Anyone who cooks without salt cannot ignore gomasio, a condiment of oriental origin used in macrobiotic cooking.
It has a pleasant taste, enhances the flavor of foods while adding very little salt, and can be useful in the ‘scaling down practice’, meaning it can be prepared with progressively less salt until, if desired, complete elimination of salt.
And it can be used by everyone, not just those on a low-sodium diet. 😉
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 1 Minute
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 20 teaspoons sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon salt
Tools
- Pan
- Chopper
- Mortar in marble with pestle
Gomasio should be used instead of salt for raw seasoning.
I use it on vegetables, especially in salads, on plain pasta, in breadcrumbs for breading, and in all those dishes where the absence of salt may be more noticeable (sometimes depending on the cooking method).
You can find ready-made gomasio in jars, but it’s so simple to make it yourself that I’ve never felt the need to buy it.
For those unfamiliar with the name gomasio, it may evoke some unusual product, but in reality, it is a very simple product, both in ingredients, i.e., just sesame seeds and salt – the name derives from the Japanese terms corresponding to sesame (goma) and salt (shio) – and in its use in cooking. Not to mention the preparation process, which is very simple.
Basically, you toast the salt and sesame in a ratio – on average – of 1:14, i.e., 1 teaspoon of salt and 14 teaspoons of sesame. The ratios can vary according to taste and habit, but generally, it can range from 1:6 to 1:20.
Toast the sesame seeds and salt in a pan or oven (I prefer a pan) (I usually use a 1:20 ratio).
Some people toast sesame and salt separately, others together. It might not be the original procedure, but I have always toasted them together, also because I always used the 1:20 ratio (until I eliminated the salt entirely) and the idea of toasting just one teaspoon of salt alone… made me smile a bit. If you’re wondering why the salt should also be toasted, the purpose is to remove its moisture.
After toasting (be careful not to darken the sesame as it becomes bitter), salt and sesame need to be crushed in a mortar.
Note on toasting: for those who have never toasted sesame seeds, I advise not to leave the pan on the stove (it’s ready in just a few minutes) but to stir the sesame with a spoon the whole time (or move the pan) and then turn off the heat at the first popping sounds of the seeds, otherwise the transition from toasted to burnt happens quickly. If necessary, immediately transfer the still-hot seeds onto a plate to prevent the hot pan from continuing to toast them.
If the mortar is challenging for you, you can use a small food processor (for practicality reasons I prefer the blades, I hope the purists of the original recipe will forgive me. 🙂)
👉 Alternatively, I have experimented with great satisfaction using a grinder (the classic coffee grinder, you can see one in the Tools). It has the advantage, compared to a chopper, of grinding very quickly thus avoiding any possibility of the blades heating up (which is to be avoided).
It is important to specify that the traditional gomasio mortar (called suribachi) is the most suitable, as it has specific grooves that aid in crushing the seeds.
Choose the method you prefer, you can also evaluate it by viewing the items I have selected for you under Tools.
However it was ground or crushed, gomasio should be stored in a glass jar, or another food container, with a lid. It should last about a week, some say two weeks, but I usually keep it even longer (in this case, I put it in the fridge).
My advice is to prepare a minimal dose so you always have it fresh; after all, making gomasio is so simple that it’s not a problem to do it once a week.
Salt-free advice
Gomasio is a valuable aid in the transition to salt-free cooking. My advice is to start with the proportion of 1:6 and gradually reduce the salt over time, and I assure you that you can completely eliminate the salt without too much difficulty.
For those interested in more information on salt-free cooking, and the path my husband and I followed, I refer you to my article Cooking without salt.
Remember that reducing salt is considered good practice not only in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, which is very important as it is now established that excessive salt intake and the risks of stroke and heart attack are correlated, but it is also useful for reducing water retention, consequently ‘helping’ in weight loss diets and in the treatment of cellulite.
If you have any questions, or if you want to talk about your salt-free experience, or if you just want to chat, write to me!
Leave a comment here below, or come visit me on my Facebook page.
Or even… join my group! Catia’s group, in the kitchen and beyond where I have prepared a special section dedicated to low-sodium cooking with useful links to documents and specific recipes.
Finally, I invite you to subscribe to the monthly Newsletter. I’ll be waiting for you!
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