Soy Milk

Not that I was a huge milk drinker, but to ensure that as a proper vegetarian, I feel that I do need to replace milk and dairy in my diet so that I don't feel deprived.

Now I know that Vegans do not live a life feeling deprived of anything, but I still remember when I decided to stop eating meat my Mother and older relatives telling me that I would lac this and that, and that I would wither and waste away. Well neither has happened, I have most certainly not wasted away, in fact the opposite. I have found quite enough non-meat foods to sustain an overweight body. Not that this is at all healthy, especially considering the amount of rubbish that I have shoveled into my mouth over the years. It does prove a point though, vegetarianism isn't unhealthy.

Anyway, now that I know the bad news about milk with respect to cruelty and to health, I made some soy milk.

Yield about 1.3L of very concentrated soy milk.

Ingredients
Soy Beans
Milk
Biggest pan that you have in the house (think about getting a bigger one)

So, after lots of looking on the Internet at various sites, everyone who makes soy milk has their method and their preference. This is what I did. I don't know if it is right or wrong, but it's my method.

I would like to say that I soaked the beans overnight, but it was more like 24 hours by the time that I got to attend them. They came from the Asian market behind the Georges Street arcade. Initially I wanted to get a huge bag, but there wasn't one to be had, so I made do with a few smaller 500g bags. I soaked one 500g bag full.

I measured out 4 cups of soaked beans, and 8 cups of fresh water, I made sure to get rid of the soaking water. Using my stick blender, I ground up the beans. Now I was expecting for this to be too much for my little blender, but it managed perfectly. Some people have fantastic small appliances in their kitchens, I didn't realise that I was one of them until this little tool over performed! I kept an eye on the time, and I spent just over two mintues grinding.

When I was finished grinding, I had a pale yellow liquid with a frothy layer of unxious looking foam.

Then came the messy part! There is an enzyme in soy beans that has to be destroyed to avoid a bitter taste, and may sources advise boiling and stirring until the "dangerous foaming" stops. Now I wouldn't say that the foaming was particularly dangerous, it was messy. I looked away to watch Totty playing x-box and in those few seconds foam carrying ground up soy beans covered the outside of my pan, and a fair percentage of my stove top. MEH!

Overall, I stirred and boiled for about 20 minutes. You will know when the "dangerous foam" stage is passed because the mixture will bubble up like normal milk but won't cover your kitchen.

Then I lined my colander with a double layer of cheesecloth and strained the "milk" from the okara (left over ground beans).

The overall taste wasn't bad, it's not something that I would gulp down, but it's a nice enough taste. I did add a little Splenda, maple syrup would have been better, but there wasn't any in my house, so I couldn't use that.

So an overall thumbs up!

Edit: This did make a very concentrated soy milk. To drink it like milk it did need to be watered down one part soy milk, three parts water. Because I didn't flavour or sweeten the milk, I did add a tinsy bit of Splenda. What I did find very nice was to add a little eccinacia syrup instead of the Splenda. I do have a taste for things like this, and as it's cold season, it can't hurt. Also, do be aware that home made soy milk does not keep long, so drink up or use up!