A few weeks ago, we had our family friend Tam over for tea time. I raved about the fresh soymilk that we buy locally from a small shop in San Jose. Tam insisted we should make our own, and I have ever since.
The ingredient list is easy: a few soaked soy beans, filtered water and the sweetener of your choice. I’ve perfected the recipe since I prepare it almost daily. I flavor the soymilk with a bit of vanilla, nutmeg, mung beans and raw peanuts for extra richness. It’s much healthier than the one you find at the store. All you need is a high-powered blender, a fine-mesh strainer and 30 minutes for the soy beans to cook. It’s that easy to make your own soymilk!
1. Info for How To Make Homemade Soymilk
- Cook Time: unavailable
- Total Time: unavailable
- Servings: 6
- Calories: unavailable
2. Ingredients for How To Make Homemade Soymilk
- ⅓ cup dried soybeans
- ¼ cup dried mung beans
- ⅓ cup raw peanuts
- 1 cup frozen pandan leaves, washed and coarsely snipped
- 6½ cups filtered water
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ vanilla bean (or 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract)
- 2 tablespoons raw blue agave nectar (see tips), to taste
3. Directions:
- Soaking the soybeans and peanuts: In a mixing bowl, wash the soybeans and peanuts thoroughly. Pick out and discard any badly-shaped grains, then soak them overnight (no more than 1 day). Set aside.
- Drain the liquid. In a high-powered blender, coarsely blend the soaked soybeans, peanuts and pandan leaves. Add 2½ cups filtered water for a smooth flow, in several batches. Process until you have a smooth yet thick consistency. Transfer to a regular blender and get a finer, smoother texture.
- Bring 4 cups of filtered water to a boil in a small pot. Pour in the blended soybeans and peanuts. Add the mung beans, then heat the liquid over medium high, for 30 minutes, stirring preiodically with a wooden spoon so it doesn’t burn at the bottom. Let the liquid cool a bit. Strain the liquid in batches through a large coarse-mesh strainer. Discard the solids. Strain one more time with a fine-mesh strainer, then repeat the same procedure with a cheesecloth, pressing the solids and extracting as much liquid as possible.
- Assembly: Using a paring knife, scrape and gather all the grains of the vanilla bean (see tips), then add them (or vanilla extract) to soymilk. Add salt and nutmeg. Mix well. Sweeten the milk with agave nectar. Stir well.
- I think it’s served best warm but it’s also delicious chilled.
- Enjoy!
