Sesame Ginger Soy Sauce Recipe

Author: Joost Nusselder, author of The Essential Japanese meal planner cookbook Updated August 13, 2022

Love trying new sauces? I’ve got the perfect recipe for you – sesame ginger soy sauce!

This delicious sauce is perfect for adding flavor to any dish. It’s just spicy enough to at a little kick and salty because of the soy sauce.

If you don’t want to spend money on a bottled sauce or want to make sure it has all-natural ingredients, you can make it at home. Here’s how: 

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In this post we'll cover:

• 1 Sesame Ginger Soy Sauce Recipe
  • 1.1 Ingredients  1x2x3x
  • 1.2 Instructions 
• 2 Cooking tips
• 3 Substitutes & variations
  • 3.1 Fresh ginger substitute
  • 3.2 Kewpie substitute for ginger soy sauce
  • 3.3 Mirin substitute for ginger soy sauce
  • 3.4 Sesame oil substitute for ginger soy sauce
• 4 How to serve the ginger soy sauce
• 5 How to store leftovers
• 6 Conclusion

Sesame Ginger Soy Sauce Recipe

Joost Nusselder

Adding a little spiciness of the ginger can do a lot of good with loads of dishes, and it's salty enough not to need any other sauces to make your dish taste great!

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Sauce

Cuisine Japanese

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 3 tbsp Sesame seeds (toasted if you have them)
• 3 tbsp Kewpie Japanese mayo
• 3 tbsp Vegetable oil
• 1½ tbsp Soy sauce
• 2 tsp Mirin
• 1 tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2 tsp Honey
• ½ tsp Sesame oil
• Ground black pepper
• 1½ tsp Ginger fresh, grated

Instructions

 

• Toast 3 tbsp of sesame seeds in a frying pan until golden and place them on a plate to cool. Or, if you bought toasted sesame seeds then they're ready to use.
• Next, grind the sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle. Add the grated ginger and ground some more.
• Add 3 tbsp of real Japanese Kewpie mayo, 3 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 2 tsp mirin, and 1 tbsp of rice vinegar. 
• Mix it all in a bowl and add 2 tsp of honey for sweetness, 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil, and a hint of ground black pepper. 

Keyword Ginger, Sesame

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Cooking tips

You need to really grind down the toasted sesame seeds in order to get the flavors in the sauce, and without any large pieces floating in there.

That part probably will take the most time out of making the entire sauce.

You can vary a bit with the amount of

• honey and mirin for sweetness
• ginger for that kick
• soy sauce for the saltiness

Substitutes & variations

If you don’t have some of these things, substituting them will work just fine:

Fresh ginger substitute

You do need to have ginger in this recipe, but if you don’t have fresh ginger you can use ground ginger out of a jar as well.

It’s a bit milder in taste but the amount you put in compared to fresh ginger is already a lot more, so keeping the same ratio is probably best.

Kewpie substitute for ginger soy sauce

If you don’t have Kewpie Japanese mayo, than regular mayo will do as well. But, that’s a lot thicker so I recommend cutting the amount by about 1/2 a tablespoon to offset this.

It also has less vinegar so add a little more of the rice vinegar to taste.

Mirin substitute for ginger soy sauce

If you don’t have mirin, than using a bit more honey or sugar will work just fine. Start with a 1/2 tablespoon and then add more to taste if needed.

You could also omit it entirely, but I do like the little sweetness it adds to the sauce.

Sesame oil substitute for ginger soy sauce

I would not recommend skipping the sesame oil, but if you don’t have any you can use olive oil or vegetable oil as a substitute.

Just keep in mind that it won’t have that nutty sesame flavor anymore, but perhaps add a bit extra sesame seeds to get some of that flavor back.

This sauce is also one of my favorite variations:

How to serve the ginger soy sauce

The sauce works really well as a dipping sauce, or you can pour it over cooked rice or noodles.

It’s also great for stir-fries! Simply add the sauce at the end and give everything a good toss.

If you want to get really creative, you could even use it as a salad dressing.

Also read: try this ginger salad dressing with miso as well

How to store leftovers

Leftover sauce can be stored in a jar or container with a tight fitting lid. It will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Remember to give it a good stir before using, as the oils and different ingredients may have separated while sitting in the fridge.

Conclusion

So there you have it, a delicious and easy to make ginger soy sauce recipe. I hope you enjoy it!

Also read: this is our list of the best sushi sauces

Check out our new cookbook

Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.

Try it out for free with Kindle Unlimited:

Read for free

Joost Nusselder, the founder of Bite My Bun is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with Japanese food at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.