HOW TO MAKE SOY MILK AND YOGURT

My leg injury has forced me to stay at home this last two weeks but it has not prevented me from doing more hands-on technology acquisition. I had been intrigued about the soy yogurt which they say is easy to make using almost the same method used for milk. I already know how to make soy milk and had bought last year, a blender with an attachment specifically designed to extract milk from soybeans. The attachment has simplified soy milk making and it takes just about 2 minutes to make a batch of soy milk.

Begin by making soy milk:

To make one liter of soy milk, you would need about 125 grams of dried soybeans soaked for about 12 hours where water is replaced two to three times. For the standard blender, liquify the soaked soy milk until the whole batch is finely ground. Strain the milk in a clean cotton cloth (katsa which is flour sack cut into manageable size is best and cheapest material). Set aside the solids which is called “okara” in other countries and “sapal” in our dialect. It is protein rich and is added to meat as extender or can be cooked solely as a burger. Boil the soymilk for 15 minutes to fully cook it. You would be able to get about one liter of milk after the process.

To make soy milk yogurt:

Add about two (2) tablespoons of sugar to the soy milk and stir until dissolved. Sugar will act as feed for the lacto-baccilus that coagulates the milk into yogurt. Cool soy milk to 45% Celsius and add yogurt starter and place this inside a yogurt incubator. I made mine out of a styrofoam ice chest where I installed a thermostat so that the temperature inside the incubator is maintained at 46-50 degrees Celsius. Don't cover the lid of the soymilk tightly or if safe or hygienic, remove the cover to allow air circulation. Incubate for 6-8 hours or overnight. By morning, you will have soy yogurt.

If you don't have an incubator, just look for an ice ice chest. To maintain the desired temperature, heat water to about 55 degrees Celsius and pour inside the ice chest and place the container of soymilk on top using some containers to act as pontoon. Check temperature every 3 hours and add heated water when temperature has dropped. I am into my third batch of soy yogurt which probably cost me just P15.00 per liter.