Tahini Greens

Every time I say the name of this recipe, I giggle.

A few years ago, my friend Jane and I met up in Chicago for a vacation weekend. As happens on any good girls’ getaway trip, we ended up having some really memorable experiences. One of them involved a guy we nicknamed Tampa. To this day, any mention of this major Florida city makes me laugh.

Another punchline from this trip was “Cabrini-Green”. Now, Cabrini-Green was a troubled public housing complex on the north side of Chicago which Time Magazine described as “nexus of poverty, drug abuse, gun violence and gang activity” (which – in case I need to be clear — is not very funny at all.)

But because of an experience we had early in the trip, Cabrini-Green became a recurring meme during our girls’ weekend. I tried to write about the whole series of Cabrini-Green related events that now makes Jane and me shake with laughter when we recall it – but I can’t really do it justice. When I tried to explain it to Matt recently, he just smiled politely and looked at me with a bit of concern. If you ever hang out with my friend Jane, ask her to tell you about our Cabrini-Green experience. She’s a good story-teller.

In any case, since Cabrini-Green sounds a lot like Tahini Greens, I am now amused to no end every time I make this recipe.

And lately, I’ve been making this a lot — like four times a week since my sister Lauren first made it for me during our vacation in Taos. It’s that good! For this recipe, I used spinach but you can also replace spinach with any other leafy green for equally delicious results. Enjoy!

Tahini Greens

Coconut oil, 1 tablespoon

Spinach, 10-12 oz

Garlic, 2 cloves, minced

Tahini, 1/4 cup

Olive oil, 2 tablespoons

Lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon

Cayenne pepper, 1 dash

Salt and pepper, to taste

  1. Melt coconut oil in pan over medium heat.  Add spinach to pan. Cover and let spinach cook down, stirring occasionally as needed, until greens are wilted.
  2. Whisk together garlic, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, cayenne, salt and pepper. Add sauce to spinach and mix well.  Serve warm.