How to Make Soy Milk

Use whole soybeans to make your soy milk

Leaerning how to make soy milk is an important skill for vegetarians,vegans, those who do not like cow's milk or those who are allergic to cow's milk. Before you get started, you should know that making soy milk is an involved process. It's much easier to just pick up a carton of it at your local natural foods store, and nowadays most traditional grocery stores even stock it. However, if you are motivated to spend the time doing it yourself, pick up two cups of whole dried soybeans and prepare to spend some time making soy milk.

Before you get started making your soy milk, you need to soak your soybeans. To do so, first rinse them by putting them in a colander and running water on them. Next, put them in a pot or bowl and cover them with water. Put the lid on it and let them sit overnight in water.

How To Make Soy Milk

When your soybeans are ready to go, strain them using the colander. Then follow these steps.

1. Put your soybeans into the blender and add enough water so that they are completely immersed.
2. Turn the blender on high for three minutes. This will puree the beans to make a slurry, or pulpy mixture of solid and liquid.
3. Pour all of the contents of your blender into a metal pot. You can use the same one you used to soak the beans.
4. Add an additional quart of water. Stir it into the slurry.
5. Heat the pot on the stove until boiling. Keep stirring so the soybeans don't burn.
6. Turn the stove down to medium heat and continue stirring for 20 minutes.
7. Stretch your cheesecloth over the top of a bowl. Take your slurry off of the heat and pour it over the cheesecloth.

The liquid that filters through is your soy milk. You can save the leftover slurry to make other soy products or drop it in the compost bin. Just like store-bought soy milk, the soy milk you make yourself has to be refrigerated. Pour any milk that you don't plan to use right away into a covered container for storage and put it in the fridge. It will keep for two to three days.

Additional Recipes

Now that you know how to make soy milk, you may wonder how people make the different flavors of soy milk. Here are a couple simple recipes you can use to make your soy milk stand out.

Chocolate Soy Milk

1. Pour two cups of soy milk into a metal bowl.
2. Add one teaspoon of corn starch and one tablespoon of water to a separate, small bowl. Stir.
3. Put the mixture on the stove. Heat to a boil.
4. Stir in two tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of cocoa powder and the water and corn starch.
5. Let boil for two minutes.

The corn starch is used to make the chocolate soy milk thicker. Feel free to leave it out for a thinner drink. You can consume this beverage hot or let it cool in the fridge first.

Strawberry Soy Milk Smoothie

1. Cut the stems off of two cups of strawberries. Drop them in the blender.
2. Pour in two cups of soy milk, four tablespoons of vanilla ice cream (dairy or soy) and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
3. Turn the blender on high for three to five minutes.

This beverage is best served chilled. The ice cream should do that job nicely.To make more flavors, experiment with different fruits. Soy milk tastes great with mango, papaya, banana, blackberry and raspberry flavors, to name a few. If your concoction doesn't work out, you can always make more soy milk. So don't be afraid to experiment.