Sesame Halva
I love halva, the Middle Eastern dessert made from sesame seeds. I'm not even sure how they make it but I decided to make my own healthy, raw version. Actually I was going to see if I could make raw tahini with my blender because I've not been able to find a raw tahini here in NZ. My blender ground the sesame seeds really well, but I was having a bit of a sweet craving and I ended up abandoning my tahini experiment in favor of raw halva. I didn't regret it, it really hit that sweet spot!
This isn't an exact recipe, but it's such a simple recipe with so few ingredients that if you just let your taste buds guide you and you can't go wrong.
Ingredients:
Sesame seeds (raw)
Honey
Vanilla extract
Dash of Himalayan sea salt
Instructions:
Make sure your blender is really dry before you start. If there's any moisture the sesame seeds aren't going to grind up so well.
Pour sesame seeds into the blender and grind them to a fine meal. Stop frequently and using a spatula scrap down the sides, and fluff up the meal and seeds that will end up underneath the blades at the bottom of the blender jug, then continue blending. Do this until you have ground all of the sesame seeds.
Pour the sesame meal into a bowl. Add honey to taste and enough to form a dough. Add a dash of Himalayan sea salt, not enough to make it salty, but the salt will bring out the other flavors. Add vanilla extract to taste. I used about a cup of sesame seeds and 1/4 teas of vanilla extract. You don't need much. Mix by hand until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended together.
Pinch off a little bit of the dough and roll them between the palms of your hands into little balls. I made mine very tiny, about a heaping 1/2 teas worth of dough. They probably came out about the size of cooked chickpeas. They were the perfect size. Even though it's raw, this is a very concentrated food, so you don't want to eat too much at a time.
Keeps well in the fridge. In fact I think it's even nicer the next day after it's been sitting in the fridge, it seems to bring out the flavor.
Variations:
- Add ground cinnamon to the sesame meal. It adds a nice, subtle flavor.
- Add some raw cacao powder to the mix, or roll your halva balls in raw cacao powder to give them just a hint of chocolate flavor.
I have never tried this but it sounds wonderful! I just got some Himalayan sea salt from Sustainable Sourcing https://secure.sustainablesourcing.com and I think I’ll try it out in this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
Do try it, and let me know what you think. I love the stuff!
I’ve never tried these but they definitely look delicious. Given that they’re more of a natural food (and i love the flavor of sesame seeds) i’m going to have to try these. Thanks for the recipe 🙂
These were just the ticket last night when I was craving something sweet and only three balls did the trick. I was a little worried, because I only had unhulled sesame seeds, which made them a little denser, but they turned out just fine. I will have to try them on regular sesame seeds next time.
Hi Heather, this recipe was born out of that same late-night sweet craving thing.
Thanks for posting your results. It’s good to know they still taste good with the unhulled sesame seeds as well. I just bought more organic sesame seeds yesterday, and I was debating over whether or not to try the unhulled ones. I ended up getting the hulled ones, but next week I think I’ll get the unhulled – they have more fiber.
Did you see I posted a new recipe for a Chocolate Halva variation. I like it even better than the plain, because it’s more decadent I suppose 😉
Hi Jewal, I usually soak my sesame seeds for about 4 hours, then drain and let them sit for about 4 hours, then I pop them in the dehydrator at 95F. They dry quite quickly, definitely overnight. Then I can easily store them, but they are still activated, and the enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid have been neutralized or removed. That’s how I usually use them in this recipe. But if I’m in a hurry I have also just used them in their dry form without soaking and activating them first. They taste better when they have been soaked though, not quite so bitter. I notice that the natural oil comes out of them more as well, which is really nice especially, in this recipe. I’ve never used them soaked and still wet for this recipe, but it would be interesting to try. I would guess that they would not be quite as firm and they wouldn’t last as long. Mind you, they are so yummy they usually don’t last that long anyway, so that’s a moot point. 😉 Thanks for the great question!
I note that some recipes for halvah call for dehydrating the sesame seeds, while others do not.
What are the positives and negatives of dehydrating versus the positives and negatives of not dehydrating these seeds?
Thank you.