The star of this recipe is the Japanese sesame dressing. Spinach is delicious, don’t get me wrong, but what truly makes this side dish sing is the sesame sauce (or in Japanese: goma-ae). The sesame is ground with a special Japanese mortar and pestile into a paste and then mixed with salty and sweet ingredients to make it into a delicious dressing.

Spinach goma-ae is a picnic favorite

Spinach salad with Japanese sesame dressing recipe is one of our absolute favorite side dishes to bring with us for a picnic lunch at the park. This past weekend we went on a little road trip with our kids to see some tourist attractions and to pick pumpkins at a pumpkin patch. It was an unusually hot October day and Chi Chi’s spinach salad was cooling and satisfying along with his famous fried chicken Karaage, some fresh cherry tomatoes and egg omelette.

Spinach with sesame dressing is delicious added to bento boxed lunch

This weekend Chi Chi also made an extra batch of this spinach with Japanese goma sesame dressing recipe so that he could include it in the bento box he makes every Monday for our daughter. She absolutely loves the savory and sesame dressing on spinach. When I was a kid, my parents tried to get me to eat my green veggies by telling me that Popeye the sailor got all his strength from eating spinach. I’ve never once had to tell her that. She already knows that spinach is delicious thanks to the gomaae sauce!

Sesame gomaae is a versatile sauce

This Japanese sesame dressing is not just for spinach! It can be added to broccoli, eggplant, carrot, cabbage, or really any veggie that you can think of. You can use it as a sandwich spread in a sandwich, or even drizzled onto barbecue meat. I highly recommend making an extra batch of this sesame sauce and keep it in your fridge for future uses.

Fresh ground sesame makes the best gomaae sauce

One of the secrets to making the gomaae sauce creamy and full of flavor is to toast the seeds and then hand grind them with a Japanese style mortar and pestle. The grooves in the mortar bowl are especially good at muddling the tiny sesame seeds into a smooth paste. I also have to say that I enjoy the process of hand grinding sesame seeds because I love the smell of the toasted sesame seeds that is released from the process and the feel of seeds being crushed under the wood pestle is so satisfying. If you need a good stress relieving activity, this is the recipe for you!

Spinach Salad With Japanese Sesame Dressing (Goma-ae)

Recipe by BeckiCourse: Appetizers, Salads, Sides, VeganCuisine: JapaneseDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Total time

15

minutes

Ingredients

• 2 bunches of fresh spinach (washed and trimmed)

• 1/4 cup roasted sesame seeds

• 2 tbsp mirin

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Directions

• Par boil spinach in salt water for about 3-5 minutes until the spinach turns bright green. In a large bowl add ice and water to create a cold water bath. Remove spinach from pot, drain water, then plunge in cold water bath to cool. Drain the spinach in a colander, pressing down with a paper towel to remove as much moisture as you can. Place spinach in a serving bowl.
• To make the sesame goma-ae dressing, grind sesame seeds to a paste in a small Japanese style pestle (see video above). Add brown sugar, mirin and soy sauce to sesame paste and mix. The sauce should be thick and not watery.
• Mix spinach and goma-ae dressing together. Sprinkle with extra sesame seeds and serve cold.