What Is Sesame meal and How Can I Use It?
Sesame meal is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 1 recipe to get you started.
Key Points
- Sesame seeds ground to a coarse, crumbly flour, the dry cousin of tahini.
- Use as a partial flour swap, a flavor booster, or a nutty coating.
- No gluten of its own, so it cannot carry a bread loaf alone.
- High oil content means it turns bitter fast; taste before using.
- Closest swap is almond or other nut meal, one-for-one; grind your own fresh.
What is sesame meal?
Sesame meal is simply sesame seeds ground to a coarse, sandy flour. It carries the same toasty, nutty flavor as whole sesame, just in a form that blends into batters and coatings instead of staying as separate seeds.
Think of it as the dry cousin of tahini. Tahini is sesame ground all the way to a loose paste with its oils released, while sesame meal stays drier and crumbly, closer to almond meal in texture.
How to Use It
Use sesame meal as a partial flour replacement or a flavor booster. It adds richness to gluten-free baking and crackers, though it has no gluten of its own, so it cannot carry a loaf alone.
Stir a few spoonfuls into pancake or muffin batter, fold it into veggie burgers and patties, or use it as a nutty bound coating for fish and tofu. It also thickens and flavors dressings and sauces, as in these Stuffed Avocados.
Toast it briefly in a dry pan first. The two extra minutes sharpen the flavor.
Pairing and Pitfalls
Sesame loves company. It plays well with honey, soy and tamari, garlic, ginger, citrus, and dark leafy greens, which is why it anchors so much Middle Eastern and East Asian cooking.
The main pitfall is rancidity creeping into the flavor. Sesame is high in oil, and once ground the surface area exposed to air multiplies, so old meal turns bitter and stale fast.
Taste a pinch before you commit it to a dish.
Substitutes
Almond meal or any nut meal is the closest swap by texture and works one-for-one, though the flavor shifts toward the nut you choose. Ground sunflower or pumpkin seeds give a nut-free alternative.
For the flavor without the dry texture, a spoon of tahini thinned with a little water covers most uses, especially in dressings and sauces.
Buying and Storage
You will rarely find it on a shelf, so most cooks grind their own. Pulse toasted sesame seeds in a spice grinder in short bursts and stop before it clumps into paste.
Store sesame meal airtight in the refrigerator for a few weeks or the freezer for several months. Grinding in small batches as you need it is the surest way to keep it from going off.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 芝麻粕
- British (UK) term
- Sesame meal
- en français
- farine de sésame
- en español
- harina de ajonjolí
Recipes using sesame meal
There are 1 recipe that contain this ingredient.
Stuffed Avocados
Vegan stuffed avocados loaded with crunchy cucumber, radishes, scallions, and soy sauce, topped with sesame meal, nutritional yeast, and sprouts. A fresh, no-cook lunch in 15 minutes.
