Once you get used to have Gomasio on top of your pasta, rice or soups, you won’t need Parmesan cheese for this purpose anymore – and who is writing is an Italian who used to be Parmesan-addicted!
Gomasio (also spelled as Gomashio) is a Japanese dry condiment that puts together “goma” (=sesame) and “sio” (=salt). I love how it’s written in Japanese: ごま塩.
Gomasio is used in the Japanese cuisine to top up some dishes. It is also a tasty dressing mainly used in the macrobiotic diet as healthier alternative to ordinary salt.
I find it delicious instead of the Parmesan cheese on top of my pasta, rice and soups.
It supplies us with the right amount of calcium that we were used to get with our regular sprinkle of grated Parmesan. Two teaspoons of sesame seeds contain 60 mg of calcium against the 37 mg of two teaspoons of Parmesan. And it is soooo tasty!
Over 30 years ago, my dad used to buy it in a special shop in Milan. I didn’t know the name at the time and possibly my dad neither, we used to call it salted sesame seeds.
He would put it in a little container for me and from time to time I used to have a pinch!
And that’s more or less what happens in my family, only they pour teaspoons of Gomasio into their hands and shovel it in their mouths, but hey who am I kidding? I may as well include myself because I do exactly the same!
So more or less every week I do a new batch of Gomasio because we can’t stay without – as we couldn’t stay without grated Parmesan!
You can buy it already made but it is so easy to make (also, commercial gomasio might have sugar mixed in with the salt, so better DYI!
How to make Gomasio (Vegan Parmesan Substitute)
Gomasio (Vegan Parmesan Substitute)
Once you get used to use Gomasio on top of your pasta, rice or soups you won't need Parmesan for this purpose anymore and who is writing is an Italian who used to be Parmesan-addicted!!
Ingredients
- 300 gr sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
Pour the seeds in a frying pan with NO oil or fat.
Start the fire and stir very often to prevent the seeds from burning.
When they are golden brown switch off the fire and let them cool down.
Pour the seeds in a jar.
Add the salt.
Stir with a spoon.
With a hand blender reduce the seeds to a half paste. Not all the seeds need to be crushed only some of them.
Leave a Reply