20/10/2025
✨ Black Sesame, Seaweed & Nettle Gomasio ✨
Every winter, I make a big batch of this deeply nourishing gomasio — a simple blend of toasted black sesame seeds, seaweed, and nettle — and it brings me so much joy.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, each of these ingredients carries a purpose that goes far beyond flavor:
🌑 Black sesame nourishes the Kidneys and Liver, replenishing Jing — our deep essence, the foundation of vitality, growth, hormones, fertility, and the strength of our hair and bones. It’s rich in calcium and healthy fats, beautifully moistening for the intestines and supporting smooth digestion.
🌿 Nettle is a mineral powerhouse — rich in iron, magnesium, and silica. It gently builds Blood, supports the Kidneys, and helps to clear toxins from the system. In TCM, it’s also known to help rebuild Jing, grounding the body while renewing its strength.
🌊 Seaweed, abundant in trace minerals from the ocean, nourishes Yin, softens hardness, and supports detoxification by assisting the body’s natural cleansing processes.
All three are dark in color, resonating with the Kidney system — the organ most connected to Jing and our deep reserves of life energy. When combined, they work synergistically to restore, remineralize, and fortify the body from the root level.
I sprinkle this gomasio on rice, soups, veggies, or even avocado toast — but my favorite part? Watching my youngest son joyfully shake it over his meals, knowing every sprinkle is quietly nourishing his growing body and essence.
How to make:
Toast sesame in a dry pan until they begin to pop and release fragrance, then add some sea salt and allow to melt into the sesame seeds. Turn off the heat.
Use a mortel & pestle to grind the sesame with dried nettle (I use tea leaves, powdered nettle will do as well).
Finally add the either seaweed flakes or cut nori seaweed paper into small stripes. Mix and add to a glass jar.
✨ Deep nourishment. Simple ingredients. Using food as medicine. ✨
