Homemade Organic Soy Milk

*** Warning: The process of making your own delicious organic soy milk will open doors into a whole new world of tasty and savory soy-based recipes which can lead to an abundance of happy, healthy feelings for you and your family. Please be Advised!

Soy milk is one of the most common uses of soybeans in our house. Having access to fresh, organic milk is something we truly cherish, and we love being able to supply organic soybeans to your doorstep so that you can enjoy it as well. But the truly amazing part of starting to make your own organic soy milk is everything that happens after! From soy milk to tofu, and ALL that amazing okara (the soybean pulp leftovers) for soups, smoothies, stir fry, bakes, and our chickens love a bit of okara with just a little bit of salt! While there are many soy milk recipes online, we really like to follow Andrea Nguyen’s work, she truly is an inspiration for showing us the way!

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Instructions

• Rinse your soybeans and soak the soybeans for at least 12 hours. Remember that for about 1 C of soybeans you will need roughly 3 C of water. Also, don’t be afraid to let your beans soak for a little bit longer (even as much as 24-48 hours). If you can’t get to things right away, you can go ahead and move your soaking beans to the refrigerator until you’re ready (we’ve kept them in the fridge for up to a week).

• When you’re done rinsing, drain the beans and keep the soaking water in a large stock pot. Start heating this water on medium-high heat.

• Grab a large bowl (or another stock pot if you have one), a strainer or colander, and some cheesecloth. Begin straining the soybean mixture through the cheesecloth and strainer, and into the bowl. This will take a couple iterations. You want to try and get as much of the liquid through the cheesecloth and into the bowl. You can do this by spinning the mixture up in a cheesecloth and pressing or squeezing out the liquid. IMPORTANT: If doing this by hand, let the soybean mixture cool in the cheesecloth/strainer so that you don’t burn yourself!

• Once strained, the cheesecloth should feel kind of like a small version of one of those sand-filled exercise balls…firm enough so that you feel like it has some mass, but also a little bit squishy. The material inside the cheesecloth is called “okara” and it is going to be a key ingredient the next three weeks. You should end up with about 2 C of okara. You can store it in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, or you can freeze it or dry it in an oven on low heat for about 15-20 minutes and store it in an airtight container to preserve it for a bit longer. Between salads and stir-fry, we generally don’t have any problem using it up within a couple days.

• Put the strained soymilk back on medium-high heat and simmer for about 5 minutes. Use a small strainer to skim out any film the forms on the surface.

• Remove from heat and allow to cool before putting in a container of your choice.

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Enjoy this au naturale or add a spoonful of Firefly Fields honey to sweeten things up a little. This homemade, organic soymilk will keep in the refrigerator for about 4-5 days.