Gomashio is the perfect garnish for a range of your favourite Japanese dishes. Ready in minutes, sprinkle your Japanese sesame salt over sekihan, onigiri or anything that calls for a little salt kick!
In This Post You’ll Learn
Why We Love This
Gomashio is a super simple Japanese condiment you can whip up whenever you need it most!
Some store-bought versions of gomasio amp up the salt and skimp out on the sesame seeds. We love making our own sesame salt since you can easily tweak the ratio to your taste.
Related: 10 Epic Japanese Sauces / Shichimi Togarashi (7 Spice) / Furikake
What is Gomashio?
Gomashio (also written as gomasio, goma shio or ごま塩) is a popular Japanese condiment made from sesame seeds mixed with salt. Goma means sesame and shio means salt.
Japanese sesame salt is most often made with black sesame seeds, but can also be made with white sesame seeds or toasted sesame seeds for a light tan colour instead.
It can be used as a kind of furikake rice seasoning on freshly cooked sushi rice, but is most commonly served with sekihan (sticky rice with adzuki beans) or sprinkled over onigiri rice balls.
Since the salt is mixed with sesame seeds, it’s a good alternative to regular salt for people who want to reduce sodium in their diet without sacrificing on flavour.
What You’ll Need
- Black Sesame Seeds – These are unhulled sesame seeds which still have their black outer shell or hull. The black colour adds to the flavour and appearance of gomasio when sprinkled over other foods. If you don’t particularly care about the colour, you can sub with white sesame seeds.
- Salt – Use high quality salt for the best flavour and texture, such as pure sea salt or Himalayan salt flakes.
How to make Gomashio:
Dry Toasting Sesame Seeds and Salt
- Lightly dry fry black sesame seeds for a few minutes in a small frying pan over medium low heat. Stir or move the sesame seeds every so often to evenly toast.
- Sprinkle over the salt, stir it through the black sesame seeds and continue to toast for another minute.
Optional: If Adding Water
- Pour water into the hot pan and continue mixing. The salt will dissolve and coat the sesame seeds as the water evaporates (and coat pan, so scrape this off as you go).
- Turn off the heat and keep mixing until all the salt is scraped off the bottom and sides of the pan and the sesame seeds are well coated.
Optional: If Grinding
- Pour the toasted sesame seeds and salt into a suribachi / mortar and pestle and grind into a powder.
To Finish (For All Versions)
- Pour the sesame salt into a dish if serving or a small glass jar (allow to cool before putting the lid on and storing).
Wandercook’s Tips
- Storage – Store leftover gomashio in a sealed airtight container in the pantry. Small glass jars or spice jars are perfect for this!
FAQs
This seasoning is perfect sprinkled over grilled chicken, ginger pork or battered fish, or steamed veggies like kale or broccoli. Try it with your next bowl of udon noodle soup or stir fried yakiudon. Use it as the shio seasoning on yakitori chicken skewers, as part of a salad dressing, or over hiyayakko cold tofu.
Essentially, you can use it anytime you’d reach for regular salt to add extra umami flavour to your meal.
Variations
- Extra Flavour – Add a sprinkle of sugar and crushed or sliced nori and you’ll have made yourself a simple batch of nori komi furikake!
Make more of your favourite Japanese condiments next:
★ Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star rating below!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp black sesame seeds 18 g / 0.63 oz, sub white sesame seeds
- 1 tsp sea salt
Optional
- 1 ½ tbsp water
Instructions
Dry Toasting Sesame Seeds and Salt
- Lightly dry fry black sesame seeds for a few minutes in a small frying pan over medium low heat. Stir or move the sesame seeds every so often to evenly toast.2 tbsp black sesame seeds
- Sprinkle over the salt, stir it through the black sesame seeds and continue to toast for another minute.1 tsp sea salt
Optional: If Adding Water
- Pour water into the hot pan and continue mixing. The salt will dissolve and coat the sesame seeds as the water evaporates (and coat pan, so scrape this off as you go). Turn off the heat and keep mixing until all the salt is scraped off the bottom and sides of the pan and the sesame seeds are well coated.1 ½ tbsp water
Optional: If Grinding
- Pour the toasted sesame seeds and salt into a suribachi / mortar and pestle and grind into a powder.
To Finish (For All Versions)
- Pour the sesame salt into a dish if serving or a small glass jar (allow to cool before putting the lid on and storing).
Video
Recipe Notes
- Extra Flavour – Add a sprinkle of sugar and crushed or sliced nori and you’ll have made yourself a simple batch of nori komi furikake!
- Storage – Store leftover gomashio in a sealed airtight container in the pantry. Small glass jars or spice jars are perfect for this!
Nutrition
2 Comments
JB
11/02/2024 at 7:34 amI like the of water to bind the salt to the seeds!
Wandercooks
12/02/2024 at 11:56 amIt’s cool hey!