ottawa foodies

I can't believe I haven't tried making soy milk before, because we drink it an use it for baking (in place of cow's milk).

There are even machines that will do it at the push of a button.

It costs about 30 cents in dry soybeans to make as much as you would spend $3.50 for in a carton from the supermarket.

You can also make milk from almonds and other kinds of beans, such as black beans (the milk comes out white), or kidney beans or mung beans.

The machines will work with dry beans. If you use a blender you need to soak them overnight.

I made some in a blender after soaking soy beans overnight. It was pretty good, but you do have to watch the pot when boiling it. It foams up and overflows the pot easily like cows milk. You can burn it easily on the bottom too, so use low heat and stir it.

The soaking and blending parts are pretty easy. I guess the advantage of the machine is the heating part. You don't have to watch it.

Both amazon.ca and newegg.ca have the machines with free shipping.

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I got one ! Now that I have it, I see the program works in an interesting way, it heats a bit, then blends a bit, then heats a bit, then blends a bit. So it's both blended, mixed and heated.

Another observation . . . it only makes a little more than a liter at a time.
You can mason jar it. I wish it made 2 liters.

Back in high school I worked washing dishes at an Asian resto. They made this all the time for their personal consumption and man it was delicious! I would often be called upon to make it for their baby. Come to think of it, when the restaurant closed for the night, they always had a large meal of traditional food which was delightful to the taste buds.

@Krusty, do you remember the recipe?

In addition to plain, I've tried adding vanilla to it, and also hot chocolate mix.

To be honest I was 17 and just happy to have a part time job that included free food! IIRC they cooked the dry beans to soften them, dont recall the proportion of cooked beans to water but it would not take much to figure it out. The beans & water were stuck in a blender cold and pureed until smooth. A small amount of sugar was added for flavor and that was it.

I know I have bought similar tasting fresh from local Asian stores.

@krusty, thanks. :-)

I've been experimenting . . .

When I made milk with red kidney beans (soaked overnight) it came out thicker. After refrigeration it gelled into a yogurt like consistency and it's really good (just a add a sweetner). I may have invented a new vegan yogurt because I googled it and didn't get any hits.

Hi Francis,

how did you make the red kidney bean milk/yogurt? I would be curious to try myself. Would I need the machine above to do it?

Thanks!

Hi TiaMaria,

I used the machine, regular soymilk program for wet beans. I just soaked the kidney beans overnight, added them, and filled to the water mark. I think it would burn more easily than the soy, because there was a bit stuck to the bottom of the unit where the heater is, not burnt, just stuck. It came off easily.

Now I don't see why you could not make it with a blender and on the stove, though I would put it on low heat and stir it lots (or use an immersion blender).

Try this:

1. Soak a cup of red kidney beans overnight. I rinsed them first.
2. Blend it into a smoothie with about 1L of water. I used the same water.
3. Put in pot and bring water level up to 2L.
4. Cook for 20 min. Use low heat and keep stirring. :-)

It should have a thick smoothie consistency when done cooking.

Except for skimming off the foam I didn't filter it, because there wasn't any separation. It seemed to be of a homogeneous consistency.

Pour into a jug and refrigerate. It should gel up into a thick yougurt consistency. Well mine did. :-)

It has a very mild red bean flavor and a bit sweet. But you can add sweetener or fruit etc.. It's very much like yogurt, but not tart or sour.

If you are thinking of getting the $99 machine on amazon.ca, there is one other thing . . . it plays a long version of "Jingle Bells" upon completion. Like a 2 minute version. It is a bit annoying . . .

My mom made soy bean soup/dessert all the time. I should ask her for the recipe. It was so rich and smooth.

It was along the lines of soak the beans, grind them, sift through a cloth, boil with water, add rock sugar cane and savour every sip!

Thank you!

I will give it a whirl this week :)

Francis, My friend in Kanata makes and sells soy milk $2 for 1 litter.
You have to subscribe though.
She also makes natto. Message me if you are interested :)

I'm interested, but I do make a very good natto myself :-)

I've seen a few web pages about making peanut milk.

I'm going to try it because I like the taste of peanut butter, though I don't know if peanut milk tastes like peanut butter or not.

Peanuts are cheaper than almonds. :-)

Where can I get raw or dried peanuts on Ottawa cheap ?

We get our raw peanuts in China town. not sure about price/quality compared to anywhere else.

@sourdough Kowloon Market or another place ?

Francis, try out this recipe for peanut milk.

www.bonappetit.com

I've not made it myself, but I did have a shot of it with dessert at the restaurant who contributed the recipe.

Great. Thanks ToeKnee. :-) I got some peanuts at Kowloon Market. They had them in a bin with a scoop. With the red paperlike skin on, and without. I got without for the peanut milk. It was $1.99 lb. Not sure if that's a better price than Costco or not, because you can get a big tin of Kirkland peanuts for $9. But those are roasted and salted.

As far as I can see soymilk is the best value for protein so far, because you can get 10kg of dried beans for $13.

I'm soaking the peanuts now. Not sure how long, and the water is getting cloudy, which it doesn't do with the soybeans or kidney beans.

Also I don't know if the peanuts were already boiled and dried, or just shelled and raw.

So I've just been pouring my soy milk through a strainer into a mason jar.

But I think I'm wasting about 25% of it when I throw out the residue.

This youtube shows a hand press for getting 4 glasses instead of 2.5.



But $70 ? Yikes. Not worth it.

I was wondering how to do it cheaply and then I thought, why not a bodum? You can get a coffee press at Stokes for less than $10. It should work.

www.stokesstores.com

Just made peanut milk, it's still warm but chilling.

It comes out pure white, whiter than soy milk, and not brown like peanut butter.

Very little residue; I did use a bodum to filter it.

Francis - looks like Kowloon did the trick. I usually go to Manphong - but I'm not a regular raw peanut buyer. I actually prefer the roasted salted for pad thai or curry.

Well I tried that peanut milk . . . interesting. It has a mild peanut taste. It's not unpleasant, but it's kind of unusual. I think I could get used to it. But this morning after having a small amount, I just mixed the rest with soy milk and had that in my cereal.

Mentally, I associate soy milk with sweet, even though I don't add any sugar.

Perhaps I'm conditioned to associate the taste of peanuts with salty, and salty doesn't go with my mental concept of milk.

But I think I could get used to it.

Or perhaps use it for cooking or making vegan yogurt, or kefir, or something.

Dry peanuts are much more expensive per pound than dry soybeans though . . .

Win-Tai Market, near St. Laurent mall has peanuts for $1.69 lb.

I asked Instant Pot if they would add a soy milk function, because the hard part of making soy milk is cooking it. It's easy to soak beans overnight, then put them in a blender with water. The hard part is cooking it without burning it on the bottom, or having it overflow, and cooking it long enough.

Under pressure it should be possible to cook it without it boiling, as pressure will raise the boiling point.

Anyway they wrote back and said it already makes soy milk, and sent me this link:

maomaomom.com/soy-milk-diy/

I'm starting to like the taste of peanut milk.

The price at Manphong is also $1.70 per pound. The bag says blanched peanuts. They don't look roasted. At Manphong they are in vacuum sealed 5lb bags. with a desiccant inside. That would keep them fresher as they are not exposed to air or moisture.

Not too much information on peanut milk, but found this article from wikipedia:

web.archive.org

Found another vegan yogurt (not easy as the red bean one, but with a real bacterial culture):

You can make the soymilk in a blender and instant pot first too.

makerealfood.com