Name: Lime-Tahini Sauce
Ingredients: 1/2 cup tahini; 1/4 cup fresh lime or lemon juice; 2 tsp. blond miso; 2 medium scallions, finely chopped; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper; Pinch of cayenne

Why it works: Tahini and pepper work together. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and 196 recipes mention both. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

In a blender or food processor, puree all ingredients and 1/4 cup water until smooth.
If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little more water or lime juice.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Tahini + peppertop 20% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together196 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tahini + misotop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together19 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Lime + misotop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together42 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Miso + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together91 recipes

Shared aroma: butanol (wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tahini: Sesame paste that provides the thick, creamy body and rich flavor of the sauce.
Lime or lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the sauce and balances the richness of the tahini.
Blond miso: Adds savory depth and umami, rounding out the flavor of the sauce.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.