Blanched spinach dressed in a savory nutty sesame sauce, this Japanese Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing (Gomaae) is a healthy veggie side dish that goes well with everything.
One of the mainstays of Japanese vegetable side dish is the “Goma-ae (胡麻和え)”. We would blanch all sorts of vegetables and dress them in a fresh-made sesame sauce. The most popular one is spinach gomaae, or what we call Horenso no Gomaae (ほうれん草の胡麻和え).
The technique preserves the nutrients and vibrant color of the greens while enriching it with an aromatic nutty flavor. Not only does the dish taste good, but it’s also a simple way to put vegetables on your plate!
Table of Contents
What is Gomaae?
Goma (胡麻) in Japanese means sesame seed and we call dishes dressed with sesame sauce goma-ae (胡麻和え). The word ae (pronounced as [ah EH]. 和え) comes from the verb aeru ([ah EH ru]. 和える) which is to dress (the food with sauce).
There are many kinds of gomaae using different vegetables. In addition to spinach, gomaae can also be made with green beans, broccoli, broccolini, chrysanthemum leaves, and more. It is a lively approach that elevates everyday vegetables into something truly tasty.
I absolutely enjoy gomaae as it takes minutes to make and complements well with any style of Japanese food. I think it’s fabulous with other Asian meals too. And if you find your bento lunch needing some colors and boost of nutrition, gomaae will make the perfect addition.
How to Make Japanese Spinach Salad
The Ingredients You’ll Need
- Spinach (or suggestions below)
- Toasted white sesame seeds – I recommend grinding your own sesame seeds even though Japanese grocery stores sell convenient ground sesame seeds in a package because the fragrance and flavors won’t be the same.
- For the dressing: Soy sauce and sugar
That’s it!
The Cooking Steps
- Make the sesame dressing: Add the sesame seeds in an ungreased frying pan. Heat the pan on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, lift it up and shake it constantly over the flame. Toss and turn over the sesame seeds in the pan to evenly toast them until they are fragrant. Transfer the freshly toasted sesame seeds to the mortar. Grind the sesame seeds with the pestle. Leave some seeds whole for texture. Add the soy sauce and sugar to the sesame seeds and mix together. Set aside.
- Prepare the spinach: Add the salt to boiling water and plunge the spinach, stem ends first, and hold the spinach for 15-20 seconds. Then, push it down to submerge it and cook for 45 seconds. Once done, transfer the spinach to iced water. Squeeze water out and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) pieces.
- Dress: Transfer the spinach to the sesame dressing and toss to combine. Serve it at room temperature or chilled.
Cooking Tips for Spinach Gomaae
- Toast sesame seeds even if they are already pre-toasted. This simple step brings out the toasty and nutty flavors of sesame seeds. Also, leave some seeds whole when you grind them. Whole sesame seeds add a nice, delicate crunch texture to the dressing.
- Salt the water. It’s important to add salt to the boiling water when you are cooking spinach or any green vegetables. It keeps the veggies in vibrant green color.
- Blanch from the stem ends. Spinach stems take longer to cook compared to the leafy part. So start by cooking the stems first. Do not overcook the vegetables!
- Plunge spinach in iced water to stop cooking. The remaining heat will continue to soften the spinach, so a quick iced water bath will stop it from overcooking.
- Remove the excess moisture from the vegetables so the sesame dressing won’t be diluted. Squeeze the water out as much as you can.
Variations
As I mentioned earlier, you can make this side dish with so many different vegetables of your choice! All you need to do is to cook the vegetables and coat them with the 2-ingredient sesame dressing.
Here are some of my suggestions:
- Leafy vegetables: Cabbage, broccoli, broccolini, bok choy, collards, Komatsuna, Brussels sprouts, kale, arugula, chard, collards, and chrysanthemum greens.
- Root vegetables: Carrots, lotus root, gobo (burdock root), potatoes, nagaimo (mountain yam).
- Legumes: Green beans and snap peas.
- Fruits: Tomatoes, okra, and bell peppers.
Helpful Tools to Make This Recipe
In Japanese households, we frequently make various types of gomaae so we usually own a Japanese ceramic mortar and wooden pestle to grind sesame seeds.
- Japanese ceramic mortar (Suribachi): It’s an earthenware bowl and the inside has a ridged pattern to facilitate grinding.
- Japanese wooden pestle (Surikogi): Typically made of wood so that it prevents wearing down the ridges in the mortar.
Where to Get Suribachi and Surikogi
I used a small suribachi bowl for many years since I was in college. After having a family, I switched over to a bigger suribachi bowl. The benefit of a large-size suribachi is that you can add the blanched vegetables directly to the bowl to mix with the ground sesame seeds. Then, you can use the bowl as a serving dish. How convenient is that!
If you always cook for 2 or more people, I recommend getting at least a medium-sized suribachi bowl. Here are my recommendations:
- A set of 5-inch suribachi and surikogi on Amazon.
- A set of 7-inch suribachi and surikogi on Amazon.
- 10-inch suribachi on MTC Kitchen (use JOC10 to get a 10% discount)
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Japanese Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing (Gomaae)
Video
Ingredients
For the Sauce
- 3 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sugar
For the Spinach
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt (for blanching)
- 1 bunch spinach (8 oz, 227 g)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of cold water with a few ice cubes.
To Make the Sauce
- Even though your sesame seeds are pre-toasted, we will freshly toast them now to enhance their nutty aroma. Add 3 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds to an ungreased frying pan and turn on the stove to medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, lift it up and shake it constantly over the flame. Toss and turn over the sesame seeds in the pan to evenly toast them. When they are fragrant, turn off the heat and move the pan off the stove.
- Transfer the toasted sesame seeds to a mortar (suribachi). Grind them with a pestle (surikogi). Leave some seeds whole for texture.
- To the ground sesame seeds, add 1 Tbsp soy sauce and 1 Tbsp sugar and mix it all together. Set aside.
To Cook the Spinach
- Once the water is boiling, add 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt. Add the stem ends of 1 bunch spinach first, since they take longer to cook, and hold for 15–20 seconds. Tip: Salt helps keep the spinach's green color brighter.
- Then, push the leaves down to submerge them in water. Blanch until the stems are no longer rigid, about 30–45 seconds. Tip: American spinach is very soft and we can eat it raw, unlike Japanese spinach.
- Remove the spinach from the pot and plunge it into the iced water to stop the cooking. Alternatively, drain and run the spinach under cold running water until cool.
To Assemble
- Once the spinach is cool enough to handle, collect the spinach and squeeze the water out. Tip: Do not leave the spinach in the water for too long or else it will lose nutrients.
- Cut the spinach into 1-inch (2.5 cm) lengths and put it in the mortar. If your mortar is small, transfer the sesame dressing and spinach to a bowl.
- Toss it all together. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 2–3 days or freezer for 2–4 weeks.
Notes
- 3 Tbsp toasted white sesame seeds
- 1½ Tbsp soy sauce
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp sake
- ½ tsp mirin
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on March 30, 2011. It was republished with a new video, new step-by-step and final images, and more content on September 12, 2023.
Hello Namiko,
Thank you for your wonderful website. I cooked a dinner last night, which we usually share with our neighbors. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have been providing meals to several seniors in our neighborhood. This past Sunday, I decided on Miso Salmon. While doing my research on the recipes, I found your website. I used your Miso Salmon, Sweet Onion Takikomi Gohan, Sunomono, and Spinach Salad with Sesame Dressing. I also added a pickled daikon radish to the meal. Everything turned out amazing and very flavorful. I was hoping to share my photo of the meal here, but it won’t accept the file. Please let me know how I can share the photos Thank you, again, for your inspiration.
Be well.
Lauryn
Hi Lauryn, Wow! Amazing! Nami read your comment, and she was happy to hear your story. Thank you very much for trying many recipes and sharing your cooking experience with us. To share your photos, please upload photos on Instagram with the hashtag “#justonecookbook.” We hope to see your photos soon!😊
Hi Nami,
My mother used to make a dish like this when I was a child, I loved it! She would squeeze the water out and squeeze into a sushi roll shape, then pour the sauce over. I never got the recipe from her and now she is gone. Glad I came across this one, will try it and see if it tastes the same, or at least similar!
Thank you for posting this! Glad I came across it!
Hi Sue, We are glad to hear you find this recipe! We hope this recipe taste good as your mom’s! Thank you for trying this recipe.☺️
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU NAMI from AUSTRALIA!
My family love Japanese food, and I look forward to making another of your delicious recipes.
I love your positive attitude. Keep up the good work .
KEEP SAFE
Regards, Nancy
Hi Nancy, Happy New Year!🎍🎉 Nami is so happy to hear your family enjoys her recipes. Thank you very much for your love and support!💕
Simple and delicious. I made it with frozen spinach so it was a super easy side dish. I loved grinding up freshly toasted sesame seeds by hand, the fragrance was amazing, and the resulting dressing light and delicate.
Hi Katy!
We are so happy to hear you enjoyed the freshly toasted sesame seeds flavor!
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.☺️
Hi, can I boil the soy sauce mixture for a bit to cook off some of the alcohol from the mirin and sake?
Hi Kay!
For that reason, yes, you can.🙂
Yes Yes love your recipe’s bought your book.
Hi Sally!
Thank you very much for purchasing Nami’s cooking book!
We hope you enjoy the Easy Japanese recipe!😊
Love all simple dishes n definitely will cook for family n friends. Thanks for sharing
Hi Joanne,
Thank you very much for your kind feedback!
Here is a list of our simple recipe;
https://www.justonecookbook.com/tags/under-5-ingredients/
Please check it out!☺️
My husband made this to go with your teriyaki salmon, and it was so good! We don’t have a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, so we had to find an inventive way of crushing the sesame seeds. In the end, what worked best was folding the seeds under several layers of wax paper and whacking them with a meet mallet! It sounds pretty funny, but it works. Just thought I would share in case there’s someone else out there like us.
Hi Hope,
Thank you very much for trying many of Nami’s recipes and sharing your cooking experience/tips with us! You and your husband are very creative!😊
My Mom, who was Japanese, used to bring this for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Everyone just loves it, but since she passed three years ago, I have tried to make it, but it just wasn’t as tasty as what she made.
I found this site and saw this recipe and made it the next day. It tastes just like my Moms! So delicious. Thank you for this site. It has helped me a lot with cooking some of the things my Mom use to make for us and because Japanese food happens to be my favorite so it is nice to be able to make it at home!
Hi Margaret,
We couldn’t be happier to hear how much joy and excitement Nami’s recipe has brought to you! Thank you for sharing your cooking experience and story with us!
I love this side dish. So easy to make. So yummy. It compliments many dishes. I have this same exact mortar and pestle, from Japan!
Hi Fernalin! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for your kind feedback! 🙂
I made this dish today. The spinach is incredibly crunchy and I love it. I’m disappointed with the sauce. It’s very thick..barely look like a sauce and very salty. The flavour is quite different from what I am used to eating at the restaurants.
Hi Nancy! Thank you for trying this recipe. I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this dish. Next time you can reduce the amount of soy sauce. Typically, it’s just soy sauce and sugar for this dish. 🙂
Hello,
Thank you for this lovely recipe. I made it twice now.
Second time around I used the tops ( green leaves ) of small white and pink radishes 🙂
If you get your hands on some I recommend it.
Hi Iizuka! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe! The colorful radishes must look so pretty! Thank you for your tip!!!
Hi Nami –
Could I use defrosted frozen spinach for this or is only fresh recommended? Thanks so much! 🙂
Hi Nancy! Don’t laugh… but I had never used a store-bought bag frozen spinach… so I’m not sure how it looks like. xD I assume it’s raw… so you would drop the frozen chunk (?) in the boiling water to blanch? I think you can use it, but I never tried it… Does it get mushy?
I have blanch my spinach (not just leaf the stem part too), squeezed water out, and stored in the a glass container to keep in my freezer. If you’re talking about this type of frozen spinach then sure! I would defrost naturally and throw in to the sesame sauce to mix together.
Hope this helps! 🙂
Actually I have never used frozen spinach either lol! I think it is already cooked, so I will just thaw it, squeeze it, and use as is. I’m glad to hear that should work. Thanks Nami! 😊
Hi Nancy! Hahahaha! I am curious. I never freeze “leafy” vegetables as it is! It must become shuttered. LOL. Enjoy!
I have been wondering what this dish was for 7 years! Thank you so much for this!
Hi Brady! Whoa! Mystery solved! 🙂 I hope you enjoy this recipe!
Thank you so much for your instruction. Wish you all the best!
Thank you so much for your kind words, Pham! 🙂