Black Sesame Soup (Cheater’s Version + Video)

Black sesame soup (芝麻糊) is a traditional Chinese dessert. Some dim sum restaurants still have this dish on their menu. It’s mainly made of black sesame seeds, rice, water and sugar.

Black sesame seeds are rich in vitamin B and iron, together with many other health benefits, protecting heart health, nourishing hair and facilitating bowel movements. When I was small, I was quite reluctant to try foods in black colour. My dad intrigued me to try black sesame soup and said it’ll help me sustain healthy and beautiful skin. Having tried once, I felt in love with this dessert for the whole life.

The traditional way of making black sesame soup is not quite straight forward and challenges your patience. The whole process takes a long time and effort.

I love eating black sesame soup, but also love short-cut cooking methods to achieve similar results. This recipe was a cheater's version. You don’t need to grind the black sesame seeds at all.

Top left: black sesame powder. Top middle: rice flour. Top right: rock sugar and water.

All you need is to get a quality product of black sesame powder. A bowl of fragrant and delicious black sesame soup can be served within 30 minutes. Are you intrigued too?

Black Sesame Soup Recipe

(Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups + 1 cup water
• 35 gm rice flour (粘米粉)
• 90 gm rock sugar
• 30 gm black sesame powder

Method:

1. Put 1½ cups of water and rock sugar in a sauce pan. Cook over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
2. In the meantime, mix 1 cup of water with the rice flour. Mix well.
3. Stir in the rice flour mixture into the syrup. Stir consistently until thickened.
4. Quickly stir in the black sesame powder. Combine well. Serve immediately.

Notes：

• The smoothness of this dessert soup largely depends on the black sesame powder you used. The finer the powder you use, the smoother the dessert you’ll get. This time I tried a product got from a nearby Asian grocer. I was quite satisfied with the results.
• You might like to try Amazon instead. They don’t have the brand I used. Here’s another brand of pure black sesame powder without any sugar.
• If the dessert soup is cooled down, it becomes thicker. You may add some hot water to loosen it up again.