Recipe: Homemade Soymilk and Okara

I love soymilk but here in Mexico it's insanely expensive so I've started making my own. It's yummy and free of preservatives and chemicals.

Ingredients:

1 Cup dried non GMO, organic soy beans
Water

Tools needed:

Pot
Strainer
clean but old dish towel or pillow case
Large bowl
container to store you soymilk

Put the soybeans into a large bowl and cover them with lots of water. Leave them to soak 8-10 hours or overnight.

Once the beans have soaked and roughly doubled in size strain them and place them into a blender with about 1 cup of water (You may need to do this in several batches if you have a small blender like me). Blend the bean/water mixture until a paste forms. It should look like a bean dip.

Pour your bean goop into a pot and add 2-3 cups of water depending on whether you like a thicker, creamier soy milk or a thinner one. If you're not sure how thick you want your soymilk add 2 cups of water now and later on when I say you can add more water. On a medium setting cook the beans/water mixture just until it starts boiling. Make sure to keep stirring the mixture as it will burn to the bottom of the pot very quickly.

At some point while the bean/water mixture is cooking or before if you're super organized you need to set up your straining station. Place a thin towel or pillowcase over a strainer and place the strainer into a bowl.

Once the mixture comes to a boil turn off the stove and pour it into your strainer/pillowcase setup. Close the pillowcase (or whatever you're using) and sqeeze all the liquid out. You can use a potato masher, spatula, your hands or whatever else you want (make sure to wear a silicone glove if using your hand!) Squeeze, twist, press, do whatever it takes to get all the liquid out. Once you have squeezed out as much as you can open the pillowcase and add about 1/2 a cup more water, stir and squeeze one last time.


After all the squeezing you should be left with a solid/flaky lump (left) and a nice milky liquid (right). Save the lump, called Okara, I'll show you what to do with it later. Pour the soymilk back into the pot.

At this point if you find your soymilk to thick for your liking you can add more water, Add water 1/2 cup at a time until you get your disired consistancy. On a medium high heat bring the soymilk to a boil (be careful, it acts like milk and will boil over if you're not paying attention!). Reduce heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the beany aroma and taste are almost gone. (Hint: Try the soymilk before boiling so you have a reference point)

Once you have achieved the less beany taste you want you can add sugar, syrup or any other flavorings that you choose. I personally love adding vanilla flavoured syrup to my soymilk. Pour it into a container and store in the fridge for a couple of days. Remember since it has no preservatives you need to use it up fast! 

Congratulations! you've just made soymilk!!

Now what to do with the dry, flaky okara that I told you to put aside.....


Tools needed:
Baking sheet
tinfoil (optional)
Something to prop the oven door open a bit

Remember this?

Spread it out evenly on the lined baking pan. Crumble and flake the okara as best as you can.

Put it into the oven at the lowest setting to dry. I prop my oven door open an inch or two because my oven doesn't go low enough. Dry the okara. After about 15-20 minutes give it a stir using a spatula or fork or whatever. It will have stuck to the tinfoil a bit, don't panic, that's normal, scrape it up and stir it up. Continue drying it until it is totally dry.

Remove it from the ove and let it cool, then dump it into an airtight container or ziplock bag and store in your freezer.

Now, you may be asking me "what do I do with this dried okara?" Well it's rather simple and neat really.
Next time you bake anything (bread, muffins, cookies, loafs) replace 1/3 of the flour with okara! Place the okara into a blender and blend it so that it is the consistancy of flour and simply treat it like flour. It doesn't change the taste of your food at all (similar to tofu) but adds a whole bunch of protein!!

Seriously try it, it's awesome!