Black sesame seeds substitutes
Black sesame seeds substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount
Use Toasted white sesame seeds
Same amount as the black sesame seeds
For a garnish, toasted white sesame seeds work 1:1 and poppy seeds give you the dark speckle if the look matters more than the flavour. For anything where black sesame is the point, black sesame ice cream, mochi, tangyuan filling, a black sesame latte, there is no real substitute, because you would be swapping away both the colour and the specific bitter-toasty flavour at once. The least-bad version is white sesame toasted much darker than you normally would, plus a teaspoon of black cocoa per cup for colour. Black sesame is doing three jobs: colour, a bitter roasted aroma, and crunch, so decide which one your recipe actually needs before you swap.
- Verdict —
- Works
- Best for —
- garnish on savoury dishes
Updated 26 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps
Every option, one card
Ranked| # | Substitute | Instead of black sesame seeds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toasted white sesame seedsgarnish on savoury dishes | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 2 | Unhulled natural brown sesame seedsice cream | Same amountWorks | Works |
| 3 | Poppy seedsbread toppings | Same amountGarnish onlyTweak it | Tweak it |
| 4 | Toasted flaxseedseeded breads | Same amountGarnish onlyYou'll taste it | You'll taste it |
| 5 | Black sesame paste or black tahiniice cream | About 1 tablespoon paste per 2 tablespoons seedsTweak it | Tweak it |
| 6 | Nigella seedsflatbreads | Same amountSavoury garnish onlyTweak it | Tweak it |
Toasted white sesame seeds
similar taste and texture
The obvious swap and the right one for garnishes, dressings and savoury cooking. Flavour is in the same family but lighter, sweeter and less tannic, because the bitterness of black sesame comes from the hull you are leaving behind.
- Best for
- garnish on savoury dishes, dressings, furikake, bread toppings, stir-fries
The catch is visual. A black sesame ice cream made with white sesame comes out beige and tastes rather like halva, which is pleasant but is not the dessert you set out to make. Toast them noticeably darker than usual, to a proper nut-brown, to get closer on flavour.
Unhulled natural brown sesame seeds
similar taste and texture
The closest flavour match on this list. These keep their hull, so you get the same slightly bitter, mineral edge that makes black sesame taste more grown-up than white.
- Best for
- ice cream, pastes, baked goods, dressings, porridge
Colour lands at tan-brown rather than black, so a paste made from them is the colour of milk chocolate instead of slate grey. Sold in health-food shops and Middle Eastern grocers, often just labelled natural or unhulled sesame.
Poppy seeds
different taste, similar texture
Right size, right dark speckled look, and a similar tiny crunch, so bread rolls, buns and salads still look correct.
- Best for
- bread toppings, buns, salad garnish, noodle garnish
Flavour is nutty and slightly floral rather than sesame, and poppy seeds do not release oil the way sesame does, so they cannot be ground into a paste or used to flavour a custard. Strictly a visual and textural stand-in.
Toasted flaxseed
different taste and texture
Brown or black flax gives a dark scattered look on breads and salads and a mild nutty flavour.
- Best for
- seeded breads, crackers, salads, yogurt bowls
They are slicker and flatter than sesame and lack the clean snap. Once wet they turn slippery, so avoid them on anything saucy. No sesame flavour at all, so this is purely appearance.
Black sesame paste or black tahini
similar taste, different texture
If you have the paste but not the seeds, this covers you for anything where the sesame gets ground anyway: ice cream, custards, fillings, lattes, dressings.
- Best for
- ice cream, mochi and tangyuan filling, lattes, custards, sauces
Both colour and flavour are correct, which nothing else on this list manages. It cannot give you a garnish or a crunchy coating, and it brings extra fat and liquid, so slightly reduce other fats in a delicate batter.
Nigella seeds
different taste, similar texture
Small, matte black, and visually the closest thing to black sesame on a flatbread or a bagel.
- Best for
- flatbreads, naan, savoury crackers, pickles
Nigella tastes strongly of onion and oregano, nothing like sesame. It is a good-looking substitute on savoury bread and a bad one anywhere sweet. People often assume nigella and black sesame are the same seed because both are sold as black seed, and they are not related at all.
Questions
5 questionsAre black and white sesame seeds interchangeable?
For a savoury garnish, largely yes. For desserts, no. Black sesame keeps its hull, which makes it more bitter, more mineral and considerably more aromatic than hulled white sesame, and of course it is black. Swap white for black in a stir-fry garnish and almost nobody notices. Swap it into black sesame ice cream and you get a beige dessert that tastes noticeably sweeter and milder.
Do black sesame seeds taste different from white ones?
Yes, clearly. White sesame is sweet and mildly nutty. Black sesame is stronger, with a slightly bitter, tannic, almost coffee-adjacent edge that comes from the seed coat, and a deeper roasted perfume. That bitterness is exactly why it works so well in sweet things, where it stops a sugary dessert tasting flat.
Can I just leave black sesame seeds out?
If they are a garnish, absolutely, and the dish will be fine. If the recipe is named after them, black sesame mochi, black sesame ice cream, tangyuan filling, a black sesame latte, then they are the entire flavour and colour of the thing, and leaving them out means making a different recipe. In that case pick another dessert rather than build a pale imitation.
Are black sesame seeds the same as black cumin or nigella seeds?
No, though they are often confused because all three get sold as black seed. Nigella, also called kalonji or black cumin, tastes of onion and oregano and comes from an unrelated plant. Black sesame tastes of sesame. If you substitute one for the other in a sweet recipe the result will be genuinely unpleasant.
How do I get the black colour without black sesame seeds?
Black cocoa powder is the practical answer: a teaspoon or two per cup of mixture darkens things dramatically and its faint cocoa bitterness reads acceptably in ice cream or a custard, though it is wrong in a traditional tangyuan filling. Toasting white sesame very dark also deepens the colour a shade. Nothing gets you all the way to the slate-grey of real black sesame.
Tips for substituting black sesame seeds
5 tips- You cannot judge doneness by colour, which is the whole difficulty with black sesame. Toast them in a dry pan over medium heat for three to five minutes and go by smell and sound: they will start to crackle and pop, and then smell strongly and unmistakably nutty. Take them off at that moment.
- Do not rinse them before toasting. Black sesame bleeds grey into water and you will lose colour along with some of the flavour compounds in the hull.
- Grind them with some of the recipe's sugar rather than on their own. The sugar acts as an abrasive and gets you to a smooth paste far faster, and it stops the mixture oiling out into a slick.
- Store them in the freezer. They are high in oil and the hull carries a lot of aromatics, so old black sesame goes musty and sharply bitter rather than simply bland, and it will ruin an otherwise good dessert.
- Unhulled seeds are slippery and do not stick to dough as well as hulled white sesame. Brush your buns or crackers with water or egg wash first and press the seeds in with the flat of your hand.