After a successful maiden voyage on the seas of plant-based milk with my almond milk adventure, I was eager to try my hand at soy milk.
While I wouldn't kick a box of soy milk out of the fridge, I've enjoyed the real-deal for years. Whenever I visited Vinh Loi Tofu in Reseda, California, I grabbed a bottle of freshly made soy milk. Kevin Tran, who owns the restaurant, makes his own (and tofu too).
There's definitely a difference in comparison to the conventional stuff Americans have on their grocery shelves.
Fresh soy milk has a noticeable beany quality. Where fresh almond milk has a pleasant, somewhat blank flavor, soybeans make their legume-history clear.
In this post:
Getting started
Before starting, I made a perfunctory glance on the internet and learned that homemade soy milk is made with dried soybeans, not fresh edamame like I'd originally presumed.
On my next grocery trip, I stopped by the bulk bins and loaded up with a pound of organic dried beans, roughly the weight I'd buy to make beans from scratch.
That night I covered the beans with water. When I awoke, they were ready.
At that point, I decided to consult more thoroughly with a video on making soy milk from scratch (without a soy milk maker).
I followed the recipe on the video, but I didn't include sugar or the pandan leaf, which has the taste of vanilla.
I knew I wanted to use the milk for both sweet and savory uses, and so I left it a blank canvas.
After my research, I realized I'd already made some beginner mistakes.
What I wish I would have known
1. Just a cup or two of dried soybeans will work for a household of two
While the beans were soaking overnight, they expanded to over twice their size.
To make soy milk, a person adds three and a half cups of water for every cup of beans.
Of course, not all of the liquid makes it through the cheesecloth straining, and it will cook down to some degree. But even just a cup or two of dried beans will likely be plenty for two people.
Also, the soak, blend with water, filter with cheesecloth, simmer on the stove method isn't too arduous for a couple cups of soybeans.
For a pound, it's a lot of work. I was in the kitchen for about two hours.
2. Homemade soy milk goes bad more quickly than boxed varieties
From what I read after I was committed to the process, homemade soy milk should be enjoyed within three days to a week. Otherwise, it will start to curdle.
After the soybeans were strained and the cooking was done, what remained was jar, after jar, after jar, after jar of soy milk. That's a lot to use in a few days' time.
I gave three jars away, made cream of broccoli soup, mashed potatoes, had soy milk in my tea, and soy milk in my coffee (not recommended)…
I was starting to feel like Forrest Gump’s best friend in the singularity of my food trends.
Oh, and did I mention that I also soaked almonds on the same evening, and so I had three jars of almond milk too?
My refrigerator looked like I was on some kind of liquid fast. It was ridiculous.
I tried to get down as much soy milk as I could in as short of time possible, but it's been a week since I've made it and by using the very scientific "sniff test," mine still seems okay.
(And there are two jars left! Egads.)
Regardless, next time I'll err on the side of caution and only make as much as I can easily use within a few days.
Plus, it's much less of a hassle to do the blending, straining, cooking process when it's being done for a smaller amount of beans.
What I also didn't realize when I grabbed the amount of dried soybeans I'd use to make chickpeas or pintos from scratch is that…
3. Fresh soy milk cannot be frozen without compromising the texture
If it's frozen, it has to be used in ways other than drinking by the glass. (Think smoothies.)
I was hoping that since I was flooded with soy milk, I could just freeze it and use it later, but no such luck.
Although, I did fill a couple of ice cube trays with soy milk to use in iced tea and for making smoothies.
Will I make soy milk again someday?
Sure.
But honestly, almond milk is a lot more versatile. It tastes good in coffee and smoothies, there's no beany taste to compete with, and it's easier.
There's still the soaking, blending, and straining, but there's no cooking after that.
Plus, after the soy milk extravaganza that has been this week, it may be a while until that seems like a fun way to pass the morning.
Doreen
Help! After taking my fresh soy milk out tbis morning to make a smoothie and then forgetting about it, it was at room temp all day, maybe 14 hours. Can i still use it? It was my first batch. Waaahhh!
Cadry
What a bummer! I don’t have any expertise in this area food safety-wise. I did some googling, and there are some tips in this post that may help you. Good luck!
Pam
Hi! Any suggestions on what u can use the leftover soy stuff for? Thanks!
Cadry
Leftover soy pulp is called “okara.” If you google okara recipes, there are loads of them. Good luck!
Anne
It’s almost midnight and I need to finish what I started.. beans are soaked.. more than a day. You cracked me up. Thanks for your honesty and humor!
Cadry
Haha! You’re welcome, Anne! I hope that your soy milk experience went better than mine. 🙂
Mark Myers
I am making our own soy milk using a Vita Mix. A CUP of beans and 4 cups of water are plenty for 2 quarts. I have made tofu with it and its not bad. Still working out the kinks in the process.
Joella Molson
Hi Cadry, thanks so much for this article. The organic soy milk I had been buying more than doubled in price and I decided I would make my own. The first article I read used an obscene amount of beans and water, 2 huge pots on the stove and was very scary. I only wanted to make enough for me.You gave me the perfect ration for making my soy milk. Thanks a bunch!
Cadry
I’m so glad to hear that, Joella! I hope that your soy milk making went well.
mary grey
Thanks for the tips and its always good to hear the ‘wish I had done this’ side to any recipes. I do have a concern though with the ethical side of Almonds – in California the farmers make so much money from almonds, which of course some is paid in taxes, that they are been given the right to drill to the bottom of the water table. Almond trees require water and lots of it constantly, unlike other trees that have a dormant period, Almonds don’t. This means that other crops are suffering and drought is rampant.
Anonymous
Here in Java we sometimes put a small peace of Ginger into the soymilk maker (ot blender), pandan and a little salt and sugar.
Cadry
That sounds delicious. I wouldn’t have thought about including ginger, but it seems like it would compliment the soy milk really nicely. Thank you for sharing!
Ivy
If you blend them with just a half a leaf of pandan (for every cup), you’ll not taste the pandan in the end, but it will mask the beany smell/taste.
Cadry
Great idea! Thanks, Ivy!
Xclusive
🤣🤣🤣😁 How I wished I had seen your soy milk adventure a day before. I had my soy milk adventure yesterday 27th Dec 2022 and I soaked 3 whooping pounds of soya beans overnight. I kicked off peeling the next day and the entire processing took me 6 hours. I got well over 5 litres of soymilk and ran out of bottles 😁.
I decided to keep the bulk of my soy milk stash frozen, just to extend the shelf life…
Hmmm today, I just discovered that was a big error, the silky smooth milk had metamorphosed into a non cohesive solution… 😣 Experience they say…is the best teacher, well.. I have just been taught by experience. I won’t work with that quantity again)
(P.S I added sugar and vanilla flavouring and cooked it for quote a while, so beany taste was very subtle.)
Cadry Nelson
Oh, nooooo! I’m sorry to hear about your saga.
Evelyn
Hi- what is panda and where do you get it? Thx!
Cadry Nelson
Hi, Evelyn. I think you are referring to pandan leaves? They are the leaves of the pandanus plant, and a popular ingredient in Asian cuisine because of their sweet, floral aroma and slightly vanilla-like flavor. You can find frozen or fresh pandan leaves at Vietnamese markets and occasionally at Chinese and Korean markets.
Jonathan Gull
Hi, also getting the skins off them and discarding them before blending definitely reduces the beany taste.
Cadry
Good to know! Thanks for the tip!
Ed
I should add..if you ever cook beans in your home you know it takes anywhere from one and a half to three hours….to completely cook them..this is why you can not get rid of the taste by cooking them 15 min or 20..
I cook them in a pressure cooker for 45 min before blending and I get milk the same as commercial with no “beany” taste…”raw egg taste” or odor
Cadry
Thanks for your very thorough responses, Ed! I’ll keep those things in mind if I ever make homemade soy milk again.
Louise
Have you ever cooked the beans then frozen them to make milk when needed? If so, does it work?
Ed
If you soak the beans overnight and THEN cook them thoroughly before you blend or put them in a machine..you will get rid of the bad taste and smell this is what the commercial people do.. raw beans have a trypsin inhibitor enxzyme in them which the cooking destroys
Ed.
Emma
Hi Ed, do you still then simmer the milk as well as cooking the beans before blending, or does cooking the beans mean you can skip the milk simmering stage? Thank you for the tips!
bockychoy
Cadry, I just love your sense of humor through everything. I can just see you in the kitchen looking at all that soymilk. Heh heh. I always make too much of things when I’m baking. Sometimes I stand back when I’m through and survey the mess hall quantities and just scratch my head in wonder. What the heck was I thinking? I have one goldfish-crackers-are-a-food-group finicky little boy and a husband who is far from dazzled by sweets. Ack! I always end up throwing things in the trash and it breaks my heart! Love your enjoyable hints and how-to’s, as always. By the way, I recently changed the look of my blog and was feeling so comfy and pleased with it today when I clicked on your link and realized I’d chosen a similar theme to yours. NO wonder I like it so much. 🙂
chow vegan
I gotten freshly made soy milk before and it definitely has a beany taste to it. I can’t drink it straight up but it’s fine for cooking with. That’s great you gave homemade soy milk a try, I decided not to go to the trouble because of the beany taste. 🙂
Eva
I loved reading your article on homemade soy milk. I also combed the internet for the best way to make home made soymilk. I found one video that made sense on quantity. I’ll add the link below. This woman rinsed the dried beans, then soaked the beans over night, then rinsed the beans again and gently removed most of the bean skins in a large bowl of water. Then she cooked the beans for 15 minutes from start to finish which made the actual boiling time only a few minutes. After this she rinsed the beans again and only took one cup of cooked beans to process. the rest of the cooked beans she froze one cup each in zip lock bags for future blending. This is what I do. She also doesn’t strain the okara out which makes the drink like a smoothie….
Don’t give up on making soymilk. It’s really a great milk !. I add a little raw sugar and vanilla to mine 🙂
Eva
P.S. Here is the link.
Cadry
Thanks for the tips, Eva! If I ever decide to make soy milk again, I’ll keep that in mind.