Gomasio (sesame salt)

About salt and gomasio

Under the Ryoho Wellness healing diet:

refined salt is to be avoided, including iodised salt; and
sea salt is the replacement is always to be consumed cooked.

Sea salt is considered one of the holy grail tools of this healing diet. The trace elements found with sea salt have a homeopathic impact to offset the toxicity of pure, refined sodium. Cooking the salt reduces this that little bit further. And coating the salt with the sesame oil that comes from the crushed sesames (see preparation below) makes it more hospitable for our bodies again!

(The other holy grail tools are fire and water. The holy grail ingredient is the wholegrain – this is considered to be the food for human beings – it nourishes our creative abilities above any other food.)

Gomasio is a condiment that can be added to food so we can all feel like we’re not missing out on the salt and pepper process, ha ha. More importantly, gomasio is excellent for strengthening the blood.

Equipment & Ingredients – to last about a week if using at every meal

Mortar and pestle (if you haven’t already got one look around for a nice stone one – generally chinese grocery stores have them, about 15cm in outer diameter works well for gomasio)
Clean jar or container (about 500ml)
Sesame seeds, hulled or unhulled, up to your taste, always at least pesticide-free if not organic – 16 tablespoons
Sea salt – 1 tablespoon

The recommended ratio of sesames:salt is 16:1 as a daily average. If you are feeling you need more ‘yang’, you can make the ratio as low as 12:1, or more ‘yin’, 20:1. Your body will tell you as you work with this.

If you find that you are easily consuming this in a week and more, that’s absolutely fine – when I first started eating it, I was making some every 2-3 days!!! It’s just your body going, yeah, I want more of these good minerals!

To prepare

Dry-roast the sesame seeds…

…in a shallow frypan, over a medium-low flame. Again, you’ll smell them when they’re ready. Hulled sesames go a lovely golden sand colour. Unhulled ones start to pop like pop-corn! Wait for the aroma. Transfer to separate bowl once done.

“Cook” the salt

Turn the flame off and add your sea salt to the pan. You can hear it sizzle a bit if you put your ear close to it. Let it do that for 1-2 minutes.

Make gomasio

1/3 fill your mortar and pestle bowl (I always forget which is the pestle and which is the mortar) with sesames (probably half of them if you get the same size mortar/pestle I mentioned above), and same proportion of salt
grind seeds and salt together in a clockwise direction
gomasio is ready once 70-90% of seeds are crushed
pop in your jar/container
repeat 1-4 with remaining ingredients

You can have this at every meal, and a teaspoon of this will work wonders with a headache… Because it contains freshly crushed oils, it can go ‘off’, so best to consume within 2 weeks of preparation.