January 28, 2010

okara scones

okara scones 015

In a bowl, combine
2 3/4 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
2/3 cup coarsely ground almonds

until well mixed.

okara scones 007
Note: I ground up slivered almonds in a coffee grinder.

In a second bowl, whisk together
2/3 cup okara
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 cup soy milk
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon canola oil

until oil is emulsified. Add liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix together until just blended.

To the dough, add
1/2 cup dried cherries or chocolate chips
and fold into dough until well incorporated.

Using a 1/4 cup scoop, drop dough onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet. If desired, sprinkle tops of scones with
turbinado sugar
before putting into oven.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. This recipe will make about 14 scones.

okara scones 008

Verdict: When I made this recipe, I divided the dough into two halves. Into one half I put the dried cherries, and into the other half I put chocolate chips. Obviously I liked the chocolate-chip scones -- how could I not? The cherry scones were a little bland to me -- I was hoping the almonds would give it more of an almond taste, but alas. It didn't occur to me until afterward that I should have added a teaspoon or so of almond extract to the mix. Duh! I think the scones would have benefited from the addition of almond extract, and I highly recommend that you give that a try. All in all, though, I think this recipe provides a good starting point for a fancier scone recipe. You can dress it up with all kinds of flavor combinations.

January 26, 2010

pumpkin-okara pie

What better filling for an okara pie crust than a pumpkin-okara pie? This recipe is based on the one from The New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook. I incorporated okara into the mix and made a couple of other minor changes.

Note: A sweeter version of this recipe can be obtained here.

pumpkin pie

Throw the following ingredients into a food processor:
1 15 oz. can pureed pumpkin
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. agar powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup okara
1/2 cup agave nectar
3 Tablespoons canola oil
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 cup soy milk


Blend until thoroughly mixed and pour into an
unbaked 9-inch pie shell

pumpkin pie

Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and then reduce heat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Allow pie to cool on a rack before eating.

pumpkin pie

Verdict: The other resident of this house proclaims this pie to be "perfect"; however, I thought it wasn't sweet enough. Next time I think I will add sugar or maple syrup in addition to the agave nectar. I also think that okara can be used to offset some of the soy milk, and that it wouldn't affect taste or texture. So my goal for next time is: more sugar, more okara.

okara pie crust

I always hated making pie crusts, because who wants to futz around with wax paper and rolling pins, only to have the whole thing tear when you try to pick it up and place it in the pie pan? Behold, the lazy man's pie crust.

okara pie crust

Throw the following ingredients into a food processor:
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup okara
1/4 cup coconut oil
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons water


I used a fitting for mixing bread dough, but I'm sure a normal blade would work as well. Pulse and blend the ingredients until they are well incorporated. You'll probably have to scrape the sides down with a spatula a few times. Eventually it should form a ball of dough.

okara pie crust

Take that ball of dough and dump it into a lightly oiled 9-inch pie plate.

okara pie crust

Mold the dough within the pie plate, shaping it into a pie crust, as pictured above.

miso-okara soup

Miso soup is an obvious choice for the addition of okara. And as long as you get the water-to-miso ratio right, it's pretty hard to mess up. Feel free to play around with the following recipe. You might like to add additional vegetables, or increase the proportions of the vegetables that are called for. The recipe also makes a lot of soup, so you might want to cut it in half, too.

miso soup

Bring
12 cups water
to a boil in a large pot, and add
2 Tablespoons tamari (soy sauce)
6 oz. (about 8 cups) coarsely chopped spinach
8 oz. (about 3 cups) thinly sliced white mushrooms
4 scallions, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped


Variation: Thinly sliced radishes also go great in miso soup. Plus, their greens are edible and can be chopped up and thrown into the mix along with the spinach.

Boil for several minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Reduce heat to low, remove some of the broth (a cup or so) and transfer it to a bowl. To this bowl, add
2/3 cup miso
and blend the miso into the water until there are no lumps left.

misomisomiso

Return the miso mixture to the pot and blend with the rest of the broth. Add
4 oz. silken tofu, cut into cubes
1 cup okara

and stir into the soup.

Note: What size cubes should the tofu be cut into? Whatever size you want them to be when you eat them.

When the mixture is heated through, the miso soup is ready to serve. Make sure you give it a good stir before ladling it into bowls -- the miso and okara tend to settle to the bottom.

Note: A widespread claim about miso is that it has nutritive properties that disappear once the miso is boiled. I am skeptical of this claim, but on the other hand, it doesn't take much effort to make sure the soup doesn't boil once the miso is added in, so what the heck. Use this information as you see fit.

Verdict: I think this tastes great, although I wish I had added another carrot or two, as well as additional tofu. (I was working with what I had on hand, though.) I also think the soup could have withstood even more okara.

chocolate-chip cookie bars

Toll House chocolate-chip cookie bars were a childhood favorite that I have not been able to veganize successfully until recently. The below recipe took a few attempts to get right, and I am really happy with the results.

chocolate chip cookie bars

In a bowl, mix together
2 2/3 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt

and set aside.

In a second bowl, blend with a hand-held electric mixer
5 oz. okara
1/2 cup (one stick) Earth Balance (or other vegan butter substitute)
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

and mix until well incorporated and creamy.

Variation: You can replace the margarine with an equal amount of canola oil. You can also use 1/2 cup brown rice syrup and omit the agave nectar.

Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the liquid ingredients, using the hand-held electric mixer. Once the dough is well incorporated, stir in
1 1/3 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts


Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled 9x13-inch pan.

chocolate chip cookie bars

Spread the dough so that it is evenly distributed across the surface of the pan.

chocolate chip cookie bars

Bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 50-55 minutes. The cookie bars will be pretty gooey just out of the oven, but will solidify as they cool.

January 17, 2010

three-and-a-half bean chili

three-and-a-half-bean chili

The many photographs I tried to take of the chili raised the question: Is it possible to take an appetizing picture of chili? This is the best one of the batch, and based on the picture alone, I wouldn't eat that! But believe me ... It was good.

Into a pot, put
2/3 cup dried cannellini beans
2/3 cup dried kidney beans
2/3 cup dried pinto beans

and cover with water. Allow to soak for eight hours, or use the "quick-soak method" (in which you bring contents of pot to a boil, and then turn off the heat and leave covered for several hours).

016

Drain the beans through a colander, saving the water. There are some who say that reusing the soak water gives rise to flatulence, but I have experienced no evidence of this. Plus, there is flavor in that water. I say reuse it, but throw it away if you must.

If needed, add enough
water
to the soak water to bring it up to 4 cups. Place beans and water back into the pot, along with
1 bay leaf (or go crazy -- make it 2! or 3!)
1 Tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 Tablespoon cumin (I like to toast whole cumin seeds and then grind them in a mortar and pestle)
up to 1 cup okara

and bring to a boil.

While waiting for the contents of the pot to boil, in a pan over medium heat, place
1 Tablespoon olive oil

When oil is heated, throw in
2 tsp. minced garlic
and sautee until golden in color. Do not burn! Then add
half an onion, minced
1 poblano pepper, minced and with seeds removed

and sautee vegetables together until lightly browned. Then add vegetables to the chili pot, which is probably boiling right about now. Stir contents together, reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer for about 2 1/2 hours, or until beans are soft and tender. Stir occasionally, to make sure beans aren't sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Note: Poblano peppers are also called pasilla peppers. When they are dried, they are called ancho chilis, but I'm using fresh peppers.

When beans are tender, add
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon agave nectar (or other sweetener)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar

and mix contents of pot thoroughly.

Variation: I meant to add tomato paste to this concoction as well, but when I opened my pantry I found that I had none! Oops. Luckily, the chili tasted fine without it; however, if you want tomato paste, I would recommend first blending it with the 1/4 cup of soy sauce before adding it to the chili.

At this point, your chili is ready to eat (after you remove the bay leaf, of course). If it's too liquidy you might want to boil it down a bit, stirring often. Tastes great with cornbread or corn muffins.

Verdict: Despite the lack of tomato paste, I think this had a really nice, rich flavor. Even though it tasted good, the okara made it look kind of weird. So if looks are important to you, you might want to try putting less than a cup of okara into the chili. The okara thickened the chili nicely, but a cup of the stuff was kind of visually overt.

January 15, 2010

spiced coffee cake

My mom once told me that if you change just one aspect of a recipe, you can claim it as your own, even if you clearly ripped it off from the copyright holder. I know I shouldn't take legal advice from a 20-year-old memory of my mother, who is not qualified to dispense legal advice in any case, but I feel compelled to point this out. Why? Because even though I changed many aspects of this recipe, I still feel like I clearly ripped it off. The recipe in question is the Sour Cream Streusel Coffee Cake from Vegan Vittles.

Vegan Vittles was my first vegan cookbook, and for a long time it was my only cookbook, because I got it back in the mid-'90s, before veganism got taken over by the foodies and their flush of ornate cookbooks. Not that I mind this flush of cookbooks, but although my copy of Vegan Vittles has almost completely fallen apart by now, it remains one of my favorites. I based the below coffee cake recipe on a formula from this book, swapping out okara for the sour cream and amping up the spices, along with a few other minor changes.

coffee cake

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly spray an 8x8-inch pan with oil.

In a bowl, combine
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

and set aside. This is your streusel topping.

In a bowl, combine
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

In yet another bowl, whisk together
1/2 cup okara
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 cup apple sauce
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla

until all ingredients are thoroughly incorporated.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix thoroughly. Put one half of the batter into the square baking pan, and sprinkle half of the streusel topping evenly over the surface.

coffee cake

Scrape the rest of the batter into the pan and gently spread it out over the streusel, being careful not to disturb the streusel too much.

coffee cakecoffee cake

Sprinkle the rest of the streusel evenly onto the surface of the cake.

coffee cake

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes.

Verdict: This was almost too easy. The only modification I'd want to make for next time is to amp those spices up even more, perhaps by putting them in the batter as well as in the streusel itself.

January 14, 2010

buckwheat-okara pancakes

Years ago, when I first started trying to figure out what to do with okara, pancakes were one of my first projects. I veganized the pancake recipe from The Book of Tofu, with good results. However, recently I was intrigued to learn that buckwheat is actually not a grain but a seed, and apparently contains all eight essential amino acids (a rarity in the plant world). The nutritional properties of buckwheat, along with its distinctive flavor, are enough to convince me to incorporate it more into my cooking. That, and I had some applesauce to use up. Hence, buckwheat pancakes ... with applesauce.

This recipe will yield about 15 pancakes.

buckwheat pancakes

Heat a nonstick pan or lightly oiled griddle on medium heat.

In a bowl, combine
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp. cardamom

and stir until thoroughly mixed.

In a second bowl, combine
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup okara
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cup water

and whisk thoroughly until all ingredients are incorporated. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir together until just combined. Some lumps are OK.

If desired, add
3/4 cup blueberries
and fold into the batter.

To see if the pan or griddle is hot enough, flick some water droplets on it. If it sizzles, the pan or griddle is ready to go. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter on the surface for each pancake. The batter will start to bubble. When the bubbling starts to subside, that's about when the pancake should be flipped.

buckwheat pancakes

After flipping your pancake, you should cook it on the second side for about half as long as you cooked the first side.

Continue to cook your pancakes in this manner until you are out of batter! I stacked these up and ate them with Earth Balance and maple syrup.

Verdict: Fifteen pancakes were way too many for the two members of this household, so the next time I make these I'll be halving the recipe. However, if I halve it, I'll only be getting rid of a paltry 2 Tablespoons of okara. In that case, I might rework this recipe so that the ratio of okara to the rest of the batter is less timid.

January 7, 2010

spinach-okara lasagna

I'd forgotten how annoying I found the process of making lasagna to be. Mostly it's the wet noodles that drive me up the wall. Maybe I should look into this "dry" method I've heard tell about. Until then, I'll tell you about my successful experiment in which I made lasagna with okara.

I only used 3 cups of tomato sauce; the recipe below will call for a bit more, because even though I made those 3 cups work for me, I really was spreading it pretty thin. Also, I intended to put some fresh basil in the filling, but completely spaced out on that! The final product tasted great, and it didn't occur to me until hours later that I had left the basil out.

okara lasagna

First, cook
1 pound of lasagna noodles
according to the instructions given on the package. When they finish cooking, drain the noodles and set aside.

On the stove top, heat in a medium-sized pot
1 Tablespoon olive oil
over medium heat. When it is hot, add
2 tsp. minced garlic
and saute until golden brown -- be careful not to burn. Turn heat down to low and add
2 pounds fresh spinach, chopped
Stir spinach, coating it with the oil and garlic. Cover the pot and allow the spinach to wilt, stirring occasionally. When it's nice and wilted, remove the lid from the pot and allow the excess water to evaporate, or merely drain the excess water through a colander. Set spinach aside.

In a bowl, crumble
20 oz. of firm regular tofu

I left some pretty good-sized chunks of tofu in there because that's how I like it. If you want more finely crumbled tofu, go to town.

In a blender or food processor, blend
12 oz. okara
1 Tablespoon lime juice or lemon juice
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. salt


Note: The reason the tofu-to-okara ratio is kind of weird in this recipe is because the tofu I buy comes in 20-ounce blocks. I wanted a total of two pounds of tofu and okara. You can probably mess around with this ratio if you buy tofu in 16-ounce blocks and don't want to deal with measuring 20-ounce increments of it.

Start to blend; if you have trouble getting the mixture to move, add
up to 1/2 cup of soymilk
to the mixture to assist the blending process.

Scrape the okara mixture from the blender or food processor and add it to the crumbled tofu.

okara lasagna

Mix the okara and the tofu thoroughly, taking care not to bust the tofu chunks up too much.

okara lasagna

Then add the spinach to the mixture, incorporating it well and continuing to take care not to break up the tofu chunks.

okara lasagna

Lightly oil a 9x13 inch pan and spread a thin layer of
marinara sauce (you'll want about 4-5 cups total, but it can be done with 3)
on the bottom of the pan, coating it completely.

Assemble the lasagna: a layer of noodles, a layer of marinara sauce, half of the filling, another layer of noodles, more marinara sauce, the other half of the filling, another layer of noodles, and more marinara sauce.

Note: I finished my lasagna off with the almesan from Veganomicon -- but you can also use commercially available vegan parmesan or forgo this added flourish entirely.

Cook for 35 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

marinara sauce

This is an incredibly easy recipe for a sauce that you can use on spaghetti, lasagna, and other dishes calling for tomato sauce. This recipe yields about 3 cups of sauce, so for major operations you might want to double it.

marinara sauce

Over medium-low heat on the stove top, heat a small pot or saucepan, and then add
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 tsp. minced garlic


Saute the garlic until it turns a light golden brown -- be careful not to burn it. Then add
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup okara
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 tsp. sea salt
black pepper, to taste


Mix ingredients until well incorporated. Cover the pot or pan and bring to a simmer. Stir every once in a while over the next 15 minutes, making sure the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom of the pan.

marinara sauce

Verdict: Even though I could see little flecks of okara, this tastes like straight-up, classic tomato sauce. It really is amazing how many things you can sneak okara into, adding fiber and protein without affecting the flavor.

January 6, 2010

okara-corn tortillas

First, a caveat: Since the wetness of okara varies from batch to batch and person to person, this recipe might require some tweaking. However, it shouldn't be tricky tweaking. If the okara is wetter than the masa mixture, then more masa flour will have to be added to compensate. If the okara is dryer, then more water will need to be incorporated into the mixture. This shouldn't be a huge pain -- at least it wasn't for me!

The tortillas that resulted from my first tortilla-centered okara experiment tasted great -- just like a corn tortilla should. I couldn't detect any weird aftertaste, and when I folded one of the tortillas around some leftover refried black beans, it made for a great snack. Here's the recipe that worked for me, with the okara I had on hand. It yielded 13 tortillas.

okara tortillas

Mix in a bowl
1 cup + 3 Tablespoons masa harina de mais (instant masa flour)
2/3 cup water
1/8 tsp. salt


Stir with a spoon until ingredients are well incorporated.

Add
1/4 cup okara

Incorporate okara into the masa mixture.

okara tortillas

At this point, you'll need to assess whether or not the mixture is good to go, or if you'll need to add more water or more masa flour. One way to test this is to go ahead and try to make a tortilla.

I use a tortilla press to make tortillas, though you could also try using a rolling pin or even the palms of your hand. To use a tortilla press, you'll need a sheet of plastic to line the press. Take a golf-ball-sized piece of masa and roll it between your palms; place it in the middle of the press on top of the plastic. Fold the plastic over the top of the ball of masa, and flatten the dough in the press. Open the press back up, and carefully remove tortilla from the plastic. (This page has some good photographs of the process.)

okara tortillas

If it falls apart, then you might want to try adding water, one Tablespoon at a time. If it sticks to your rolling pin or tortilla press, you might want to try adding more flour, also one Tablespoon at a time. Be sure you reincorporate your failed tortilla back into the mixture.

okara tortillas

But once you have an uncooked tortilla that doesn't fall apart or stick to the plastic, slap that puppy down on a hot grill or pan. (I use a non-stick pan.) Cook at medium-high heat for a minute or so; flip over and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Feel your tortilla -- is it nice and flexible? Or does it crack when you try to bend it? If it's not flexible enough to fold over your hand, then you should try cooking the tortillas for a shorter period of time. An overcooked tortilla that cracks when you try to make a taco with it is no fun.

Store in a specialized tortilla holder or in a resealable plastic bag. Eat them within a day or two or freeze them. Use them for tacos, taquitos, tostadas, enchiladas, tortilla soup, fry them up to make chips, whatever.

okara tortillas

January 3, 2010

PBJ thumbprint cookies

Since I was experimenting with this recipe, I scaled it down some. Instead of making the usual two or three dozen cookies, this recipe should yield about 18 cookies. Even though this was only my first attempt at making okara-peanut-butter cookies, I think they came out wonderfully!

PBJ thumbprint cookies

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, combine
2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt


Mix dry ingredients thoroughly and then set aside.

In a blender, combine
1 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup okara
3/4 cup agave nectar
2 Tablespoons canola oil
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons soymilk


Blend liquid ingredients until thoroughly mixed and creamy. Mixture will be very stiff. Scrape out of blender and add to dry ingredients.

Incorporate dry ingredients into the peanut-butter mixture. The dough will be insanely stiff. So stiff, that you might want to use an electric mixer. (In that case, you'll probably want to combine the liquid ingredients with the mixer, rather than in a blender.)

Once the batter is well mixed, place golf-ball-sized balls of dough onto a baking sheet sprayed with oil. Twelve balls of dough should be arranged evenly on one baking sheet, spaced about an inch apart. Gently flatten each ball of dough a bit, and then make an indentation in each one with your finger.

Using a 1/2 teaspoon, place a dollop of
strawberry preserves
into the indentation of each cookie, creating a little mound of fruit preserves in the middle of each cookie.

PBJ thumbprint cookies (uncooked)
Pictured above: This was my first batch of cookies as I was readying them for the oven. I did not flatten this batch prior to baking. They didn't spread out much while cooking, so for my second batch I flattened the cookies down a bit before baking.

Bake for 22 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Verdict: This is a very chewy and dense cookie, and it might not be sweet enough for some people. I, however, thought they were great! Even though I like the end result, in the future I might experiment with adding more liquid, because the dough was irritatingly stiff and annoying to work with.

January 2, 2010

amaranth corn muffins

amaranth corn muffin

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a 12-cup muffin tin with oil.

Heat a small pan over the stove top and add
1/4 cup amaranth

Toast amaranth on the stove top over medium heat, stirring the grains until they turn a light golden brown and start to pop a bit. Remove from heat and set aside.

toasting amaranth

Variation: I have substituted uncooked quinoa for the amaranth, toasting it on the stove top, with interesting results. You can also omit this step completely if you don't want such fancy, grain-enhanced muffins.

Add amaranth to
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal (I prefer finely ground cornmeal)
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt


Mix dry ingredients thoroughly.

In a blender, or in a bowl with a whisk, combine
8 oz. okara
3/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tablespoons canola oil


Once liquid ingredients are thoroughly mixed, pour contents of blender or bowl into dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated into the batter.

Variation: For a sweeter muffin, you might want to adjust the apple-juice-to-maple-syrup ratio: half cup of apple juice (or water!), half cup of maple syrup.

Distribute the batter equally among the 12 muffin cups. (I use an ice-cream scoop to do this.) Put the muffin tin into the oven immediately and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Remove muffins from oven and allow to sit for 10 minutes or so. Run a knife around the edges and pull muffins from the tin. These are great with Earth Balance, agave nectar (assuming you didn't opt for the full-maple variation), or hearty bean-based soups.

amaranth corn muffin

January 1, 2010

as the soybeans soak ...

soy beans

As my soybeans soak, allow me to describe my project: the Okara Project.

For nearly two years now, my household has been using a soymilk machine to produce our own soymilk. We do this both to save money and to cut down on the waste created by the milk cartons. The process is simple: First, you soak soybeans in water. Then you put them into the machine and let modern technology do your work for you. Penultimately, you strain the soybean pulp from the milk. Lastly, you clean out the soymilk machine.

The pulp that is separated from the milk is called okara. It is high in dietary plant fiber as well as protein. Although it is apparently a common cooking ingredient in Japanese cuisine, for a corn-fed American girl such as myself, it remains a constant source of befuddlement. Ninety percent of the time, it ends up on the top of my compost heap. When it comes to using it in my own cooking, I am at a loss.

This is a shame. I fork over money for organic soybeans and throw the bulk of them away, saving only what I extract as part of the soymilk-making process. I've been able to find a few recipes here and there, some in The Book of Tofu by Shurtleff and Aoyagi, some on the Internet. Very few of these recipes were "keepers."

Starting today, I will throw away as little okara as possible, and will try to come up with recipes myself. This process of trial and error will be documented in this blog, where I will share all of my successes and failures.