The Sauce You’ll Want to Put on Everything: Goma-ae
A classic Japanese sauce
This week’s flavor hero is a Japanese sesame sauce called Goma-ae, and it’s one of those sneaky-simple recipes that turns basic veg into something craveable.
I’m starting with blanched green beans (because they’re quick and affordable), but this sauce is a build-it-once, use-it-five-ways kind of thing. It’s sweet, salty, nutty, and silky—exactly the sort of pantry player that earns its spot on your weekly rotation.
Let’s build it:
✹ GOMA-AE (Sesame Sauce)
You’ll need:
1 cup SSM
⅓ cup honey
1 oz white miso
1 Tbsp sesame oil
½ cup tahini or toasted sesame paste
¼ cup water (adjust to your preferred thickness) *I like mine to be thick enough to stick to the vegetable well
Step-by-step:
Mix everything up to the sesame oil together in a bowl. This forms your base sauce.
Take the remaining base sauce and whisk in 2 cups of tahini to finish your silky sesame sauce.
Finish with water to get the right consistency
That’s it.
🥢 Use it on more than just beans:
Drizzle it on cold soba noodles with cucumber and nori.
Toss it with steamed broccoli or roasted carrots.
Use it as a dressing for a shredded cabbage + chicken salad.
Mix it into a grain bowl with leftover rice, tofu, and pickles.
Even dip cold dumplings into it—it works.
This is the Pantry Chef way: build a bold, versatile flavor once—and find five places to use it.
🧂More sauces + ways to use them coming soon. Subscribe if you haven’t already, and hit me with your favorite thing to put this on.
xx
Sarah