Dress your vegetables with a savoury sesame dressing

Any salad leaves or veggies or even fruits like figs go well with this sesame dressing. PHOTO: MARI NAMESHIDA

I love to use fresh chrysanthemum leaves with their slightly bitter taste in this salad. Of course, spinach or romaine lettuce go well, too. Mango brings sweet, tangy notes to the plate, while almonds add texture and a nutty, tart touch.

If you do not live in Japan, you can substitute tahini - a popular food in the eastern Mediterranean region - for Japanese sesame paste (neri-goma). Though both pastes are made out of pure sesame, there are some differences.

Generally, tahini is raw sesame paste, while Japanese neri-goma uses roasted seeds, creating a richer and nuttier paste with a darker colour. Because it is toasted, most of my students say it smells exactly like peanut butter.

If you want to get that flavour into your salad, you can add toasted sesame powder to tahini or try non-sweetened peanut butter, instead. You may also be able to find Chinese sesame paste, which is called zhi ma jiang. However, this is made of sesame paste mixed with vegetable oil, so it is not a substitute for neri-goma.

You will enjoy this sesame dressing with any seasonal salad greens plus fig, persimmon, apple and so on. But it is also delicious on thinly sliced beef or even noodles.

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