Kinako is roasted soybean flour — nutty, toasty, and quietly sweet, the flavor Japanese children grow up on. Worked into a paste with honey and a little soy milk, it becomes something like a peanut butter that contains no nuts at all: good on toast, on crackers, on apple slices, and entirely welcome in a nut-free school lunchbox.
Makes a small jar · 5 minutes · no stove
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp kinako (roasted soybean flour)
- 1½–2 Tbsp honey
- About 2 Tbsp unsweetened soy milk (or milk)
- A pinch of salt
How to make it
- In a bowl, stir the kinako and salt together, then add the honey and work it into a thick paste.
- Add the soy milk a little at a time, mixing until smooth and spreadable. Add it all at once and the spread turns loose — go slowly and stop at the texture you like.
Tip
Keep it in a clean jar in the fridge and eat it within 2–3 days. For kinako soy milk, stir about 2 tablespoons of the spread into a glass and add 200 ml of soy milk little by little — cold in summer, gently warmed in winter. And as with anything made with honey: not for babies under one.
Part of The Sunday Batch — small things made ahead, for easier weekday mornings.
