I said to one of my daughters, Jocelyn the fashionista, that lamb and mint sauce go hand in hand like hands and gloves.  That was a lightbulb moment for her as you cannot have lamb without dressing it up with a (mint) sauce! For the past few weeks, my family has been eating a lot of lamb so  I decided that I needed to change up the upcoming Easter menu with something a little different than the traditional mint sauce.  Jocelyn and I came up with this wonderful spicy tahini mint sauce.

Recipe Inspiration for Spicy Tahini Mint Sauce.

This spicy tahini mint sauce is inspired by my years growing up in South Africa.  Every Friday, my family would go to Hillbrow which was then considered the "New York City" of South Africa.  We would have something to eat and go to the CNA book store where we were allowed to buy a few books.  I accumulated SO many books that I decided one time that I was going to organize my books according to the Dewey Decimal System! Does that still exist these days with the internet?

We frequented a "Take away" shop called Bimbos!  I googled Bimbos and to my surprise, found this from A Road through the Grove, just like I remembered it!

Bimbos opened in 1970 and was famous for being the first eatery in South Africa to open 24 hours. They served delicious shawarmas, tasty slices of meat served in a pita bread with sauce. I clearly remember their funny clown logo and the lamb shawarma with extra sauce and chilis!  Amazing! 

I wanted to combine Bimbo's flavors of tahini sauce and lemon that were clearly Middle-Eastern with the Greek flavors of garlic and yoghurt from Mrs. Skafidis who taught me how to make roast leg of lamb. This recipe is absolutely delicious with all the nostalgic ingredients that I associate with lamb, the technique to keep the vibrant green color of the mint and with a few tweaks and suggestions from Jocelyn.  It is so good, we had it as a salad dressing.  I cannot wait to serve it with our lamb meal this Sunday!

Tips for making spicy tahini mint sauce.

This makes an excellent salad dressing.  Add some freshly ground pepper and a little more salt if making it as a salad dressing.

Yoghurt.

For this spicy tahini mint sauce, Greek yoghurt (5% fat!) is preferable because of its thickness. Other style yoghurts are more viscous and will result in a thin runny sauce.

Thicken the spicy tahini mint sauce.

Allow the sauce to thicken and the flavors to combine by refrigerating the sauce for at least an hour.

Spiciness.

Fresh jalapenos have different spice levels.  Cut and taste your jalapeno first to determine how spicy you would like your sauce to be.

See the tips from how to make a vibrant mint sauce.

If you have extra mint on hand, serve it side-by-side with your traditional mint sauce and let me know what you think in the comment section or any suggested tweaks you would make!