All images in this post were taken by me
Hiding more nutrition in your food
Now if you look at the picture above you might wonder why I'm saying biscuits with beans. If you look you certainly won't see any beans. If you have the biscuits and milk you aren't going to taste the beans either. Add a little peanut butter on the biscuits (or maybe nutella or butter) and you'll think your just having a quick snack.
**But the beans are hiding their protein in there I promise!
It starts with 3/4 cup of dried soy beans (3/4 cup)
I'm going to turn the beans into (1) Soy Milk and (2) Okara
I used to think that making soy milk was difficult and it was something you just bought from the store and paid way too much money for. I was sure wrong. It is so easy I'm a little shy to put the details here.
But here we go.
Add beans to the blender along with 2 liters of water.
Blend on high for a minute
Put the blended mixture through a nutmilk bag / strainer
Squeeze well to get all the liquid out
Now I'm putting all the liquid into a crock pot. Once all the liquid is in the crock pot I'll add 1/2 cup of sugar and let sit on low for 4 hours (roughly). If you DON'T cook it long enough you will taste nothing but bean (yuck) and the toxins from the beans won't be destroyed (ewww). If you leave it too long its fine...but it gets very concentrated and thick. Actually quite nice if you want something resembling a smoothie.
But what do we do with the leftover pulp?
Well, there is actually a lot of nutrition left in this white stuff. A fair amount of protein, a fair amount of minerals and almost 60% fiber (bulk with no calories). Many people just throw it away but I like keeping my protein for eating!
So I take it and make little patties which I will throw in a dehydrator. That will make dry cakes which will store for a very long time.
The moist patties here
And the dried patties after 12-24hrs in a dehydrator at 40C. Now I could use the moist soy pulp (aka Okara) directly in muffins, biscuits, breads, cookies or almost anywhere you use flour. However, I find that drying it and powdering it is so much better for storage and usage.
Just take the dried caked Okara and place in the blender. Blend it for a minute or two (until its fine powder) and now I have Okara flour.
The cake turns into this
It won't hold together in baking so don't try to use it on its own. However substitute it 25% where you would use flour and you will reduce the calories and increase the protein of whatever you put it in.
Today I'll be adding it to baking powder biscuits.
Now in my last post I made Baking Soda Biscuits and you can click the link for a more complete how to on making biscuits. Today I'll just show the very basics.
These will be baking POWDER biscuits so it is a little different than the baking soda ones.
Baking Powder Biscuit with Okara
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 Cup of All purpose flour
- 1 TBSP of sugar
- 1 TBSP of baking powder
- 1/2 Cup of Okara powder OR I could use the wet pulp I extracted earlier (one cup worth and decrease the milk from 3/4cup to 1/2cup).
- 1/2 cup of Canola Oil
- 3/4 cup of milk.
- A pinch of salt (1/8th tsp if you must have an amount)
First Step Mix all the dry ingredients.
Add 1/2 cup of Canola oil
Again I use a whisk to mix it all together. This time I want to make sure that it looks all crumbly and dry when I'm done. Just like this:
Add 3/4 cup of milk and mix by hand to make a dough.
Roll out the dough and cut into biscuit shaped pieces
I used a coffee mug as it was about the right shape and size
I threw them all into a halogen oven and baked at 450F for 12 minutes
Why a halogen oven? Because I'm lazy and a halogen oven is easier for cleanup plus I don't have to reheat the oven. Horray!
Unfortunately the bottom didn't cook right but the tops looked great. I just put them back into the over and baked them with the uncooked bottom side up for two minutes and then things were great!
Now I had a plate full of biscuits all ready to go! But the soy milk was going to take another 2 hours and 30 minute to finish cooking (sigh).
Two and a Half hours later
The best part about cooking the soy milk in a crock pot on low. I don't have to watch it. It won't scorch. If I get busy it can wait an extra hour (or two) and it still comes out fine. The heat just gets rid of the beany flavour (and the toxins that go along with it).
No stirring required. No watching. Just let it do its thing
Ladle the soy milk into a milk jug
There you have it Soy Beans added to biscuits and milk with no beany taste :)
and if you count carefully you will notice that by the time the soy milk was ready the 10 biscuits turned into only four. Everyone was munching them. Guess I'll have to make another batch...I do have some Okara left over after all 😄
The addendum on prices
Now if you are wondering why I'm doing something so basic I'll send you a couple of links. In the #earnspendgive community I'm looking to find the least expensive and most nutritious ingredients available.
Check here for an overview of why I'm focused on flour.
Check here for why I'm also focusing on soy beans.
But how does this days cooking fare on the price to calorie analysis?
- 1 & 1/2 Cup of All purpose flour (188g @ 8c/100g) = $0.15
- 1 TBSP of sugar (biscuits) and 1/2 cup of sugar (soy milk) = $0.21
(15g+125g=140g @ 15cents/100g) - 1 TBSP of baking powder = 20 cents
($5.99/450g * 15g) - 1/2 cup of Canola Oil = 37 cents
($8.99/3000ml * 150mL) - 3/4 cup of milk. = 24 cents
($5.69/4000ml * 175ml) - A pinch of salt (1/8th tsp if you must have an amount) = neg
- 3/4 cup of dried soy beans (136g) = 41 cents
($2.69/900g * 136g)
Total cost for 10 biscuits and 2 liters of soy milk = $ 1.58
Compare to cost for 2 liters of regular milk = $2.85
All prices in Canadian dollars.
But how many calories are you getting for that $1.58?
Flour : 188x4 = 752
Sugar : 140x4 = 560
Oil : 150x9 = 1350
Milk : = 92
Soy Beans : 136g x 4.57 = 622
Total : 3376 calories
and assuming 2000 calories needed per day : 1.688 days food
Cost per day : $1.58 / 1.688 = 93 cents
Why am I doing all these calculations?
Because I love numbers?
Well, that's true but its more than that. My goal is to find the best nutrition at the lowest cost. Exploring all the options for carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals and so forth. The end goal is to see how hard it is to save as much as possible on food while still getting a nutritious diet.
Most people just look at food for the taste. I'm looking at cost and nutrition while hoping to make something tasty along the way. As I look at more ingredients to cover more vitamins I promise I'll make some more complicated dishes however, as I've only researched a few staple foods so far it makes my ingredient list pretty small :)
Thanks for dropping by.
Feel free to leave comments...
.... and if you are one of the moderators please let me know how I can better adhere to the community guidelines.
Thank you.