soybean recipes for omnivores?

October 25, 2015 1:18 PM

Please recommend recipes that start with whole dried soybeans and don't produce poor imitations of traditionally meat-based recipes. Because if you can eat meat, it's easier and tastier to make those with meat. What else is there? I'm happy to try food that would be unusual by mainstream American standards.

Also, is it really necessary to grind the beans? I'm reluctant to buy a food mill before I know soybeans will be an important and consistent part of my diet.

posted by d. z. wang to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

It is not necessary to grind the beans; you can cook them like, well, beans, and eat them that way.

One good soybean recipe might be cassoulet. It's essentially a bean stew. You don't have to add the traditional sausage, but if you want to, I think a soy sausage is great in it.

Soybeans could also be a good addition to a basic ramen soup.

It sounds like you may not be very familiar with dried beans? I've found this approach helpful: Boil a big pot of water. Turn off heat, add about 1/4 the pot's volume in dried (and sorted -- you sometimes have to remove small rocks, not kidding) soybeans. Put lid on, leave overnight, rinse, cook (low simmer) for a couple of hours (while watching a video or so) until they are essentially done, then drain _most_ (but not all liquid), put into pint or quart containers, and freeze until needed.

Basically, cooking dried beans can take a while; by cooking and freezing them, you reduce your prep time for individual dishes considerably, and they become a lot more convenient.
posted by amtho at 1:26 PM on October 25, 2015

I like the green soybeans that come frozen. Theyb
are easier to use as a part of stirfrys, salads, or noodle dishes. Dried soybeans are like dry beans of many sorts, soak them, look them for small rocks, and cook them in chili, soups and etc. I can see grinding the cooked beans for soy hummus or other styles of bean dip.

If you need ground dry beans, that is soy flour and there are a few different types.
posted by Oyéah at 1:27 PM on October 25, 2015

Re: grinding the beans - it might help if you explained why you are eating soybeans now.
posted by amtho at 1:27 PM on October 25, 2015

If you are cooking any whole bean from dried, do in fact pick over them before you soak them- I got lazy about this and bit into a chunk of grit last time, and those were the fancy organic beans, even.

I too recommend the frozen soy beans. They're quite tasty - you can even microwave or lightly steam and salt them and just eat them as-is.
posted by Frowner at 1:30 PM on October 25, 2015

Response by poster: Re: grinding the beans - it might help if you explained why you are eating soybeans now.

I just discovered that soybeans have approximately the same nutritional profile as split peas, chickpeas, lentils, and black beans, but they cost less than half as much. So I'd like to try replacing these foods in my diet with equivalent soybean recipes.

Unfortunately, the fresh and frozen beans, which I already eat, do not get me the same cost savings.
posted by d. z. wang at 1:32 PM on October 25, 2015

I like soybeans stir-fried--I've mostly seen it made with fresh but this recipe uses dried. You can add pretty much any veggies or meats you want. I really enjoy soybeans and tofu cooked with meat; basically, treat it as a vegetable rather than a meat substitute.
posted by serelliya at 1:39 PM on October 25, 2015

A popular Korean dish usually eaten in summer is kongguksu, or noodles in soy milk. Basically soak and cook the soybeans, puree cooked beans, then strain and chill resulting soy milk, and serve noodles in the soy milk.

A hearty dish for cooler weather is kongbiji jjigae (ground soybean stew). Soaked ground soybeans are cooked in a pork and kimchi broth. Or, you can use the leftover solids from making soy milk. (I think I might this myself soon, it's hearty comfort food.)

Oh, and there's kong-jang (soy braised soybeans). It's a popular Korean banchan, or side dish to be eaten with rice.
posted by needled at 1:52 PM on October 25, 2015

I was just looking up soybean recipes the other day. This one looked good, it's not that different from any other dal recipe. Or this dry curry.
posted by clavicle at 2:27 PM on October 25, 2015

One reason cooked soybeans have never been as popular as, say, lentils or pinto beans is that they aren't as digestible. Why not let tame fungi partially digest cooked soybeans before you eat them? People in Borneo developed the techniques for making tempeh long ago. Basically, you cook soybeans long enough so that the hulls separate and can be skimmed off. Then pans or trays of the cooked beans are inoculated with a species of fungus. Within a day or two the fungus uses the beans as food and embeds the legumes in a solid mass of mycelium, sort of a bean/fungus cake. This is tasty stuff and can be fried or baked and used in a variety of dishes. I realize that here in first-world Meatland this might sound weird and time-consuming, but the result is an easily-digestible and high-protein food. There are all sorts of good sites on growing your own tempeh; many people incubate it in a styrofoam cooler.
posted by Agave at 10:53 PM on October 25, 2015

You can put soybeans into any minestrone soup recipe. One I like has leeks, spinach, potatoes, carrots, celery, string beans, soy beans, and a ham bone. Take garlic, parsley, tomatoes and blend them up. Cook that in some olive oil until it gets a little toasty and then add all your other ingredients and liquid. Simmer for about an hour and a half. The soybeans should have been already cooked, but not overly so. You can put in any vegetables that you like, and add in some pasta or rice at the end.

I like soybeans in salads, so establish a basic recipe to cook them and then chill them. Marinate them in some vinegar, sugar or honey, soy sauce, and some garlic. Make a salad with grated carrot, cucumber, and any greens you like (arugula is great) and you can add meaty things like bacon or shrimp or chicken if you want.
posted by Mizu at 12:20 AM on October 26, 2015

In that case, make sure your calculations include the additional costs for heating/cooking the beans that additional time, as well as any lost opportunities for the time you spend cooking the beans -- in other words, the bean cooking time might instead have been spent walking a short distance instead of driving, or raking leaves instead of using a leaf blower, or spending time with friends who might eventually connect you with a job. All that said, a big pot of beans in the freezer is a good feeling.

Another trade to consider: if you end up not liking dried soybeans, you'll probably have to spend a lot more time and money seasoning them to the point that you enjoy eating them.

Finally, I think we underestimate the differences in productivity between happy people who are delighted with small things in their lives, and people who don't have those enjoyments to look back on and forward to. There are people who have pervasive joy in their lives that allows them to eat a plate of relatively colorless boiled beans and rice with zest, and then attack the problems of their lives and work with vigor and enthusiasm; however, most people need rewarding experiences throughout their days, and a good meal is one of the most powerful.

All this is to say: I hope you're balancing the easy-to-measure monetary savings with the difficult-to-measure but large-payoff happiness investment.

I see that you were recently living in NYC, in which case I totally get economising (hey, you can eat at better restaurants on other days). I'm including this in case there are other future readers who might be approaching this kind of idea from a desire to control every monetary expense in their lives at the expense of other factors.

If you are not actually living in the city and have access to some gardening land, you might consider growing some of your own beans; this is a delicious (but time-consuming) way to get fresh beans, and other foods, for less money.
posted by amtho at 5:02 AM on October 26, 2015

I would recommend sprouting the dried soybeans for increased versatility and digestability. Maangchi has you covered for the technique as well as a variety of recipes using the sprouted soy beans. You also might want to consider making your own soy milk and tofu and getting the protein that way, although in my experience these soy bean products can be gotten for a very low cost at any Asian market.
posted by kaspen at 1:57 PM on October 26, 2015