What is gomashio?

Gomashio seasoning: Sesame salt

What is gomashio?

Gomashio seasoning comes from the combination of the Japanese words “goma” (sesame) and “sio” (salt) and is also known as “sesame salt” or “Eastern salt“. Thus the gomashio is a Japanese condiment made ​​from unrefined sea salt and sesame seeds that brings a distinctive touch to our dishes and salads with a mild nutty flavor.

Gomashio uses

The gomashio is the perfect salt substitute for some dishes because it brings a nice flavor to our meals and reduce the amount of salt needed. This “Salt of the East” is used especially in salads and soups but can also bring a lot of flavor to main dishes like rice, pasta, vegetables or legumes.

Gomashio benefits

Adding gomashio to season our dishes, gives us all the properties and benefits of sesame seeds as:

• The sesame salt stimulates the digestive system and aids digestion as it helps to better assimilate the food we eat.
• The gomashio provides a lot of nutrients, minerals, B vitamins and iron to our body, in fact, it is considered the quintessential remineralizing seasoning.
• Eastern Salt is high in calcium, as sesame is up to 10 times more calcium than milk.
• The gomashio has even more lecithin than soy, which helps keep cholesterol at bay and improve memory. The gomasio is the perfect seasoning for cholesterol control.
• In addition, by using gomahsio, we need much less salt in our dishes and salads and so it helps to prevent diseases such as hypertension.

How to prepare gomashio or sesame salt

The correct proportion for gomashio or sesame salt is one tablespoon of unrefined sea salt for every fifteen tablespoons of sesame seeds. First we roast the ungreased sesame seeds, moving with a spoon to avoid sticking or burning (you have to be careful because they it pops easily) and when golden brown and releases its distinctive nutty smell we must remove the toasted sesame seeds from the pan.

In a mortar or Suribachi (Japanese mortar), we mix the toasted sesame seeds with a tablespoon of unrefined sea salt and ground them together.

Preserving the gomashio

Once prepared, we can keep sesame salt or gomasio in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge, but we should not leave it over several days because it loses its quality and properties.

You can also buy prepared gomashio in our healthy food online store. Related posts:

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