Making Soy Milk: 6 Easy Steps

Homemade soy milk is excellent high-protein plant milk. Organic soy milk became our milk of choice for our morning coffee with hot milk, no more to say. Making soy milk is easy, cheap, and ensures you have a non-GMO product.

We like that this recipe is super adjustable. You can make it creamier, sweeter or flavor infused.

You can also make it plain if you need it and use it as a base to make another soy food. to make a vegan bechamel sauce and vegan mashed sweet potatoes.

In combination with olive oil, it makes a delicious vegan ricotta cheese, and it is the best milk to make vegan buttermilk, ideal for vegan baking, given its high-protein content.

It is way cheaper than store-bought and super easy to make. It requires 2 ingredients, 30 minutes, a filter of any kind, and a blender.

This dairy-free milk is perfect for your Superfood Green Detox Smoothie, also on this site, to complement your weekly breakfast meal plan.

Why should you do your own

Health

If you look into the ingredients list of most commercial Soy Milk, it's full of strange ingredients such as guar gum, and lecithin, and the list gets longer.

Soy has many detractors. It is no secret that most of the soy products we consume regularly are full of GMOs.

Using your own Soymilk Recipe with organic, non-GMO soybeans gives you the peace of mind that you need to take care of yourself and your loved ones.  

Many soy kinds of milk do not use organic dried soybeans.

This is also the highest protein plant-based milk, with great health benefits, and it is also good for those that suffer from lactose intolerance.

Soy protein is one of the highest quality proteins from the vegetable world, as it is easily absorbed by our bodies and doesn't have saturated fats and casein present in whole milk, which various studies suggest, is a proliferation-promoting factor in prostate cancer cells.

Also, soy milk has fewer calories than dairy products and regular whole milk, thus promoting weight loss.

Convenience vs cow's milk

It is effortless to make; it only takes us 30 minutes.

You can make only the quantity you need.

It's fully adjustable on flavor, thickness, and sweetness.

Economy

As a former Engineer, I needed to do my math. And I am living in Northern Italy, where things are pretty expensive. I found that making our Organic Soy milk is 25% cheaper.

That's not a lot, but we use a lot of milk, and the number quickly adds up, and we are in complete control of what is in there. This is the cheapest organic soy milk!

The Environment

All those Tetra Paks and plastics are gone!

150 Tetra Paks saved per year: 3 per week!

Ingredients

• Dried soybeans
• Filtered water

Optional: sweetener, flavorings such as vanilla extract.

Hint: keep your milk unsweetened if you are planning to make vegan buttermilk with it and make a vegan apple cake. See our post, explaining the details and the best combinations to make the best vegan buttermilk, easily made with this soy milk, homemade almond milk, or even oat milk.

Instructions

Soaking soybeans

The first thing you need to make soy milk is to put your non-GMO soybeans to soak in water overnight in water.

Optional: Some people remove the outer skin; I have done it countless times and can't notice any critical difference in texture. If you choose to do it, plan for additional 20 minutes.

You then need to drain the soaking water and the soybeans into a blender or food processor for 1 to 2 minutes along with water.

Blend

One of the advantages of making your own plant-based milks is that you are in control of not having any added sugars on them.

If you like, you can optionally add a pinch of salt and your preferred sweetener or flavoring flavor enhancers.

If you chose to use pitted dates as your sweetener, now is the time to throw them in. You can also use homemade date paste.

Suggested sweeteners: dates, raisins, agave syrup, or maple syrup.

Strain

Then you just need to strain the blended mixture through a nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth.

Squeezing out as much liquid as possible.

Cook

Pour the mixture into a larger pot and add 2 cups of filtered water and stir. Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, and immediately bring it down to low heat.

Skim and reserve

Make sure you are stirring occasionally during the cooking process and skim foam.

Let it cool. If there is any need to skim it again.

Do so before storing it in a sealed container in the fridge for about 3-4 days.

Add-in ideas: cocoa powder, vanilla extract, coffee, strawberry, or hazelnuts.

FAQ

Soaking your beans

• Soak the soybeans at room temperature or in the fridge.
• If you need to make the soy milk the same day, pour boiling water into the soybeans to accelerate the process and leave them soaking for one to two hours.

How to make thick soy milk

In my opinion, what makes soy milk good, is that it has a delicious thickness that is hard to find in other milk alternatives like rice milk or light coconut milk, although oat milk is a good contender!

We find the perfect thickness for our taste is 1 cup of soybeans / 6 water cups + 2 cups when boiling.

Suggested thick soymilk options:

• 1 cup of beans / 5 + 2 cups of water, if you don't mind sacrificing the final volume.
• 1 ¼ cups beans / 6 + 3 cups of water, if you want the same volume.

If you want thinner milk or more soy milk, reduce the number of soybeans to ¾ cup or increase water by one cup.

How to make soy milk taste better?

If you don't love the taste of plain soy milk, most likely and just like us, you have been drinking flavored soy milk.

The most common flavorings, sometimes not even well disclosed, is vanilla extract and sweeteners.

The solution? Do just that: add organic vanilla extract and your favorite sweetener; you will find it tastes just as good and better.

Remember, you can also add other flavorings like cinnamon and cocoa powder. Get creative!

How long does soy milk last?

How long does homemade soy milk last depends on whether you sterilize your equipment and how fresh are the ingredients you used.

In general, we have found it lasts about 3-4 days.

We often use soy milk for our morning smoothies, overnight oats, and coffee, so one batch only makes it to the third day.

If you are like us, you don't need to sterilize your ingredients as it reaches the 3^rd day without any problem.

If you find that it goes off before expected, easily sterilize your bottles either:

1. Pouring boiling water inside, ensuring the jars are not cold so that they won't break.
2. Then, put them in the dishwasher.

If you have unexpectedly left home or didn't use your milk soon enough and want to prevent it from going off, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and save them to add to your morning smoothies.

Can you Cook with It?

Yes! You can. Just use it as you would use whole cow's milk; it is entirely interchangeable.

Just make sure that you make plain soy milk. Don't add any of the suggested sweeteners or flavorings.

Does soy milk give you gas?

Some people experience bloating or flatulence when they drink soy milk. This is because the body lacks the enzymes to digest soy.

Soy should be soaked in water for at least 6 hours before it's consumed to break down sugars that are difficult to digest, thus reducing gas and bloating in sensitive individuals.

Recipes using Soy Milk

You can use it the same way you would dairy milk, but without the saturated fat and vegetable protein!

Read on: High Protein Vegan Meals »

Consume soy milk in your coffee, in smoothies, in your morning granola or breakfast fruit bowl, bechamel sauce, baking, and even making vegan ricotta cheese.

Below are some recipes where you could use your soy milk:

• Vegan mashed potatoes
• Vegan Bechamel Sauce
• Post-Work Out Smoothie
• Easy Strawberry Banana Smoothie
• Vegan Cauliflower Wings
• Creamy Vegan Sauce for Everything

More alternative milks

Make sure you also check these easy-to-make milk alternatives Options: 5-minutes Almond Milk, homemade oat milk, and vegan buttermilk for cooking and baking.

We will soon show you how to make coconut milk at home!

All great dairy alternatives for lactose-intolerant people, those following a vegan diet, or who just don't want to deal with all the hormones or saturated fat present in cow's milk.

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag a photo #ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

Recipe

Food safety

We sometimes take for granted that we have years (or decades) of cooking experience that the average visitor may not. Add to, or remove from, the list below with health and safety tips.

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking points to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.

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