Ever since we got ourselves a soya bean milk maker, we’ve been left with this powdery residue called okara. (You can also extract milk by hand if you like.)
Okara has a powdery texture, is tasteless and doesn’t have much nutritional value but is high in fibre.
Making tofu also produces okara. (In fact, I was doing research on tofu making that I discovered this by-product even had a name.) Maybe this is why okara is sometimes called “tofu lees”. But I much prefer okara.
My father had been using okara on his plants to make compost, but I was convinced more could be done with this residue.
I fed it to the dogs. They ate it, but they didn’t like it too much. No surprise there. It is tasteless after all. Adding a teaspoon of cod liver oil helped a great deal.
Still, I wasn’t happy.
I read somewhere that okara was mainly used as animal feed and because of that, many tofu manufacturers are located near animal farms.
Besides cattle, vegetarians also seem to enjoy okara. They’re used to make vegetarian burgers, crab cakes and tempeh.
It’s not just interesting for vegetarians, but also for regular meat eating folk like us – koftas, miso soup, bread, more bread and what must be the world’s simplest to make biscuits. Although, judging from that recipe, I’m not going to run and try those biscuits. The bread ones look very interesting though.
Here are some other interesting ones:
Furthermore, I discovered that okara can also be dried and reconstituted and used later. A good and extensive read in three parts can be found at Just Hungry.
Okara can also be used as a substitute in baking. Instead of one egg, use a tablespoon of okara with two tablespoons of water. Dried okara can also be used in place of flour or to increase fibre in granola bars.
I tried okara in scrambled eggs. They were good, but better if I had blended the okara first so that it was smoother.
I also made dog treats. Meat dust mixed with okara, baked till dry and crisp at 180 degree celcius for two hours or so. They love it.
