2012.
  25. ^ a b "Tarator Sos (Kalamar Sosu)". Nefis Yemek Tarifleri. 28 September 2016.
  26. ^ "Tarator Sos (Kalamar Sosu)". Yemek.
  27. ^ a b "Calamary Sauce Tarator Recipe". Turkish Style Cooking. 21 August 2014.
  28. ^ Akin, Engin (2015). Essential Turkish Cuisine. ABRAMS. ISBN 9781613128718.
  29. ^ "The Mediterranean's Secret Ingredient: Walnuts". The New York Times. 28 Sep 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  30. ^ Solomonov, Michael; Cook (Restaurateur), Steven (2015). "BLACK BASS WITH WALNUT TARATOR". Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-544-37328-0.
  31. ^ Kitchen, Leanne (5 September 2012). Turkey: More Than 100 Recipes, with Tales from the Road. Chronicle Books. ISBN 978-1-4521-0770-7. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  32. ^ "Teradot". Epicurious. Retrieved 7 October 2025.
  33. ^ Coşkun, Ayla (4 April 2021). "4 delicious recipes to celebrate International Carrot Day". Daily Sabah. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
  34. ^ "Havuç Tarator Tarifi, Tarator Nasıl Yapılır?". Memorial Sağlık Grubu (in Turkish). 17 March 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2025.
Look up Tarator in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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