Soymilk!

One of my New Year's resolutions has been to reduce the amount of landfill waste that comes from our home - especially kitchen waste.  Even though most of the ingredients I use in cooking are whole foods, I was still making a lot of trips to the trash can to throw away plastic and waxy wrappers from tofu, fake meats, packages of rice and other grains, cereal, etc.  I have made a lot of progress by choosing my purchases carefully and buying as much as possible in bulk, and I'm continuing to try to improve on all of my choices and processes.

One particular source of a lot of waste was the aseptic cartons of soymilk I was using at the rate of about two per week.  That's over 100 containers - which are not recyclable - going to landfill each year just from my two-person home.  I set about figuring out whether I could start making my own soymilk.

After several batches worth of trial and error (and a lot of online research and watching people make soymilk in youtube videos), I have settled on a great recipe.  The key, believe it or not, is baking soda - it took my soymilk from beany and bitter to smooth and mild.  The finished product is truly absolutely delicious.  And very inexpensive, at just pennies a serving, and not hard to make.  And the company that makes the soymilk I was buying in nonrecyclable aseptic packages is owned by a huge food conglomerate whose practices I don't like, so I'm very happy that I'm not supporting it any more.

There are six steps - here they are:

1.  Soak.

Soak 1-1/2 cups of soybeans in a large pot of water for 8 to 10 hours.  I use organic soybeans. 

2.  Boil.

Drain the water out of the pot, and replace it with new water, filling the pot about 3/4 full.  Add 3 tablespoons of baking soda.  Boil for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently.  Keep a close eye on it, because if it boils over it will make a big mess.  Drain.  

3.  Blend.

Blend in your blender in three batches: each batch will contain 1/3 of the soybeans and 3-1/2 cups of filtered water.  Blend each batch for 5 minutes.  After each batch is blended, pour it back into the big pot.

4.  Boil again.

Once all three batches are blended and poured back into the pot, boil again for 20-25 minutes, stirring frequently.  Again, stay close by, because you don't want it to boil over.

5.  Strain.

Let the soymilk cool a bit - I usually put the whole pot in the freezer for half an hour.  Then line a large bowl with a cotton flour sack cloth, and pour the soymilk in.  Carefully gather the edges of the cloth into one hand, so that you create a pouch full of soymilk, then give it a twist to seal the soymilk in.  Use your other hand to squeeze the soymilk out.  There is no quick and easy way to do this - it's a little messy and you can't make it go faster than it's going to go.  Squeeze and squeeze until all (or almost all) of the liquid is in the bowl.  When you open up your cloth you will find a solid substance that is called okara; some people save it and bake it into muffins or bread, but I have never tried that - I just put it in my compost bin.
   
6.  Flavor.

You now have about 64 ounces of unflavored soymilk.  I add about 1/3 cup of sugar, a dash or two of salt, and a healthy splash of vanilla extract.  You can adjust these quantities to your liking.  Your soymilk will store in a container in the fridge (I have this 67-ounce container, and it's perfect) for at least 4 days. 

A few notes:

- Since the soymilk I was buying was fortified with Vitamin D, calcium, and other vitamins, I have started taking a multivitamin every day.

- This recipe may seem a little time-consuming, but most of the steps are about setting something in motion then waiting.  Still, you need to stay nearby when you're heating the soybeans or soymilk on the stove - they really do boil over very easily.  I use this time to do something else in the kitchen - either cleaning or cooking a meal.  This way, the amount of time I spend in the kitchen making soymilk is really minimal - really just a few minutes of hands-on time over the course of about an hour and a half.

-  You will notice that soybeans have thin clear skins that separate from the soybeans when the soybeans are soaked, heated, or handled.  I have to admit that these little skins seem to trigger some latent bit of OCD in me - I end up spending quite a bit of time massaging them off and picking them out, and I actually enjoy it!  It's addictive - kind of like popping the bubbles in bubble wrap.  However, from what I have read, removing the skins is not a necessary step at all, because the skins don't affect the taste or quality of the finished product.  If you want to spend just a little bit of time removing the skins, the easiest way is to do it after Step 2: pour the soybeans in a big bowl and run lukewarm water into the bowl - the skins will float to the top of the water and you can just dump them out into the sink (then scoop them out of the sink and compost them).  If you repeat this process three or four times, massaging the beans a little bit while the water pours into the bowl, you will get rid of most of the skins.

Enjoy!