Instant Pot Homemade Soy Milk and Soy Bean Pudding

Credit/adapted from

https://whattocooktoday.com/homemade-soy-milk.html

Soybean milk/soy milk (often called soya bean milk in Asia), or dou jiang (豆浆) in Chinese, is a staple beverage in Asia. Dairy milk like cow’s milk is not consumed as commonly in Asia, but soy milk is. I grew up with soy milk that my mom will buy from a market. The lady who sold the soy milk a few houses down from us, made it fresh daily and it wasn’t like the packaged stuff, it was really homemade and tasted great! She also sold homemade tofu, dou hua (soybean pudding), and pretty much anything that is made using soybeans 🙂

Dou hua is one of my favorite desserts too :)

The recipe rundown

Taste: Creamy and no raw taste
Texture: Smooth and clean
Level: Easy
Pros: You are left with the soybean pulp/ okara that you can use to explore other savory and sweet recipes (I’ll be sharing some too)
Cons: sometimes you’ll get a burn alert from IP, but I included some tips to try to avoid that

• 1 cup dried soybeans organic non-GMO preferred
• 5 cups water see notes

Optional:

• Sugar to your taste
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

INSTRUCTIONS

 

Soak the soybeans:

• Rinse the soybeans in several changes of water. Pick out any beans that do not look good anymore and discard
• Put the rinsed beans in a large pot and pour enough water, about 2 inches above the beans and soak them for at least 4 hours or best overnight for creamier taste

Blend the beans:

• Drain off the soaking water. I didn't rub off the skin. You can if you want. Some people prefer the taste without the skin, but I didn't notice much difference. Put this into a blender with 2 cups of water. Blend the mixture on high speed for about 10 seconds. I use Vitamix blender

Cook the beans (how to avoid getting the "burn" alert):

• Pour the mixture into the inner pot of Instant pot and add the rest of the 3 cups of water into the blender to make sure and give it a swirl so we get bits and pieces that are left in the blender. Pour this into the inner pot. So we have total of 5 cups of water with the beans
• I notice that if I pressure cook this mixture right away, I'll get a "burn" alert from IP because some of the starches get scorched at the bottom of the pot and trigger the burn alert. Turn the "saute" mode first and keep stirring and skim off some foams that rises. Stir until the mixture starts to about to boil. Turn off the saute mode. Give it a stir for a few more rounds to make sure nothing gets stuck at the bottom of the pot
• Close the lid and turn the steam release valve to sealing. Press "pressure cooker" and make sure it's on high pressure. Set the timer to 10 minutes and then natural release, which may take 15 minutes or a bit longer. The valve will collapse on its own. Carefully unlock the lid

If you still get a burn alert:

• Don't panic, just unlock the lid and give it a good stir again and close the lid and continue with the pressure cooking process

Strain the milk:

• Prepare a large pot with a strainer and a cheesecloth lined over it to strain the soymilk for a fine smooth texture. Very carefully pour about half of the soy milk onto the strainer. You may need to use a spoon to stir the mixture a bit to help it strain through the cheesecloth. Once most of the liquid has gone down, pour the rest of the soy milk (if it can fit) and let the liquid strain through the cheesecloth again
• When it's cold enough to handle, you can use your hands to squeeze the rest of the soymilk out from the soybean pulps inside the cheesecloth. Alternatively, you can also let the soymilk strained inside the fridge until the next day

Sweeten the soymilk or add flavor (optional):

• You can bring the soymilk to a gentle simmering again and add sugar or sweetener of your choice and also flavor like vanilla extract. The amount is up to you. Reboiling it will also extend the shelf life a bit longer, but make sure to give it a good stir so nothing get burnt at the bottom of the pot

Storage:

• Homemade soymilk can be kept in the fridge for no more than a week. You may find that after sitting in the fridge for a while, the soymilk may look a bit more watery on top and more "stuff" sink at the bottom. This is quite normal. Don't be panic. The soymilk hasn't gone bad (as long as you follow hygiene practice and it hasn't been kept for more than one week)

Serving:

• Soymilk can be served warm, hot, or chilled. Please note that if you mix soymilk with anything acidic, for example coffee, it will cause the milk to curdle a bit, which is normal.

NOTES

The more water you use, the thinner the soymilk will be. So you can adjust the consistency by playing with the amount of water. I think 5 cups of water  for 1 cup of soybeans is pretty good, but you may feel differently.
For Tofu pudding (豆花), for every 5-6 cups of hot soy bean milk, use 40 g (half the package of the 一心豆花粉 powder add 150 g of cold water, follow the package instruction to make the pudding by mix the powder mixture first then pour in the hot soy bean milk, let it sit for 10+ min. to set.

RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS:

Instant Pot

Vitamix Blender

NUTRITION

Serving: 1cupCalories: 210kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 17gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 16mgPotassium: 837mgFiber: 4gSugar: 4gVitamin A: 10IUVitamin C: 3mgCalcium: 138mg