Japanese spinach and sesame salad, fresh and full of umami

Crisp, fresh and steamed baby spinach in an aromatic sesame dressing. This is my recipe for the most delicious Japanese spinach and sesame salad!

The sesame dressing comes with a high umami flavour

Spinach is available seasonally and regionally almost all year round. And freshly harvested, it is particularly delicious and healthy. In my recipe for sesame and spinach salad, I steam the spinach. Depending on how you prefer your Japanese salad, you can steam it for a little longer or less, or not at all. In the photos, you can see it steamed for a few seconds and steamed for 1-2 minutes.

The fresh spinach aroma harmonizes wonderfully with the sesame dressing. Because the dressing is high in umami flavour, a little acidity and a lot of tastyness.

What does Japanese spinach and sesame salad match with as a side dish?

This delicious, hearty salad goes very well as a side dish to many other Japanese dishes. It is very tasty simply as a snack all by itself. And it also complements many European dishes very well.

Does spinach really contain so much more iron than other vegetables?

Fun fact! Spinach is very healthy, but the immensely high iron content that made it so outstanding for years and even let to comic character creations like Pop Eye was unfortunately only the result of a calculation error in which a decimal point slipped. Many green vegetables have a comparatively high iron content, including spinach. But spinach is not as outstanding as an iron miracle as once believed.
Nevertheless, it is of course very healthy and, above all, always delicious and versatile in its preparation options.

Spinach is a winter vegetable – perfect for a winter salad

Did you know that you can sow spinach in the fall and harvest it right into the winter? In the greenhouse it even grows continuously, even when it’s freezing outside.
With this recipe you can enjoy a delicious, fresh salad with spinach from regional produce or from your own garden, even in winter.

Show me your Japanese spinach and sesame salad

Please follow me on Instagram or Facebook. And I’d be delighted if you prepared my Japanese spinach and sesame salad and posted a photo of it, tagging my account. Because I always find it really great and exciting to see how my recipes have been prepared in other kitchens!

Japanese spinach and sesame salad – preparation in pictures

Here I’ll show you step by step in photos how to prepare spinach and sesame salad. Then we’ll go straight on to the recipe.

Ingredients for 4 portions of Japanese spinach and sesame salad:

300 g spinach, young and fresh
2 tbsp sesame
2 tbsp tahini (sesame paste)
3 tbsp soy sauce
4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp rice vinegar

Preparation:

Roasting the sesame

1. Roast the sesame briefly and without fat in a hot pan.
2. As soon as it turns brown, immediately remove it from the pan into a bowl and set aside.

Steaming the spinach

1. Blanch the spinach in a steamer for 30 seconds to 2 minutes. To do this, bring water to the boil in a pot and steam the spinach in a suitable steamer with a lid on top. A multi-level, Asian bamboo steamer is particularly suitable for this. Depending on how crunchy or soft you want the spinach, you can steam it shorter, longer or not at all.

Spinach and sesame dressing

1. Mix the tahini with the soy sauce, sugar and rice vinegar to make a dressing.
2. Then mix with the steamed spinach.
3. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and serve.

Enjoy your meal!