Beans/Lentils

Making soy milk at home has been on my list for a long time.

I hesitated to do so because today soy milk is easy to get from stores, there are good quality ones, made with simple ingredients, which we like, and the price is not bad at all.

In a nutshell, I don’t NEED to make it, but my curiosity won.

I just wanted to try it to see if I can do it.

I decided to follow the directions provided here. ↓

https://www.alphafoodie.com/simple-homemade-soy-milk-recipe/

This is what my soybeans looked like after being soaked in water overnight.

This is what they looked like BEFORE being soaked in water.

I was initially afraid that I got a wrong kind of beans because they were round, not oblong, the shape I expected for soybeans.

But as you can see above, they changed their shape when soaked in water to the shape I’m familiar with.

Then I peeled the skin.

Okay.

This was a tedious job.

It’s not difficult.

The skin comes off easily, but there are A LOT OF beans.

It took me almost an hour to complete this part of the process, definitely the longest and my least favorite step.

Here are the skins I peeled.

I hope you can see how much work it was.

The basic process of making soy milk is pretty simple.

`1. Soak soybeans in water overnight.

2. Peel the skin (optional).

3. Puree with water.

4. Cook.

5. Squeeze the milk out and remove the solid.

How did my first homemade soy milk turn out?

Good!

When my husband and I initially did the tasting, I stirred it first.

It was good, tasting just like soy milk, but I did also taste “egumi (Japanese)” in it.

It’s hard to explain what “egumi” is, but I would say it’s the bitterness often associated with some vegetables.

My husband called it “earthy”, so earthy bitterness may be a good way to describe it.

But later when I finally decided to move my soymilk to a glass container (top) from a bowl, where the milk had sat overnight, I carefully scooped up the milk without touching the bottom, where I noticed there was some solid.

Now this helped a lot to get rid of the “earthy bitterness”.

So I will definitely do this next time too to make sure to avoid the bottom part.

I also read somewhere that it starts producing this earthy bitterness when cooked for over 10 minutes after boiling.

Another thing I will try next time is NOT peeling the skin.

It will be so much faster if I skip this step.

I made this Matcha Latte with my soymilk, and it was delicious!

Soy Milk Matcha Latte: 1 tablespoon Matcha powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, lots of ice cubes, soy milk

Here is Okara, the solid from which soy milk was squeezed out.

There are a few things I want to try making using this Okara, so I am excited.