It's everywhere...

The incredible, edible…soybean? Growing up on a farm we raised soybeans, and back in the day I never in a million years would have thought that the green plant with the little pods was worth much. The only purpose those beans served at the time was a great punishment for my dad to inflict upon us as weeding out the bean field was about as much fun as going to the dentist.

So here I sit, fifteen years later thumbing through the Soyfoods Guide and I cannot believe everything they use this little bean for. Not only is it fun to play in, but it is a protein rich feedstock for livestock. It is also an oil crop used in blending biodiesel that burns cleaner for the environment. Soy products are also used to make eco friendly household cleaners that are non-toxic.

Adding soy to a diet is also a healthy choice.

It may be healthy and ‘green’ but I have a few gripes about the few soy based foods I’ve eaten. Remember this is my own opinion of the food, and I by no way mean to harm said foods reputation. But, come on. I will also take this opportunity to say that some foods, based with soy are rather tasty and very edible. I think it depends on what it is. So with that said…

Tofu – it’s the most recognizable soy based foods, and one of the oldest. Now, I can actually say I’ve eaten it. I didn’t know it at the time, but while eating hot and sour soup I came across small cubes. After biting into one I looked up at my lunch mate and asked. ‘Who the hell put corkboard in my soup!’ Come to find out, it was tofu. Yum. It was seriously like chewing on plastic. It is supposed to absorb flavors of whatever it is cooked with, but I have to say I don’t buy that at all. It literally was a white cube of mattress floating in my soup.

Soymilk – Lactose intolerant folks dig this because without this little gem cereal would be off the menu, as would ice cream and other dairy products. They even make cheese out of this stuff. Rule number one about cheese, there is such as thing as generic cheeses and yes, you can taste the difference. Soymilk sours almost, never. You would have to leave it in the sun for about a week for this stuff to go bad. That’s about the only perk. It reminds me a lot of evaporated milk. I don’t like to drink plain milk, let alone thick fake milk. I’m sure if you ‘cooked’ with it I couldn’t tell the difference, but as for pouring myself a glass…I’ll pass.

Green Soybeans – Now, here is one edible bean product I would go for. I like snow peas and these are a little bit like that. They harvest the bean before maturity so the pod and beans inside are nice and green, and sweet. McDonalds actually has these on their Asian Salad. Now, I probably wouldn’t sit down and eat an entire bowl of these things, but I would chow on them occasionally. So, go for the green.

So that’s the lowdown on a few soy products from my own point of view. I didn’t touch on meatless soy products because I won’t even walk down that aisle in the supermarket. Meat is meat, you can’t replace that fleshy tastiness. Garden burger…that just sounds wrong.

Almost everything you buy has a soy product in it. Take a moment to look at the labels. I was surprised, and I bet you would be too.

Until next time.

-MO-
sarah