There are many great things about soymilk. It has more protein than cow’s milk or humyn milk. Its calcium is easily digestible. Its much lower in sodium than cow or humyn milk. Its got 15 times more iron than cow’s milk. Its got isoflavones (known to prevent cancer in estrogen-rich bodies). And its really cheap. If you make your own, that is. In fact, break it down and it only costs about a quarter to make a quart of soymilk (and there is a LOT less waste than buying pre-packaged. In fact, you can turn the “waste” from soymilk into protein-rich veggie burgers). Oh, and did i mention is pretty easy and takes less than half an hour? Well, let’s get started.
What you’ll need:
Ingredients
1.5 cups dry soybeans, washed and drained 3 times, soaked in 4-6 cups water at room temperature for about 10 hours, then drained and rinsed well
12 cups (hot) water, approximately
Gear
teapot or kettle
blender (preferably stainless steal or glass)
15″-by-15″ coarse-weave linen or 2-foot-square dish clothe (or i use cheese cloth)
colander
cooking pot
- Run 12 cups water into a large teapot or kettle and bring to a boil. Place a deep, 6-to-8-quart pot in sink, set a large colander in mouth of pot, and line colander with a moistened pressing sack (cloth mentioned above). Divide soaked beans into three equal portions (about 1 1/3 cups each).
- Preheat the blender by slowly pouring in 2-3 cups boiling water. Allow water to stand for 1 minute, then discard. In the blender combine one portion of beans with 2 cups boiling water (from teapot) and purée at high speed for 1 minute, or until very smooth. Pour purée into sack in colander. Purée remaining portions of beans with 2 cups water each and pour into sack. Rinse out blender with 1/4 cup boiling water to retrieve any purée, and pour into sack.
- Twist mouth of sack closed. Using a glass jar or potato masher, press sack repeatedly against bottom of colander to extract as much soymilk as possible. Shake solids (okara) into one corner of sack, twist further closed, and press again. Open mouth of sack wide in colander, stir okara briefly, then pour 2.5 cups boiling water over okara. Stir again. Twist sack closed and press repeatedly with jar. Transfer pot containing soymilk to stove. Reserve okara for use in cooking (i like to add some wheat gluten and make veggie burgers). (Or, to get 1/2 cup more soymilk, open sack wide, allow okara to cool for 5 minutes, then twist closed sack and use your hands to squeeze out remaining soymilk.)
- Bring soymilk to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring botom of cooking pot constantly with a wooden spatula or sppon to prevent sticking. When foam suddenly rises in pot (or milk comes to a boil) reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 7 minutes. Remove pot from burner. Or heat for 30 minutes in a covered double boiler or in a covered saucepan set in a pot of boiling water.) If desired, add to the 7.5 cups soymilk one of the following flavoring combinations:
- Agave-Vanilla Soymilk: Add 2.5 to 4 tablespoons agave nectar, 1/4 teaspoon or less vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt; mix or purée well.
- Rich and Creamy Soymilk: To any of the flavoring combos above or below, add 2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil; purée at high speed until well dispersed. For extra thickness, add 1/4 teaspoon granular soy lecithin.
- Carob-Agave Soymilk: Add 4 tablespoons agave nectar or natural sugar, a pinch of salt and, if desired, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. After milk has cooled, whip in 2 1/4 to 4 teaspoons carob (or cocoa) powder, which has first been creamed in a little of the cold soymilk.
- Malt, Mocha, or Coffee Soymilk: Add 2-3 tablespoons granular malt, mocha, or coffee to the Agave-Vanilla Soymilk
- Sesame or Calcium-rich Soymilk: To Agave-Vanilla or Rich and Creamy Soymilk, add 5-8 tablespoons sesame butter.
- Orange Soymilk: Stir 1 1/4 cup orange juice into cold soymilk (it may sound gross, but its really tasty).
- Go ahead and try other flavorings, too. Strawberry, grated ginger, cinnamon & anise, nut butters, coconut, whatev.
- Soymilk may now be served hot. Or for a richer, creamier consistency, a deeper sweetness, and a flavor more like that of dairy milk, chill by covering and setting pot in circulating cold water for 10-15 minutes. This quick cooling also increases shelf life. Pour soymilk into clean (or steralized) bottles and cover tightly. Refrigerated, it will keep for 3-6 days; if frozen, it will keep infinitely.
If you are using a plastic blender, you probably want to use the non-boiling water grind variation: Substitute hottest tap water when puréeing, but mix okara with boiling water. If using a food mill or jiucer, grind beans without-water, mix ground beans with 6 cups boiling water, and allow to stand for 2-3 minutes. Rinse out mill or juicer with 1/4 cup boiling water, then transfer purée to pressing sack and proceed from Step 3.
To make high-yielding, “lite” soymilk (which just means watered-down, since soymilk is naturally low in fat): In step 3, rinse okara with 3.5 - 4.5 cups boiling water. Yields 8.5-9.5 cups thinner (but still good) soymilk.
Later i’ll explain the simple process of making incredibly healthy soy yogurt.
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Holy shit! This is great. Thanks.
Mmm, delicious and nutritious. It should be pointed out though that soy milk is not an adequate substitute for breast milk. Plus, given that soy allergies are on the rise, babies shouldn’t be given soy for at least 6 months. Adults, on the other hand, who want to try it as an alternative to human milk, should go right ahead
I want to like soymilk. I’ve tried to like soymilk. But every time, no matter what I add for flavor, all I can think when I drink it is “Bean juice!”. This grosses me out, and I can’t drink it. I like beans, but whew! Bean juice just ain’t right.
Any suggestions for what works especially well to cover the bean taste?
definitely going to have to try this. i’m also interested in how you season the okara to get to veggie burgers. i have a few ideas, but they’re not quite vegan, so i assume you’re doing something different.
I started drinking soya milk after I had breast cancer as I was told that cows milk was not human friendly. I particularly liked mixing it myself so used to buy the powder which was also cheaper than buying ready mixed packets. However I moved and couldnt get the powder so started back with the cartons. After a couple of weeks I found the smell was really getting to me and eventually I gave up on it. I tried rice milk but didnt like that either so am now back on cows milk. (I am not vegan not even vegetarian though I hardly eat any meat and dont like fish) I am able to eat other soya products like Tofu - strange.
melissa - very good disclaimer.
spotted elephant - i know what you mean, when i see people drinking cow’s milk i think, “eww, blood and pus pumped full of antibiotics and hormones” (seriously, that’s the thought that runs through my head, its disturbing). but when you read things like this from milksucks.com, you can’t help it:
” The dairy industry knows that there is a problem with pus in milk. Accordingly, it has developed a system known as the “somatic cell count” to measure the amount of pus in milk. The somatic cell count is the standard used to gauge milk quality. The higher the somatic cell count, the more pus in the milk.
Any milk with a somatic cell count of higher than 200 million per liter should not enter the human food supply, according to the dairy industry. Therefore, anyone living in a state where the somatic cell count is higher than 200 million shouldn’t be drinking milk. There’s only one problem—every state but Hawaii is producing milk with pus levels so high that it shouldn’t enter the human food supply! At the bottom of this page, you can see how high the pus levels in your state’s milk are. Even the national average, at 322 million, is well above the industry’s limit.”
but i know that not everyone likes soymilk. nor can everyone drink it. almond milk is very easy to make as well, but its expensive. and i’ve never made rice milk, but i hear its pretty easy, too. it took me awhile to like soymilk and tofu, but now i love them both (though i limit my consumption cuz its just not good to eat too much of them). in the end, i figured bean juice was better than torture juice.
homemade soymilk can taste a bit, well, bean-like. i don’t know what to tell you, its just something i grew to love. i like the thicker, creamier soymilks better. i hope that someone else has more to say, tho.
sly - i don’t really have a recipe, i just throw stuff together. like i said, i use wheat gluten to make a seitan/okara burger. i also put in minced onions, carrots, cumin, thyme, a bit of coriander, grated garlic, chili powder, and, of course, salt and pepper. there is also a “beef flavoring” powder you can buy that is vegan, but i refuse to buy anything with beef in the name:)
I hate cow’s milk too-just the taste, so I don’t drink it. This information on pus is making me question ever making yogurt again. Aside from cruelty issues (not making light of them), that’s disgusting!
Soy can be an acquired taste but so are most things we eat. I like soy milk and also have turned away from some especially beany-tasting commercial brands. I imagine though if you make your own, you can manage that. Make the watered-down “low-fat” kind and jazz it up. I also advise switching over time and getting used to it. Like changing toothpastes.
Yeah, cow milk is kinda gross.
Tofu, please!
i’ll work on getting a post up this week on how to make your own tofu.
Thanks to your information about the pus in cow’s milk I just gave up cows milk. I went out to the supermarket and bought soymilk (I don’t think I’m ready for the homemade soymilk yet). I even told my mom and she quit cow’s milk also, she said she had to drink some recently and she almost vomitted. Now everytime I see milk I see pus
jrnywmn - you just made a somewhat shitty day into a good one:) i’ve been wrestling with service providers and hosting companies all day, but its all worth it to get back online and find that my little rant has saved some cows from torture. thanks for the update!
Thanks for posting this! I’ve been meaning to learn how to make soy milk, and you write it out so nicely (I love list format recipes). Your flavor suggestions look really good. I’ve been buying unsweetened lately (’cause I don’t care much for refined sugar) to use in baking and cereal, but I think I’m going to start making the vanilla-agave blend for drinking.
Now I just need to get a blender!