Making your own soy milk is fast, easy and most importantly delicious. We've found dried organic soy beans on sale for as little as $.99 a pound so it makes a lot of economic sense too.
The hardest part when making your own soy milk is knowing at least 8 hours before you want it. Otherwise, it's simply a matter of soaking the beans, tossing them in a blender with boiling water, and separating the okara (Japanese for bean curd) from the filtrate (this is the soy milk).
Once you've got the soy milk, you can add a little sugar and enjoy it over cereal or by itself. We recently returned from a pick-your-own blueberry farm, so we're adding our homemade soy milk to blueberry smoothies. Perfect for a quick breakfast, so long as you remember to soak the beans.
What You Need
Ingredients
1 cup dried organic soy beans, rinsed and picked over
Water to cover beans
Sugar (optional)
Equipment
1-quart Mason jar
Large saucepot
Blender
Medium or large mixing bowl
Strainer
Cheese cloth or muslin for straining
Instructions
These instructions make about 2 cups of soy milk, enough for two smoothies. You can easily double this recipe.
1. Fill mason jar with 1 cup dried organic soy beans, cover with water and leave soaking over night. Beans will have doubled in size.
2. Rinse hydrated beans, place in blender and cover with boiling water. You should have about 2 cups. Blend until a thick paste forms, about 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Move paste to large sauce pan or dutch oven. Add 6 cups boiling water and heat over medium high until simmering. Reduce heat and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
Strain bean mixture through cheese cloth suspended in strainer over a mixing bowl. After filtering five to 10 minutes, you've got soy milk. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar to taste.
Refrigerate immediately, keeps up to 3 days.
Fresh Blueberry Smoothie
Makes 2 10-ounce smoothies
8 ounce fresh soy milk
About half a banana
8 ounce fresh blueberries
2 tablespoons oat flour (optional) (See our take on adding oatmeal to your morning smoothies)
Add all ingredients to blender. Blend on low for 30 seconds, increasing power to half. Blend another 30 seconds. Increase power to high and blend 1 minute to fully integrate all ingredients. Serve immediately.
Jarad Petroske is a professional writer and editor based in Eureka, California.
Related: What's the Difference Between Soy, Rice and Almond Milk?
(Images: Jarad Petroske)
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So there is a clearish filmy thing around the soy beans that needs to be removed.
my grandma tells me traditional Chinese prep usually involved crushing the beans, then winnowing to remove the filmy part because that part is "bad for your health". Im not sure how accurate that is but leaving it in sometimes causes a slight bitter taste to the dòu jiāng(Chinese soy milk)
You can do this dry and winnow with a fan outside, or after you grind up the wet beans, soak it in water and then give it a stir. The filmy cover will not sink as fast as the beans and u can scoop them up accordingly.
While most people in the states are familiar with the sweet variety of dòu jiāng(Soy milk), my favorite is a salty/spicy version that had a little vinegar, hot chili oil, preserved meats and veggies, served with a you tiao(a Chinese fried bread) ask for it the next time your eating dim sum!
Wow, making soy milk at home is way easier than I thought it would be. I always assumed it would be an extensive multi-step process, but you really only need a few hours and super basic supplies.
Great article!
Soy Milk is a definite can-do at home as is really quick, but I find that the taste is only good for a day or two. It gets really beany. And yes, you have to soak the beans and then rub the film off of them. I find that a big pot of water with the beans in the bottom and rubbing the beans between my hands does the trick. The film just floats to the top.
But cause of that beany taste I rarely make soy milk. Commercial soy milk is cooked using a fast high-heat process that destroys some of the components which cause those flavors. However, what I DO do is make tofu, cause if you've made soy milk you've done 90% of the work. Just heat, add some nigari, wait, then drain. Fresh, homemade, supercheap tofu!
wow, cool!
Yes, my family also made soymilk and I was always tasked with removing the skins/film from the soaked beans too. I love fresh homemade soymilk.
We also simmered the milk a bit longer after adding rock sugar to taste. And it's easy to add more water to the pot to dilute the soymilk to your own personal preferences as well. Just be sure to cook the soymilk well enough otherwise there is an extra "beany" flavor.
I tried it both ways (skinning the bean and not bothering) and it actually came out *better* when I didn't skin them. Great news, because it's soooo much faster!
I had read somewhere that it was actually the length of time the soymilk stayed at a high temperature...unfortunately, I don't remember where I read that. Anyway, today I did it exactly as written above except I kept it at a rolling boil for 20 minutes.
I added one tablespoon of sugar and a couple drops of vanilla extract to the entire batch and it is absolutely perfect!
i made a terrible blunder...i blended the soya beans in a dry blender, so all i have now is dry powdered soya beans and i have no idea how to turn it into milk. Help! anyone?!will greatly appreciate a reply cos would hate for the entire 4litre bucket of dry soyabeans to waste!! thanks!