The Art of Making Soy Milk: Product Review - Soyajoy G4 Soymilk Maker...

I love DIY. Some people don’t. Some people prefer to buy everything pre-made at the store for convenience, but not me. Cooking for me is a fun activity, it’s therapeutic, it helps me relax, and helps me to clear my mind. There are few things better then putting on some good music, playing it loud, and setting in on some new culinary adventure. I love to bake bread, both in my bread machine and by hand. I love to make homemade seitan - it’s the only kind I ever eat - I love to make my own veggie burgers, my own sauces, my own condiments, I’ve even made my own peanut butter, but one of my latest interests has been making my own soy milk.

Back in July I was given some Amazon gift cards from my In-Laws for my birthday. At the time there weren’t any cookbooks that I was dying to have and so I racked my brain trying to figure out what I wanted. For some time I’d been interested in - and eyeing - various soymilk makers, and so after reading hundreds of reviews I finally took the plunge and settled on one.

I bought the Soyajoy G4 which is a really cool little machine that’s super easy to use. It comes with a measuring cup for your soybeans, a packet of non-GMO soybeans for your first batch of milk, a pitcher to pour the milk into and a fine mesh sieve for straining. The machine itself is stainless steel inside and out, which makes it look very sleek. The gripping handle and the lid are made from plastic but these features are on the outside, and do not touch the milk so you don’t have to worry about the plastic leaching into your soy milk. There are also several function buttons. The machine can make soy milk, nut milk, raw milks, grain milks, and even soup. It’s pretty much a miracle worker!

Of course you can totally make your own soy milk at home without a machine. You can do it the old fashioned way with pots, and your hands, but I as much as I love DIY that’s a bit much for me. I don’t fancy sitting around squishing my own soybeans all morning when something else can do it for me a lot faster, and a lot better. The Soyajoy will get you fresh hot smooth soymilk in under half an hour, and the best part of it is that it doesn’t contain a bunch of additives or nefarious ingredients. It’s just straight up soymilk.

Now to be honest if you drink it right from the machine it doesn’t taste wonderful. It has a much stronger soy taste then commercial soy milk - which is severely watered down - and there’s no sweetness, but this isn’t really a big deal. You can easily season your soymilk any way you like with different sweeteners or flavorings. I personally like to use Barley Malt Syrup and Stevia, vanilla stevia if I’m making vanilla soy milk, but you could just use regular old cane sugar or agave too.

Typically once I’ve made a batch os soymilk I bottle it just the way it is - Unflavored and unseasoned. I use old Kombucha and Kevita bottles that I’ve saved especially for this purpose - and to use as salad dressing containers. They make the perfect vessel as they’re 12oz bottles. Since I mostly use my homemade soy milk for cooking, baking, or to use in smoothies or sometimes cereal I prefer to sweeten the overall dish rather then the individual bottle of soy milk, unless I’m making a particular flavor - such as vanilla.

I’ve been doing this roughly once a week since July and it’s been a really fun process. The soyajoy made great milk right out of the gate, and it’s easy to use, but with a little tinkering I’ve managed to get the texture and flavoring perfect for my palate. I make an expert batch every time now. One of the great things about making your own soymilk is the cost. It’s so much cheaper to do it yourself then to buy a carton at the store. A carton usually goes for $2.99-$5.99 but you can easily make 32oz yourself for under $1. I bought a pound and a half of soybeans back in July and I’m still using the same batch! It doesn’t take a lot of beans to produce 32oz, so you really do save yourself a lot of money in the long-run.

Some people complain that the soyajoy is loud, and it can be, but it’s not loud the entire time it’s on. The grinding process is loud, but the boiling, and cooking process isn’t. I also love that this machine only has two parts and is super easy to clean, and the straining process isn’t as hard as you might think. Once your milk is done you put the sieve over the pitcher pour the milk through and what you’re left with is Okara - the pulp. Squeeze a little more milk out of that and then you can either discard the Okara or use it in some other dish. Simple as that.

This is a really great machine, and it’s not very expensive compared to a lot of other kitchen appliances. I got mine on sale and paid around $110 for it. Every penny was worth it I think because I absolutely love having fresh homemade soy milk. I love knowing exactly what’s in my milk, saving money, and not having to worry about GMO’s or crazy additives. You know what else is really cool? You can use your homemade soymilk to make homemade soy yogurt! This is one of my new favorite activities but I’ll talk about it more next week so stay tuned!