Tahini, often known as tahina, is a Middle Eastern condiment produced from crushed hulled sesame seeds that have been roasted. It may be eaten on its own or used to make hummus, baba ghanoush, and halva. Tahini is prominent in Levantine and Eastern Mediterranean dishes, and also the Southern Caucasus and North Africa.
Since Tahini is so commonly used for a Hummus, a snack often associated with being healthy and good for you thanks to its contents, you may be surprised to learn Tahini comes out to an astounding 5 syns. This is a per table spoon serving. Although your syn allowance can vary on your weight and programme, the usual 15 syns won’t cover much tahini.
That’s right, just three table spoons of tahini and you have use all your daily syns maybe less if you’re looking at a 5 or 10 syn intake. Obviously, this complicates your hummus recipes, or even just a light lunch with a tasty dip. So why exactly does tahini eat up so much of your recommended daily intake? Let’s take a look.
Slimming World don’t explicitly tell dieters what their formula is, or how exactly they calculate their sin values. As such, it can be difficult to figure out just how bad something you might treat yourself with can really be. Especially something commonly thought of as healthy, like tahini.
Tahini paste is made using sesame seeds as previously mentioned, but it isn’t the sole ingredient. The only other necessary ingredient is oil, really packing on the calories in just small quantities. Salt and other flavourings like spices can also be thrown into the mix, but toasted seeds and oil make up the majority of tahini.
All kinds of oils can be used, some marginally better than other, but the point remains that oil is what’s ruining your syn allowance. Sunflower, grape seed, avocado, even a lighter oil will still drown your hummus is syns that yo might not be looking to use up.
Unfortunately, the oil does elevate the tahini as a whole. Turning a mushy paste of roasted seeds into a soft and creamy texture, perfect as a sauce or additional ingredient in your hummus. The iconic smoothness of the paste just wouldn’t be the same without it.
So how do the syns of popular tahini brands compare? Since recipes different from company to company, culture to culture, it’s only natural there would be SOME variation in the syn values. Different volumes of oil, low fat or fat free alternatives
Below are some of the most popular tahini brands going, the kind of thing you can easily pick up at your local supermarket. Before you do pick them up however, make sure to read about their syn content to help you on your weight loss journey:
As you can see in the previous list, many brands and businesses add diet appropriate labels like light and organic frequently. This is because, despite the calories and syn system of Slimming World, Tahini isn’t exactly junk food. It’s a rather simple and delicious condiment, basic to make, and doesn’t come with nearly as many adverse health effects like cholesterol or a ton of fats.
Since this is the norm, it’s only right that you’ll struggle to find many low calorie tahinis that are under the illusive 5 syn count. This doesn’t mean they don’t exist however. So let’s take a look at a few store bought alternative tahinis which offer the same great taste and texture, for less of your daily allowance.
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