A tofu story: Soy milk continued

1. Boil your mash. So, you've now got a bunch of soy mash boiling on the stove, with a total of 454 grams, or 1 pound, of soybeans and about 22 cups of water. Cook this for about 20 minutes on medium. Stir frequently, as the soy will stick to the bottom of the pan. You want to avoid this from burning. If your soy mash threatens to boil over, stir or add a little cold water. Your soy milk is ready for the next step when the solids have separated from the milk. It should look like the picture on the right.


2. Strain your milk. Line a colander with muslin, or use a fine meshed strainer (like I did!). Carefully pour the mixture through the strainer to separate the soy fibre from the soy milk. It's best to use muslin so that you can squeeze all the soy milk out of the mixture and to avoid any graininess in your soy milk. 


3. Enjoy your milk! If your aim was to make soy milk, then you are done. Soy milk in this manner won't keep as long as that which you buy at the grocery store as it has no preservatives. I have never tasted a better cup of soymilk than my fresh soymilk with a touch of maple syrup and a splash of vanilla!

 I'll add the instructions to make tofu soon.

You will have a bunch of soy fibre left over, and shown on the left. This is called okara. Don't throw it out! It contains a lot of fibre, and a good amount of protein. Okara can be stored in the fridge, or frozen or dried for future use.

I'll do a post in the future about okara uses, but as a quick idea, you can use it to bulk up your morning oatmeal, cutting calories and increasing fibre and protein. I made oatmeal with 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup okara cooked with about 1 1/2 cups of water (or more, depending on how long you cook it for and how moist you like it). This oatmeal is rich, creamy and very delicious!

These instructions are my variation of those found in The Tofu Cookbook by Bauer and Andersen and by Makiko Itoh at http://www.justhungry.com/2006/03/milking_the_soy.html