Three things you can do with the umami paste – beyond making houmous.

Mr Josh Katz is chef-owner of Berber & Q in London. Here, he explains his passion for his favourite ingredient – tahini – and the best ways to cook with it.

Tahini is a raw sesame paste that is extracted by compressing the seed. I like its versatility and flexibility. It has a nutty umami to it, which reminds me of peanut butter or miso. For the Middle Eastern and North African-influenced food we cook at Berber & Q, there aren’t many dishes that aren’t enhanced by having some tahini on the side.

Most people have heard of tahina sauce, which is made when you add water, lemon juice and garlic to tahini paste and whisk it. It turns from something very oily to something more saucy and creamy. If you use top-grade tahini paste, all you need add is cooled water. This is what we do in our restaurant. Most cookery books will suggest adding lemon and finely chopped garlic.

I always have some tahini sauce in my fridge, ready to use whether I’m roasting some chicken, griddling steak or pan-frying some fish. I’m yet to find any meats that don’t go with it. It’s great with prawns and vegetables, such as cauliflower or aubergine, too. You are limited only by your imagination.

You can make a great hot sauce by folding any type of spicy red sauce through tahini. You can serve tahini with harissa, a Moroccan chilli paste made with red peppers, paprika and garlic. We add puréed beetroot to our tahina sauce with coriander, parsley and water. A bit like aioli, tahini will take on the flavour of many different things.

It marries with sweet flavours as well as spices and sharp citrus. You could make tahini cookies with it. You can fold it into tarts or cakes. It can be a good replacement for peanut butter, which has a lot of sugar in it. If you add honey sugar or maple syrup to it, you get a beautiful nutty sauce.

Here are three of my favourite ways to eat tahini.

I like to add tahini to my yoghurt for a great breakfast and energy boost to start my day. Simply add one part tahini to four parts yoghurt, top with some toasted hazelnuts or almonds and drizzle some date syrup or honey over the top. It’s ready in a matter of minutes, but will keep you fuelled for hours.

Tahini is the one of the key ingredients, alongside chickpeas, in houmous, but tahini by itself makes for a wonderful dip or mezze when served with warmed flatbread or pita. Simply whisk 100ml iced water into 100g raw tahini paste, along with 1 tbsp lemon juice and a grated garlic clove. Season with salt and away you go.

Blend a small handful of parsley and rocket leaves with 100ml water to form a smooth herb purée, and whisk this into raw tahini paste with some lemon juice and crushed garlic. This herbed tahini sauce works brilliantly with meat, especially lamb.