Gaaack!

Looks to be the tahini and as I've said before, you can make your own dip, hummus, and replace the tahini with probably any nut-butter. You can also make your own nut butter for the hummus. Just get a bunch of cashews and pop them in the blender with a little olive oil.

Cannot!!!!! substitute NUTS for SEEDS.

mother has spoken

Why nut?

"A nut can be either a seed or a fruit... A nut in cuisine is a much less restrictive category than a nut in botany, as the term is applied (or misapplied, depending upon the viewpoint) to many seeds that are not true nuts."

Señor Popcorn-Coconut has responded.

Se=F1or Popcorn-Coconut wrote a really bad pun:

The taste of the sesame seeds does not equate with the flavour of=20 cachews or macadamias or whatever nuts.

I buy it, but infrequently. Needs a lot of stirring and usually there=20 is no source with cashew oil, only some inferior mixture. Good in=20 complex soups

What would you recommend as a close approximation? (Unsure, but I might actually be mildly allergic to sesame seeds.) Sunflower seeds?

Agreed.

Just sesame seeds. I also use sesame oil. Stuff is available at middle =

east, Greek, Bulgarian, Turkish stores. Easy to find. Never heard of=20 anyone allergic to them.

THere are lots of nut butters, sunflower and pumpkin seeds included. =20 But I rather save these for toasting up a cup or so, throwing in a=20 couple cups of rice and coating the mix with a little oil, letting both=20 rice and seeds pop (do not do this with white sesame seeds although it=20 works with black sesame seeds), throwing in water (twice as much as you=20 have rice, popping on a lid and letting the batch steam.