Homemade soybean milk | Food-4Tots | Recipes for Toddlers (2024)

Soybean milk (豆水）is a healthy, nutritious,anddeliciousdrink for everyone. It’s also one of my family’s favourite drinks.For convenience, we usuallyconsume those pre-packedoneseven though theylack thewholesome freshness intaste. Beggar can’t be choosy, right?

But recently I chanced upona veryinformative post written by Dr Leslie Tay ofieatishootipost on how to make tau huay/ tofu fah. Tau huay (soybean curd/豆花)is an endproduct from the coagulation of soybean milk. I was truly inspired and impressed by the amont of efforts and time he spentexperimenting before he finallymade hisperfecttau huay.However,going all the way to attempt at making tau huaylooks a bit tooambitous for me for the time being. So, I decided to just stop at makingsoybean milkusing Dr Leslie’s easy-to-follow steps. The slide show presentationinhis post alsohelped me to understandbetterthe process. Besides that, I had alsoaddedsome tips I learnt from Delicious Asian Food who had also made the awesome looking blacksoybean milk.

There are several key points to take note before makingsoybean milk:
a) use a coffee sock/filter to makethe squeezingprocesseasier (and less messy if you have space limitation in your kitchen).
b) filter2 times before cooking and 1 timeafter cooking to givethe soybean milk the extra smoothness.
c) stir the soybean milkconstantly during the cooking process so as to avoid burning the milk.
d) bring the soybean milk to boil very slowly.
e) loosen and removethe soya bean skins before cooking. This isto remove the waxy taste.

For a beginner like me, I must admit that it is indeed a very challenging task. Dueto lack ofexperience, Imade several silly mistakes in my first attempt. Nevertheless, I stilll managed to produce a smooth and fragrant soybean milk.In fact, it’sthe best soybean milk I hadtasted so far!

I am someone who is neverbediscouraged byfailures. Practice makes perfect. I always believe that winner is the one who makes the most mistakes. If you read my post carefully before cooking, it willdefinitely bea POSSIBLE mission for you! I bet if you havetasted your own homemade soybean milk, you will never drink others anymore.

RECIPE FOR HOMEMADE SOYBEAN MILK

Make: 10 cups

Equipments:
1 large cloth filter/coffee sock (note 6) – refer to photo
2 large cooking pots
1 large colander
1 large wooden spoon
1 large sieve

Ingredients:
500g soybeans (note 1)
2500ml filter water
5-6 pandan leaves/ screwpine leaves (wash and tie in a knob)
Rock sugar (to taste)

Steps:

1. Wash and rinse the beans several times until the water is clean.
2. Put the beans in a large pot, cover with waterand soak the beans overnight (at least 10 hours). (note 2)
3. Loosen skins by rubbing with your hands. This is to remove the waxy taste (note 3).
4. Remove/ discardall the skins from the pot with a sieve (note 3).
5. Rinse a few times until the water is clean.
6. Drain the beans with colander.
7. Put the beans in a blender and add water to cover the beans. Blend until a smoothpulp (slurry) is obtained (note 4).
8. Add any remaining water to the slurry.
9. Filter slurry with a coffee sock/cloth filter. Let the milk drain into the cooking pot. Then squeeze till dry (note 5 & 6).
10. As an extra filter, place a sieve over the cooking pot before squeezing the coffee sock/cloth filter in step 9.
11. Before cooking, filter the milk once more to ensurea smooth texture forthe end product.
12. Pour the filter soybean milk into alarge pot and add pandan/screwpine leaves.
13. Stir the soybean milk constantly and bring it to a boil very slowly so asto avoid burning the milk.
14. In the meantime, prepare sugar syrup using the rock sugar.
15. Once the soybean milkstarts boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for another 10 mins.Discard the foam and pandan/screwpine leaves (note 7).
16. Filter the cooked soybean milk once more to ensure extra smoothness.
17. Add the rock sugar syrup to taste. Served hot or cold.

Notes:

1. The quality of beans is the most important factor in making tasty soybean milk. In this case, it is recommended to use organic soybeans.
2. The beans will expand and absorb a lot of the soaking water. Thus, make sure you use enough water for soaking. As a rule of thumb: approx. 2 times the amount of the beans.
3. Steps (3) and (4) are optionals but I suggest that you do it in your first attempt andsee if you can taste the difference.
4. If your blender is not moving smoothly, add extra water. I have to blend the beans in a few batches because my blender is small.
5. It is easier and faster to squeeze the slurry in 2-3 batches.
6. I found that using a coffee sock/ coffee filter helps to speed up the squeezing process. It also reduces the mess in your kitchen basin. I bought mine from a shop selling kitchenware in the wet market.
7. It is important to allowthe milk to simmer for 10 minutes after you bring it to a boil if you wantto bring out the full flavour and fragrance of the soymilk.
8. This soybean milk is best consumed within 2 days asno preservative isused.Keep themilk in the refrigerator whennot consumed.