A few weeks ago, I delved into the intriguing question: “If my soy beans are green, why is my soy milk white?” I described how soy milk is commonly made with mature beige-colored soy beans, thereby producing a white colored soy milk. Yet young green soy beans are commonly used as edamame and not made into milk. But I had to ask, is it possible to make soy milk out of green edamame soy beans? My curiosity got the best of me and I set out on an adventure to a) make ‘white’ soy milk from scratch for the very first time and b) attempt to make ‘green’ soy milk from edamame beans. Check out my soy milk experiment…
First, here are the general ingredients I used:
Homemade Soy Milk
vegan
1 cup soaked overnight, soy beans (dried)
*I simply heated the edamame, no soaking needed
2 cups purified water (you may need less, depending on your beans)
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 Tbsp maple syrup
optional: 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
*I’d suggest doubling or tripling this recipe for you batch of milk
*I’ve heard that adding a bit of fresh ginger can help the recipe too
Photo Recipe! For this experiment the photos are essential to understanding the ‘homemade soy milk’ process. It’s not as easy as it sounds! (PS, my taste test review at bottom of page)
The first step in making your own soy milk is to transform those tiny hard bean balls into soft hydrated beans:
Soak the dried soy beans overnight. The small hard round balls will expand into soft bean shaped ovals:
First I blend the soaked soy beans with water:
Blended soybean/water mixture:
Blending soy beans:
Warm the soy milk mixture and spoon off foamy fiber/bubbles that form at the top:
Straining beans through a cheesecloth is a lot harder than it sounds:
Squeezing soybean mixture through a cheesecloth, however the cheesecloth didn’t do a very good job, so I used a wire micro-strainer to finish the job:
White homemade soy milk, I added sea salt and maple syrup to flavor it:
Next I repeated the process with the green, cooked edamame beans:
Green soy milk in blender:
Duo of green and white soy milks:
Dry white soy beans and cooked green edamame soy beans and milk:
White traditional soy milk:
The rarely seen green edamame soy milk:
Taste Test Review:
White Soy Milk: YUM! Very pure tasting, milk, creamy, super fresh. Love it! If this wasn’t so hard I’d do it more often. Maybe I should buy a soymilk machine…hmm.
Green Soy Milk: Interesting. Sweet. Almost too sweet. It tastes like liquid edamame. Not as good as I had hoped, but I’m still glad I tried it. Maybe ice-blended into an edamame smoothie it would taste divine actually….
anon,
I got these bottles from leftover juice purchases at Organic Avenue juice and raw food store in NYC. There are a few stores online that sell similar bottles, and I have even seen a hot chocolate company using them to package their hot chocolate at Whole Foods..but me, I got these at Organic Avenue. Love them.
~K
Can I ask where you got your bottles?
what an interesting idea! i never thought of making a green soy milk. thakns for sharing your results.
Adding frozen edemame to a smoothie is an easy and suprisingly delicious way to make a healthy smoothie even healthier. The trick is to balance the ratio of edemame to the ratio of fruit/whatever else you put in there, otherwise you can be left with cardboard in a cup. Here's a recipe I make often:
1 cup fresh frozen blueberries
1/2-3/4 cup frozen edemame
1 frozen banana
handful of fresh raw almonds
1 1/4-1 1/2 cups of soymilk
teaspoon of something sweet–I've used everything from maple syrup, to honey, to lemon curd–they will all give it a different flavor.
Blend everything together well. The frozen fruit helps make the smoothie more like a smoothie as opposed to fruity milk. It's a great snack in between meals.
what a great experiment! I really want to try it as soon as I'm back home! thanks for sharing and the beautiful pics!
Interesting experiment! The green soy milk sure does look lovely! I've made normal soy milk before and yes I don't make it often because it takes too long and too much effort! But when I do make it, it's worth the effort!
Cool post. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Cheers,
Kristen
Thanks for the tutorial. I think my next weekend project will to be make the traditional white soy milk.
Fascinating! I'd been wondering about what the difference was between dried soybeans and edemame and never realized that they were just at different stages of maturity!