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Japanese · Okinawa

Japanese Jimami Tofu: Okinawan Peanut Tofu and the Ryukyuan Culinary Heritage

Okinawan cuisine represents Japan's most distinct regional food culture — shaped by the Ryukyu Kingdom's 450 years of independent history, its position as a trading hub between Japan, China, and Southeast Asia, and its subtropical climate that produces ingredients absent from mainland Japan. Jimami tofu (peanut 'tofu') is one of Okinawa's most characteristic preparations and an entry point into understanding Ryukyuan culinary logic. Despite the name, jimami tofu is not made from soybeans and involves no coagulation: it is a kuzu (arrowroot) starch-set preparation made from squeezed peanut milk, creating a soft, silky, pale block that resembles silken tofu but has a distinctly rich, nutty flavour and uniquely yielding texture. The preparation process involves soaking peanuts, blending with water, straining through cloth to extract peanut milk, then cooking with kuzu starch and seasonings (salt, sugar) until thickened, pouring into moulds, and chilling to set. The result is served chilled with dashi-based sauce, wasabi, and roasted sesame — a preparation that bridges Chinese peanut paste preparations and Japanese tofu aesthetics. Okinawan cuisine broadly reflects its Ryukyuan heritage: heavy use of pork (Okinawa has the most pork-centric food culture in Japan, with the saying 'we use everything but the pig's cry'), sweet potato (imported from China via the Ryukyus before reaching mainland Japan), bitter melon (goya champuru being the most famous dish), and turmeric (uchin, used in tea and colouring). The Chinese influence is visible in the use of lard, deep-frying, and pork belly preparations (rafute — braised pork belly in awamori, soy sauce, and brown sugar — predating Tokyo tonkotsu by centuries). Awamori, Okinawa's distilled rice spirit made with Thai long-grain rice and Aspergillus awamori black koji, represents the most distinct element of Ryukyuan beverage culture — fundamentally different from mainland Japanese sake in its distillation, long-grain rice base, and black koji character. Tofuyo — red koji-fermented tofu preserved in awamori and Okinawan spices, typically served in tiny portions as an accompaniment to awamori — is considered Okinawa's most intensely flavoured preparation and one of Japan's most distinctive fermented products. The centrepiece of Okinawan cuisine's restaurant expression is Ryukyu cuisine (Ryukyu-ryori), the formal kaiseki-equivalent of the Ryukyu court, featuring elaborate multi-course presentations of these ingredients prepared with the full sophistication of a millennium of court culture.

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ServesFour portions
Sourced1of 9 in BC
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I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

200 g
raw peanuts
soaked in cold water until softened
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
600 ml
water
for blending with soaked peanuts
Your own market
60 g
kuzu (arrowroot) starch
dissolved in a small amount of cold water before use
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tsp
fine salt
Your own market
1 tsp
sugar
Your own market
For the dashi-based sauce
200 ml
dashi
prepared to standard strength
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
2 tbsp
To serve
1 tsp
wasabi
freshly prepared or paste
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
roasted sesame seeds
whole
Not yet stocked in British Columbia

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II

The Method

1
Soak the peanuts in cold water for several hours until fully softened. Drain, then transfer to a blender with the 600 ml of fresh water. Blend at high speed until the mixture is uniformly smooth. Pass through a clean cloth, twisting firmly to extract as much peanut milk as possible; discard the solids. The extracted milk should be pale, opaque, and faintly fragrant — no visible grain should remain.
2
Dissolve the kuzu starch thoroughly in a small amount of cold water until no lumps remain. Combine the peanut milk, dissolved kuzu, salt, and sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. This is where the dish lives or dies: using a flat wooden spatula, stir the mixture continuously without pause for 8 to 10 minutes as it transforms from a thin, pourable liquid into a thick, translucent, glossy gel that pulls cleanly away from the sides of the pan. Any interruption in stirring will produce lumps that cannot be corrected.
From the canon — Kuzu (arrowroot, Pueraria montana — Japanese arrowroot, not the same as Western arrowroot), extracted from the roots of the kudzu vine, is Japan's premier st… Kuzu Starch — The Premier Japanese Thickener →
3
Pour the thickened gel immediately into lightly dampened moulds or a shallow tray. Smooth the surface with a wet spatula. Allow to cool briefly at room temperature until steam subsides, then transfer to the refrigerator and chill until fully set and firm enough to cut cleanly — the block should hold a knife edge without collapsing.
4
Combine the dashi and soy sauce to form the serving sauce. Taste: the balance should be savoury, clean, and light enough not to overwhelm the peanut character of the tofu.
5
Unmould the set jimami tofu and cut into neat portions. Serve chilled, accompanied by the dashi sauce, a small amount of wasabi, and roasted sesame seeds. The tofu should feel silky and yielding under light pressure — not rubbery, not collapsing — and hold its form on the plate throughout service.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Freshly soaked and pressed Okinawan or high-quality raw peanuts; hon-kuzu (true arrowroot starch from Yoshino) dissolved fresh; house-made ichiban dashi from katsuobushi and kombu; real wasabi grated to order.
02
Estate — Good-quality raw peanuts from a reputable supplier; pure kuzu starch (not blended with potato starch); dashi made from quality dried fish and kombu; fresh wasabi paste from a tube of known origin.
03
Market — Standard supermarket raw peanuts, soaked adequately; kuzu starch of reliable but unspecified provenance; commercially prepared dashi stock; good-quality wasabi paste.
04
House — Pre-soaked peanuts; katakuriko (potato starch) substituted for kuzu where unavailable — texture will be firmer and less silky; dashi powder dissolved in hot water; wasabi paste from a standard tube. The peanut flavour remains; the textural and aromatic refinement is reduced at each step.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Sight. The strained peanut milk is uniformly pale and opaque with no visible solid grain remaining in suspension.
◇Sight. During cooking, the mixture shifts from a thin, mobile liquid to a thick, translucent, glossy gel that pulls cleanly from the pan sides — the visual marker that the kuzu has fully gelatinised.
◇Touch. The chilled, set block holds a clean knife edge and feels silky but firm under light fingertip pressure — neither rubbery nor yielding to the point of collapse.
◇Smell. A faint, clean peanut fragrance rises from the warm gel as it cooks — no raw starch smell should persist by the time the gel is ready to mould.
◇Where it lives or dies. The dish lives or dies in the continuous stirring of the kuzu–peanut milk mixture: eight to ten unbroken minutes of movement over medium heat, with a flat wooden spatula, until the mass transforms from liquid to a glossy, cohesive gel — any pause produces irreversible lumps.
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VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Nikka From The Barrel
Nikka Whisky — Miyagikyo Distillery · Miyagikyo — Nikka Distillery
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Whisky
From British Columbia
Fort Berens Riesling
Fort Berens Estate Winery · Lillooet
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic

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The whole pairing
Pillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Purely Artisan Foods
San Diego · soy sauce
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