Soy Protein and Isoflavones

There’s a lot of talk about adding soy protein and isoflavones to your diet. Usually, there is 1mg isoflavones to 1g of soy protein. In case you’re not sure how much soy protein is in the various soy products, here’s a chart to help you. It may vary a bit depending on the brand but this will give you a good estimation.

To also help you along your way, here a recipe for making soymilk in a soymilk maker. The one I use is a SoyaPower by Sanlix.

Vanilla Soymilk

This is a very smooth tasting soymilk that makes approximately six servings. In addition to the soymilk maker, you’ll need a gold coffee filter, wide mouth funnel, and glass pitcher. I highly recommend Frigoverre pitchers as they have a hermetically-sealed lid. You can purchase these pitchers from Chef’s Catalog, Village Kitchen and GreenFeet. Do not use a plastic pitcher to store your soymilk in.

Ingredients

• 100 grams soybeans
• 2″ piece of a vanilla bean, cut into 4-6 pieces
• 10-15 drops of liquid stevia such as SteviaClear
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Rinse and soak the soybeans overnight (8-10 hours) in the refrigerator.
2. Drain and rinse beans. Do not worry about removing the hull from the beans.
3. Fill the pitcher of the soymilk maker with filtered water until it reaches a halfway point between the two water level marks on the side of the pitcher.
4. Place the beans in the soymilk maker’s filter and attach to the soymilk maker per your manufacturer’s directions.
5. Place the soymilk maker’s head onto the pitcher. Lock the latches if your maker has them.
6. Plug the power cord into the soymilk maker and then into a power outlet.
7. Push the Start button on your soymilk maker. The machine will start by heating the water and then it will grind the soybeans. After 15-20 minutes, the machine will beep to let you know that it has finished and the milk is done.
8. After hearing the beep, unplug the power cord from the power outlet and then from the soymilk maker. Set the power cord aside.
9. Unlock the latch if necessary and lift the head off of the pitcher. Place the head aside and let it cool.

Once it has cooled, store the okara in the refrigerator or freezer for another recipe. You can also use okara in place of eggs in some recipes.

10. Using a spoon, slowly stir the milk in the pitcher to help the foam dissipate.
11. Put the salt, stevia, and vanilla bean into the glass pitcher. Place the funnel in the glass pitcher and the gold coffee filter on top.
12. Pour the milk into the glass pitcher through the gold coffee filter.
13. Allow to cool to room temperature and then store in the refrigerator.

Nutritional Information

To increase the calcium, add calcium carbonate to your soymilk after it has cooled. You can purchase the supplements from your local pharmacy. It is also available for purchase from VeganEssentials. You will need to shake the soymilk before each use to distribute it.