How To Make Soy Milk
Oct 25, 2011, Updated Sep 30, 2017
Why make your own soy milk? My top three reasons are:
- It’s much cheaper than buying it.
- It tastes so much better!
- It’s unprocessed!
You may still be a skeptic. No worries, I understand! The first time I made my own soy milk, I did it because I wanted to say that I’d done it and I wanted to understand the process. I wasn’t expecting much more than that. My first sip took me by surprise — it was shockingly good. It was creamier with a much better flavor than the store-bought soy milks I’d had in the past. Since that first sip I’ve practiced and tweaked until I came up with a method that was easy and turned out consistent results. I’m so excited to share my recipe with you today! As an added bonus I’ve put together a video that walks you through the process.
How to Make Soy Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried, organic soybeans
- Water
Instructions
Equipment needed
- Deep 8-quart pot
- Second clean pot
- Large colander
- Fine mesh sieve
- Potato masher
- Pressing cloth/sack: A piece of cotton muslin works well, or a nutmilk bag. I use a flour sack dishtowel that I made into a bag by folding it in half and sewing up the sides.
Instructions
- Soak the soybeans: Wash the beans in a fine mesh sieve, discarding any discolored beans or small rocks that you find. Drain and place in a large container (the beans expand as they soak). Add 5 cups of cool water and cover. Let the beans soak for 8 hours in a cool place. They can soak for up to 24 hours, but keep them soaking in the refrigerator if you plan on soaking them longer than 8 hours to prevent bacteria from growing.
- Grind the soybeans: Drain and rinse the soybeans. Put half of the soaked beans in a blender or food processor and add 2 cups of hot water. Puree at high speed for 1 minute, or until the mixture is relatively smooth. Pour the purée into a deep 8-quart pot. Repeat this step with the rest of the soybeans. Rinse out the blender/food processor with 1/4 cup hot water to retrieve any purée, and pour it into the pot.
- Cook the soybean purée: Heat the purée over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to prevent the purée from burning. When foam suddenly rises in the pot, or the purée comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer for 8 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat.
- Press the milk from the purée: Line a large colander with a moistened pressing cloth/sack and place the colander in the mouth of a clean pot. Transfer the soybean purée into the pressing cloth/sack and twist the cloth closed. Use a potato masher to press the sack against the bottom of the colander to extract the soymilk. When you have extracted as much as you can, open the cloth and stir the remaining purée briefly.
- Second pressing: Pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water over the remaining purée in the cloth, stir again, twist the cloth closed and press again until you can no longer extract any more soy milk. The soy milk is now ready for drinking!
Notes
Nutrition
Rachael Hutchings is a freelance food writer and author of the blog La Fuji Mama, which focuses on bringing world flavors to the family dinner table. Rachael has eaten her way around the world, having lived in a variety of locations, including Paris, Tokyo, Memphis, and Los Angeles. She is a self-proclaimed Japanese cuisine advocate who loves introducing people to such things as the wonders of homemade tofu, the importance of sustainable seafood, and the secrets behind making professional-looking gyoza. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Have you ever tried (or even heard of!) making a milk substitute from beans other than soy? Since Japanese, Chinese and probably Koreans have been eating tofu for a thousand years or so, I’m not over-worried about soy’s much-debated estrogen content, but my husband doesn’t digest soy well – not just the beans but also things like soy sauce (although that could be other things added by the Chinese-American restaurants where we’ve eaten . . . .)
Thanks.
i made soya milk drink, but the foam was so much that i begin to get them off. .am i suppose to do that?????
Are you saying that you scooped off and removed the extra foam? That’s fine. Turning down the heat may help as well.
Hi Rachael, I was told raw soy beans contain a factor known as a tripsin inhibitor, which can be inactivated by heat so unless the beans are well cooked, the protein contained in the beans cannot be properly assimilated by our body. Therefore it is advisable to cook the soya milk for at least 25 minutes after the first boiling time before consuming.
Po: Is that 25 minutes for whole soybeans? Since in this recipe, Rachael ground the soybeans THEN cooked them, do you know if that would reduce the necessary cooking time – being in much smaller pieces, the heat/water would get to them more quickly?
Hi Sandy,
In all homemade soy milk recipes I have come across, you have to grind/blend the beans first then cook the puree/milk up to a certain temperature/duration. Even my aunt does that : ) Regarding the cooking time, I might be wrong after all I am not a professional but that’s what I read from a number of sources.
p/s: I make almond milk instead because cooking the puree/milk is not required. Let’s just say I am a lazy bum!
Yes, I agree with Po. My dad is a plant breeder and his specialty is legumes and he told me to always boil for at least 20 mins before drinking the milk.
Mmm.. I’ve made homemade soy milk occasionally. Its so easy and healthy to make your own.
This looks so much healthier than the store bought version! And you make it look so easy…this is going to be my new project! Thanks for a great post.
Looks really delicious, but I will have to wait for a holiday to try to make it. I think I understand why CostCo sells so much of soy milk and not soy beans.
To make one liter of soy milk, it looks like you spend around 60 minutes of processing and cleaning time.
As with anything homemade, it always takes longer than buying it at the store! Just like homemade bread vs. store-bought bread. Making it occasionally though is worth the treat, and you will be better informed when you do buy it!
Wow…Great video. I would never have thought to make my own soy milk. I am going to give it a try.
It does look creamier than store bought soy milk.
Sounds great! And Rachael looks just like Joanna Newsom.
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