This is a spinach salad with a flavorful sesame sauce (hourensou no goma-ae) that is very similar to our Green Beans with Sesame Sauce, and is a great little side dish. It is super quick to make, but very nutritious and tasty.
It’s best to make your own ground sesame using Suribachi (mortar) and Surikogi (pestle), but you can also use store-bought ground sesame. Freshly ground sesame has a stronger aroma.
If you’d like more detailed instructions, please watch our Green Beans with Sesame Sauce video as a reference.
Spinach Salad with Sesame Sauce Recipe
Blanched spinach mixed with sesame sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb spinach
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 Tbsp roasted sesame seeds (ground)
- roasted sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Blanch spinach in boiling water for 1 minute.
- Cool under running water and squeeze out water. Cut into 1″ sections.
- Grind sesame seeds, and mix with soy sauce and sugar in a bowl.
- Mix sauce and spinach.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds on spinach.
Step 2
16 Comments
Both my parents were born in the US but were raised in Japan by relatives. As a child, my mom use to make something similar to this, but I remember her putting tofu in cheese cloth and squeezing the liquid out and putting it in a dish similar to this. Some times she would slice up konyaku and put that in it also. My mother loved to cook japanese food for our family and friends BUT she never wrote any of her recipes down.
Hi Kiyomi san,
That’s called Shira-ae, and we have a recipe for that. https://www.japanesecooking101.com/shira-ae/
Can you plz teach me how to make gobu salad
Namita,
you mean gobo? Long burdock root? If so, we’d like to make it soon, so stay tuned!
Thank you for all your videos! I have made many of your recipes & they pass the test with my 86 year old mother! She says many of the recipes are like her obachan’s recipes! Keep doing what you’re doing! Gambate!
Paula,
thanks!
My kids and I love Japanese food a lot. Whenever we go out to eat, they prefer Japanese restaurant. Today, for the first time, I served them Tamagoyaki and they are very pleased. Thank u for putting up this site. Can u please add grilled and fried tofu recipes? Thanks!
Gem,
Glad you liked the recipe!
Dear ,
I work in one hotel where mostly come Japanese groups.
Can you give me such information what is best for breakfast so they can be satisfied.
Best regards
Katarina
Katarina,
we have breakfast menu on our web and video sites.
This is so easy and delicious. I ended up making more and using it in my bento. It made for a nice treat at lunch.
Day,
glad you liked our Hourensou No Gomaae recipe! Try our Spinach Ohitashi too!
Getting ready to make this for the second time, I will make a double batch and nibble on it all week. Delicious recipe, thank you.
Karen,
thanks for trying our recipe!
Thank you for all the beautifull recipes! When it says soy sauce do you mean the salty kind? Thank you.
Susan,
we use regular soy sauce, but you can substitute with reduced salt one.