Open, sesame

Sesame seeds can be found in any number of breads, appetizers, and main dishes. The “the mild, nutty seeds are versatile enough to make their way into a wide range of unexpected applications,” says indexed blog Serious Eats.

The site polled several professionals on how they incorporate sesame seeds into sweet and savory dishes. The answers were inventive and delicious. Southern chef Lisa Garza-Selcer adds them – plus another unexpected ingredient, grapes – into her granola recipe. Says Garza-Selcer, “The flavors balance especially well with roasted fruits like figs or grapes.”

Roasting the sesame seeds was a favorite treatment from chefs. One chef, Tru Lin, goes one step more. He takes roasted seeds and combines them with honey. “If you toast them and mix them with a little honey and put them in a blender, they make a sweet, nutty paste that goes wonderfully on top of ice cream or desserts,” he says. 

Naturally the EYB Library contains plenty of recipes featuring sesame seeds (over 3,500 online recipes alone!). A few from Serious Eats include Chipotle-honey-glazed chicken wings with toasted sesame seeds and green onion, Kimchi pasta with bacon and sesame seeds (pictured above), Sweet sesame brittle (The Secret Ingredient: Sesame), Roasted carrot salad with peanut-sesame mole, and perfect for today, Halloween orange marmalade with black sesame seeds.