Soy milk and recycling okara

Before I have known the gran mystery of soy milk production, I was always wondering how can be possible that it tastes more or less  like a cow milk. I thought that the recipe should be very complicated and we need days or even weeks to produce the final white liquid. 

Actually, I felt a little bit disappointed when it turned out that it's really not a big deal!

Although it has a slightly bitter taste, the homemade soy milk has one big advantage over the store-bought one from -  the price. In Poland 1 litre of soy milk Alpro (my favorite one) costs nearly 2 euros, meanwhile 1litre of homemade milk is around 50 cents or even less. So no one can tell me that being vegan is expensive because it isn't. The only thing it requires from us is to be a little creative and enthusiastic about DIY ethic. And it's not true that we have to spend hours in the kitchen, to prepare soy milk we need only 30 minutes. So let's start! 

Ingredients:

1 cup yellow soybean 

4-6 cups water 

4-6 tablespoons brown sugar / stevia (optional)

some kind of thin cloth to strain the beans (I usually use my tights :P)

                                                                                                                                                              

Put the soaked soybeans overnight, with enough water to cover them. On the next day we blend the soybeans with 4-6 cups of water (depending on whether we like thicker or more watery milk).Then we cook the liquid until boiling for that the soya could be digested well.

Be careful, because the level  of milk will rise, if so you can put a few drops of cold water. When the milk gets about 100 degrees remove it from the heat and snuck through a sieve with tights or a cloth on the top. The liquid you have just filtered is our soy milk! Now it's recommended to add the sugar because the taste is rather bitter. 

                                                                               

The rests of blended soybeans are called "okara", we can recycle it and use to make veganballs (see my recipe for falafel), bread or cake. I advise you not to throw it away because okara contains a lot of fiber. To preserve the soy milk we have to put it in the fridge, but even then it only lasts 2 or 3 days. Okara lasts about a week in the fridge, so I keep it in a freezer.