Making soya milk: "Soyabella" review

Here is the end product - a bottle of soya milk made from about 85g dried soya beans, using the Tribest "Soyabella" milk maker (available from Amazon for £129.95 at the time of writing).

Now, clearly this is not a cheap piece of kit. However, given that dried soya beans can be purchased cheaply (e.g. £1.39 for 500g organic soya beans here), the cost of a bottle of homemade soya milk is approximately 20-25p (if not less). The "Soya Bella" can also be used to make nut milks, rice milk, and oat milk. I use mine to make 3-4 bottles of different milks per week; at that rate, it will pay for itself in under a year. And, I also prefer the 'cleaner' taste of homemade milks - no additives, sweeteners, chemicals, and so on.

So, here is how you use the Soyabella to make soya milk!

1. Measure out a small cup of dried soya beans and soak for at least 4 hours.

  

2. Screw on the blending attachment, fill the kettle with cold water to the internal water line, attach together and press the "milk" button:

  

  

3. When it beeps to indicate that it's finished (about 15-20 minutes later), pour out into jugs to cool (I tend to pour through a sieve as there can be a small amount of foam on top):

  

4. When cool, pour into a bottle and store in the fridge. If you wish, you can sweeten (e.g. with stevia, to be healthy!) and/or add flavourings such as vanilla extract.

All in all, I definitely think the Soyabella is worth the money. As well as soya milk, making nut milks with whatever nuts you have to hand is quite a fun and creative process (and the leftover nut pulp can be used in baking or cooking). As mentioned above, there is something nice and 'clean' about homemade milks - and since they are so much cheaper than shop-bought milks, the Soyabella will pay for itself! My view is it's definitely worth the investment.

Quick cook scrambled tofu

This is a quick and easy method to make scrambled tofu - a tasty meal any time of day! The quantities below serve two people.

Instructions:

1. Take a block of firm tofu (I have used Dragonfly marinated tofu here), cut into pieces, and roughly mash with a fork:

    

2. Put the tofu in a wok, add a chopped red onion, two chopped or mashed garlic cloves, a pinch of salt and pepper, and about half a centimetre of boiling water (I prefer not to cook with oil, but you can fry in oil if you prefer):

3. Add about a teaspoon of turmeric and simmer for about 5-8 minutes, stirring regularly:

[Turmeric has many health benefits: read more here if you are interested!]

4. Serve on toasted bread (I spread a little tomato ketchup on the toast first) with baked beans (I tend to microwave the beans, but you can obviously cook these how you prefer!):

This is quite a filling meal, but if you are particularly hungry you could serve it with vegan sausages of some kind (Linda McCartney are good - and can be microwaved from frozen if you're in a hurry), and perhaps even oven-roasted tomatoes as well!