When you’re trying to eat as few processed foods as possible, condiments can be a source of frustration — many store-bought versions include high-fructose corn syrup, thickeners, anti-caking agents, and other sketchy stuff you’d rather avoid putting in your body. It’s doubly hard to navigate the condiment aisle when you’ve got food allergies, as many products are unnecessarily spiked with the very ingredients you’re trying to avoid.
Rest assured, you need not eschew condiments altogether if you want to eat healthy food! Many brands cater to healthy-minded folk, offering condiments that are free of allergens and weird chemicals. Some condiments just happen to be free of weird stuff too — just check the labels before you buy. If you see an ingredient you don’t recognize, you can even look it up on this helpful website — Be Food Smart will tell you, in plain English, just what all those long, chemically-sounding additives are.
While I sometimes rely on store-bought condiments I simply cannot make any better or more naturally myself (read: tamari, Garlic Gold nuggets, Sriracha sauce, Dijon mustard), I often go DIY and create my own condiments. If your pantry is stocked with healthy ingredients, you too can make dressings and sauces from scratch. This way you know exactly what you’re getting, and there’s the added bonus of extra love that goes into homemade food. What can I say, food just tastes better when you’ve put your heart and soul into it.
A great place to start with homemade condiments is gomashio, a Japanese topping for steamed rice. The traditional version contains only toasted sesame seeds and salt, but I turned things up a notch today using one of my favorite products, Garlic Gold Sea Salt Nuggets. Made from organic toasted garlic and sea salt, it’s a condiment in its own right — the people at Garlic Gold recommend using it to top popcorn, steamed vegetables, baked potatoes, soups, and salads. Used here, it gives gomashio an unexpected garlicky boost with none of the sulphurous, stinky character of raw garlic. Its toasty flavor is mild and savory, matching well with the toasted sesame seeds.
In order to obtain the desired, semi-ground texture for gomashio, Japanese cooks use their version of a mortar and pestle, called a suribachi. I used my British-made Mason Cash model and it worked beautifully. Whatever variety of mortar and pestle you have should work just fine, as long as you bash up the sesame seeds with vigor, releasing their aromatic oil. In the event that you do not posess a mortar and pestle, a coffee grinder or mini-chopper will also work well.
For today’s lunch salad pictured above, I topped a pile of mixed greens with some leftover quiona, sliced avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, balsamic dressing, and a spoonful of gomashio. It was a nourishing and delicious midday meal, one I’ll surely be repeating again soon!
Gomashio keeps for at least a month in the fridge, but it will no doubt disappear before a month is through. Sprinkle it on steamed rice or other whole grain side dishes, spoon it on top of a salad, or use it to garnish pureed soups, hummus, and other bean dips.
Garlic Gold Gomashio
makes about 1/3 C.
1/3 C. (50g.) sesame seeds
1 Tbsp. Garlic Gold Sea Salt Nuggets
1. Heat the sesame seeds in a small (8-inch) skillet over medium-low heat. Shake frequently, toasting until the seeds are a light, golden-brown. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
2. Pour the sesame seeds into a mortar and pestle.
3. Grind for about five minutes, until the mixture resembles sand and begins to clump.
4. Add the Garlic Gold nuggets to the mortar and pestle with the sesame seeds. Grind for another minute or so, breaking up the large chunks of garlic and incorporating them evenly into the sesame seeds.
5. Store in an airtight container. Will keep, refrigerated, up to 1 month.
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