I Make Milk. What's YOUR Super Power?

Day 163.

When I was nursing my youngest daughter, nursing shirts with that slogan were popping up all over the place. I wanted one. I never got one.

The same slogan popped into my mind when I made soy milk yesterday. I do so love stickin' it to The Man by not buying processed foods. So it felt empowering to be able to make my own milk. Plus, as I've shared with you before, dairy doesn't agree with me. Nothing gross... I just experience chest congestion and cough for hours and hours. So it's nice to have dairy alternatives to fall back on.

(although I do love me some cheese...)

Anyway, I bought some soy flour this month, because...well...because it was for sale right next to the graham flour that I had on my list, and I thought it would be fun to try something new. :) Sometimes that's all the motivation I need. I've been using it in breads and as a thickening agent. I noticed a recipe for making soy milk from it on the side of the bag, and thought I'd give it a go.

It worked. But it needs work. I'm looking for a cost-effective source of organic soybeans to use at home. Until then, I'm willing to play with the flour. Learn from me here.

Soy Milk from Soy Flour

What You Need:

• 1 cup soy flour
• 6 cups water
• sweetener of some sort
• some salt

How it's Done:

1. The directions say to bring 6 cups of water to a boil, then slowly add in a cup of soy flour, stirring constantly. I say, bring FIVE cups of water to a boil. When it's boiling, combine the soy flour with the last cup of water to make a slurry, whisking until all the clumps are gone. I should have gone with my gut here and treated it like gravy but I went with the directions. Add your slurry to the boiling water and reduce heat to medium. Oh...the directions also don't tell you to use a large pot because soy milk bubbles up very, very quickly when you add the flour to the water. So use a large pot.
2. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. I would say keep an eye on it because mine created a crusted layer on the bottom of my pot. Could be because I didn't mix the flour with water before adding it in. As a matter of fact, I'm sure that's what went wrong.
3. Strain through a mesh strainer into a pitcher.
4. Add sweetener. And salt. The recipe doesn't call for salt but it really does need a pinch. I used vanilla and honey to sweeten this batch. I am going to play with sweetening in the future.
5. Refrigerate immediately for several hours before serving.

Now, there are people who think soy is very, very bad and won't touch the stuff. In huge doses (like, 6 servings per day or more), it can be less than good for you. But for folks like me, who cook from scratch and don't have any soy in their diets coming from processed foods (soy's in so many things that if you intend to truly avoid it, you had better cook from scratch), soy milk is just fine. But do your own research, and draw your own conclusions. I won't debate the merits of soy with you. It works for my family. :)

Coming soon: More soy milk, and rice milk. Someday, perhaps almond milk, though that would be awfully hard on my budget. So I might do it only once. Rice milk, though...that's affordable. :)