Made from ground black sesame seeds and either sesame oil or honey, Black Sesame Paste (or Kuro Neri Goma) is used as a flavoring to make sweet and savory dishes in Japanese and Asian cuisines. Learn how to make it at home today!
In Japan and other East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines, black sesame seeds are used extensively in cooking, baking, and desserts. We use the black sesame seeds in their original form, and in powder and paste forms. It is one of my favorite flavorings for making pastries and sweets. When summer comes around, I would make a jar of homemade black sesame paste and store it in the fridge so I can always whip up black sesame ice cream and other treats.
How Does Black Sesame Paste Taste Like?
To make black sesame paste, the unhulled sesame seeds are first toasted and then ground into a thick puree before being sweetened with honey.
With a glossy, jet-black color and uniquely rich nutty flavor, black sesame paste can change the dynamic of a dessert completely. I would also describe the flavor as slightly earthy with a mildly bitter undertone, which provides a nice counterbalance to any sweets.
You can find many popular Japanese sweets and pastries such as macarons, purin (Japanese pudding), chiffon cake, mochi, bread, ice cream flavored with black sesame.
Black sesame paste (黒練りごま) is typically sold in a small jar at Japanese (or Chinese) grocery stores or on Amazon, but you can easily make it at home.
How to Make Black Sesame Paste – 2 Simple Ingredients!
It’s so easy to make homemade black sesame paste! You’ll need only black sesame seeds and honey (for sweets) or sesame oil (for savory).
Using a food processor makes the process faster than grinding with Suribachi and Surikogi (Japanese mortar and pestle). You need at least 1/4 cup sesame seeds to get it running.
As you grind the sesame seeds will start releasing natural oil, so there’s no need to add any liquid if you use a commercial-grade machine. If you’re using a smaller processor, you may need to add a little honey or sesame oil to get the grinding going to reach the pasty texture. Allow the processor to take breaks in between before you run it again.
Once you make the paste, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 1 month!
Recipes Ideas
In addition to black sesame ice cream and black sesame dan dan noodles, you can also use black sesame paste to make filling for mochi, or include it in your smoothie, to make creme brulee and pudding or as a dipping sauce for fruits like banana and apples. Black sesame is known to be an excellent source of calcium, magnesium, iron, and healthy fat, so that’s a double win!
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Homemade Black Sesame Paste (Kuro Neri Goma)
Ingredients
For Black Sesame Paste for Sweets
- 1 cup toasted black sesame seeds
- ½–1 tsp honey (optional)
For Black Sesame Paste for Savory Dishes
- 1 cup toasted black sesame seeds
- ½–1 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Please note: I used ½ cup (60 g) of black sesame seeds in this step-by-step instruction; however, I noticed it was much easier to make a paste when I used 1 cup in a 3-cup food processor. If you use less, or use a bigger food processor, the blades will spin without engaging the sesame seeds and you won‘t be able to make a paste. Therefore, I updated the ingredient list with 1 cup of sesame seeds [revised March 2023].
- In a non-greased pan, toast 1 cup toasted black sesame seeds to bring out the aroma.
- Put the toasted sesame seeds in the food processor and start processing. You can also grind the black sesame seeds by mortar and pestle (but it will take some time).
- It will take some time for the sesame seeds to release the oil, so be patient.
- Scrape the sesame seeds from the sides as needed and run again. Depending on the machine, you may need to take a break to avoid breaking the motor.
- [Optional] Add ½–1 tsp honey or ½–1 tsp toasted sesame oil, but only if your food processor is struggling. Sesame seeds themselves contain oil that naturally releases during toasting and grinding, so it’s usually enough to create a thick sesame paste. However, if your food processor is struggling to crush and grind, you can drizzle a little bit of sesame oil onto the seeds to add volume, help bind them, and thin out the paste.
- The sesame seeds will start to look pastier. Continue processing.
- Once the sesame seeds are all ground, liquidy, and pasty, transfer to a sterilized mason jar.
To Store
- You can store homemade sesame paste in the refrigerator for up to 1 month and in the freezer for half a year. Bring the paste back to room temperature before using it.
Not sure how Nami got to 5 minutes on the blending. I’ve been standing at the food processor for the last 2 and a half hours blending pushing down what builds up on the sides, and adding a little more oil each time to get to that beautiful paste as shown. Been sipping beer while doing so, but maybe I should switch to that California green to make it feel like 5 minutes. That’s the only way this recipe makes sense. Even peanuts take longer and they have much more oil….
Hi Rando! I don’t have the video for this recipe so I don’t have the exact time stamp… but it didn’t take too long. I have two FPs and used the smaller one. If I used a big one, I would need to increase the amount of sesame seed to make it work. Maybe your FP is bigger than mine? The blade is just spinning without touching the sesame seeds? As you see in the picture, I don’t have special magic. LOL. I’m thinking your FP is bigger… It happened to me to different ingredients before, and the blade just spin without chopping because I only had a little amount in it. I increased prep time to 10 minutes, instead of 5, just to give more time. But for sure, I didn’t spend more than 10 minutes. Try increasing the sesame seeds amount and make sure they are not too old.
Hay Nami, i think it might be the blades on the food processor… we adjusted the recipe up to 3 cups of black sesame to ensure it was enough for the food processor but sadly after 3-4 hours of processing it’s still pretty gritty but at least is finer than it was
Hi Rando! I just made white sesame paste version using 1 cup (and no additional ingredient like oil) and it took me 8 mins to turn sesame seeds into paste / sesame “sauce”. I’m not sure how different our blades are but I assume companies make them similarly… sorry you had to use 3 cups! That’s insane amount of sesame seeds to be wasted… 😞
Can you make this with white sesame seeds to make neri goma for Goma sauce for shabu shabu Dipping sauce?
Hi Lorena, Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post and trying her recipe!
Yes, you can use white sesame seeds too.
We hope you enjoy the fresh sesame flavor!
This was delicious! I made black sesame milk tea with boba. Instead of honey I used brown sugar syrup. I’ll be making it again!
Hi Kayla! Black sesame milk tea with boba sounds delicious!!!🤩
Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us!
Hi, I processed for a long long time but it won’t become a runny paste, can I add more honey to give it more liquid to help it become runny?
Hi Minako! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Yes, you can add a little bit more honey or sesame oil to make it runny.😉
We hope this helps!
Hello! My blender/ food processor is 750W, would that work? it seems to have a larger diameter than yours, so does that mean i would need to use more seeds when blending?
thanks!
Hi Cheryl! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
Nami’s blender is 350W and 3 cups food processor bowl. It depends on your blender’s cup size, you would need to use more ingredients to run the blender.
We hope this helps!
I tried really hard to get the sweet sesame paste to become runny, but sadly in my very dry climate the most I could get was a paste that would not pour. I spent a good 35 minutes processing the sesame seeds in my food processor. I ended up having to add a little bit of sesame oil to make it less thick, but I didn’t want to add too much because I didn’t want to ruin the flavor, so it is still thicker than yours, but hoping it will work for the ice cream anyway.
Hi, tekkie! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and sharing your cooking experience with us.
We are sorry to hear that you had a hard time making the Sesame creamy in your very dry climate place.
We hope you enjoy the paste in your ice cream.🙂
Hi Nami,
I’ve tried making the paste with the Thermomix a few times now but it hasn’t worked out. I am slightly confused about step 5. When the seeds release oil, does the mixture end up wet but dry and kind of clumpy? When should I add the honey in? Thank you
Hi JT, Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe!
At step 5, the sesame seeds are finely ground and become moist from the natural sesame oil. It will be kind of clumpy but not dry.
As Nami mentioned in the recipe, it will take some time for the sesame seeds to release the oil, so try grinding a little longer next time and then add honey. We hope this helps!
I tried to make the sweet version of this recipe. After about 5 minutes of grinding, it went straight from just starting to release oil and looking slightly crumbly to being a single, very smooth, hard lump and a thin film of oil in the bottom of the food processor. Do you have any advice on what went wrong? Can I fix my hard lump and turn it into paste somehow?
Hi Crystal! Thank you very much for trying this recipe! As Nami mentioned in Step 5, did you scrape the sesame seeds from the sides and rerun them? Depending on the machine, you may need to take a break to avoid breaking the motor and continue to grind until it becomes moist from the natural sesame oil. Then you add the honey to make it into a paste.
You can add a little more honey to your hard lump and continue processing. We hope this helps!
Can I store this on the counter, at room temperature? Or it has to be in fridge? Thanks
Hi Kristine, Homemade paste like this, we recommend a store in the refrigerator. You can store it for up to 1 month and in the freezer for half a year. And bring the paste back to room temperature before using it. We hope this is helpful. 🙂
When I tried this recipe, my paste came out super bitter. Are there certain types of black sesame seeds I should be buying or a brand you recommend? I couldn’t tell what went wrong here so would appreciate any feedback you may have!
Hi Mimi,
We use Roasted Black sesame seeds from our local Japanese store, and it doesn’t taste bitter. It is possible that your black sesame seeds were not pre-roasted ones. Try to roast it on a frying pan.
We hope this helps!🙂