Rice Bowl Sauce: Orange Tahini

I'd been waiting for this question all afternoon and when it finally came, I leaned back in my seat smiling smugly to myself as I answered. 

"Why yes, as a matter of fact, I do have a plan for dinner."

We were driving home from an afternoon shopping trip which, to my third- and fourth-born daughters and me, means a visit to the rock store and the plant store. 

It was fairly late in the day, around four. My fourth-born daughter was behind the wheel because I had forgotten my bag at home and therefore did not have my license on me. My third-born was riding shotgun and quite unusually, I was holding down the back seat. Traffic was gnarly and the minutes toward dinner time were ticking down loudly as my daughters broached the daily quandary of what to have for dinner. 

Clockwise-ish from the top: 

Brown rice

Mushrooms

Flaky white fish

Sirloin

Onion

Orange tahini sauce

More brown rice

Carrots

Watermelon

Broccoli 

"Rice bowls," I said. "Let's have rice bowls."

Already the list of ingredients was settled in my mind, and as I rattled off my ideas to my daughters, they nodded in agreement. Rice bowls are a current favorite around our table. 

As I wrapped up my presentation, fairly glowing at my successful plan, my fourth-born's next question swatted me off my lofty pedestal.

"What should we have for a sauce?"

Dang it. I forgot about the sauce.

Shamefully, I had overlooked that crucial catalyst of the rice bowl, the secret sauce that brings all the discrete bits together and melds them into a delicious whole much greater than the sum of its parts. Yes, I could patch us through with some soy sauce, a blast of Tabasco, or some sriracha, but I had set my sights high and I wanted only the best for this evening's rice bowls. 

I-405 post merge. Traffic was much heavier than it appears here. 

As my daughters' attention was momentarily distracted by a hectic merge onto I-405, I grabbed my phone and furiously Googled. 

And like an angel from heaven, the first link I opened gave me exactly what I needed.

5 Easy Sauces to Make Grain Bowls Pop

Yes. I scrolled to the first one and broke into a grin.

Orange Tahini.

I thought of the big can of tahini sitting at home in my fridge, and the delicious orange I'd used for a carne asada recipe over the weekend. The angels were now singing a hallelujah chorus, and I knew this was the perfect sauce for my rice bowl dinner plan.

Quixotically, I ate my rice bowl from a plate. And I had seconds. 

Ninety minutes and one dog walk later, we sat down to a rice bowl feast. And the star of the show was the orange tahini sauce.

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Ingredients & Directions:

Combine 1/2 cup tahini, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons water, zest and juice of 1 orange, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 clove garlic, then blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and fresh-ground black pepper. 

from the Kitchn

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I'm so inspired by this recipe that I've committed to a month of Rice Bowl Mondays, featuring each of the five sauces in the article. Here you go:

Orange Tahini

Spicy Sriracha Peanut

Mediterranean Olive Sauce

Hoisin Ginger

Herbed Goat Cheese