Roasting your own soybeans
 

Soybeans are a leguminous plant native to Asia. I've tried store brands, both regular and organic, and I've found the flavor to be quite dull. When I started roasting my own, an entire world opened up to me. Homemade roasted soybeans are delicious! And when done right, they actually have a smell reminiscent of roasted coffee. Yum.

Recently I've also become aware of pesticide laden and GMO soybeans. Prior to finding organically grown soybeans, this was all I could find at local food chains. Luckily I have a Whole Foods nearby and found organic, raw soybeans for CHEAP ($1.69/lb).

It's pretty easy to roast your own. When you're done, you'll have a no sodium, high protein, high fiber, healthy addition to add to your yogurt and other foods. Oh, and did I mention how delicious they are? :)

They are prefect for adding to yogurt for my daily morning breakfast. They give it a crunchiness that takes the yogurt to another level of enjoyment.

Here's the blog that first helped me with roasting:

Fanatic Cook: Freshly Roasted Soybeans

The only problem is, I've discovered that the method described on this blog doesn't work. See the next post below for the best method to roast your own organic soybeans.

OK, the above method of oven roasting was a complete and utter failure. After following the directions carefully, the soybeans came out hard. So hard in fact that if you weren't careful eating one at a time you'd almost break your teeth.

Luckily I found another site which shows how to roast soybeans:

Soy Recipes - Snacks - Roasted Soybeans

This time I tried the microwave method described above. That worked OK, but the final beans were only crunchy when they were hot, then they became chewy. And they didn't brown very well.

What to do? I figured out a great method which uses BOTH microwaving and then the oven for final browning. This way really does work! The final product is brown and crunchy, just like store bought soybeans. Only these organic soybeans can be made for a far cheaper price than you can buy them for (about 1/4 the price) and they TASTE better than even store bought, roasted, organic soybeans. Promise!

Next I'm going to experiment with spices. Then I'll update this thread.

Preparation:

Rinse soybeans in colander. Place them into a pot/glass dish and add water. Make sure the water is a few inches high because the beans are going to expand when they hydrate.

Skim any floaters off and discard. Soak for about 18-24 hours. No more than this as fermenting will be taking place.

Step 1 Microwave:

Place soybeans in a glass dish, single layer, and place into the micowave. The following are microwave times for a 950 Watt oven, your times may vary.

- Microwave high for 4 minutes. Stir.
- Microwave high for 4 minutes. Stir.
- Microwave high for 2 minutes. You may notice at this point the beans start making a "popping" sound at this point.

The beans come out fairly crunchy at this point but once the cool they just become chewy. So on to the next step, which you may do the next day if you wish.

Step 2 Conventional Oven:

Note: This step can be completed the next day if you want.

Heat oven to 450 F. Place the precooked soybeans in a glass dish, single layer, and place into oven.

- Heat 5 minutes. Stir.
- Heat 3-4 minutes. Possibly done. Do the beans look slightly brown? Keep an eye on them, you don't want them too dark or they may taste burnt. Slightly dark brown is the way to go, so you have to keep a careful eye on this last step.

Also, if you're doing multiple batches of soybeans in the oven be extra careful. As the oven and glass dish get hotter with each batch, the final browning time listed above will decrease. You may want to use 4 minutes, stir, then an additional 3-4 minutes.

Results: Wow. These are the best tasting soybeans I've ever had. They have a really robust flavor and they actually have a smell reminiscent of roasted coffee beans. They blow away store bought organic roasted soybeans by a mile. If you enjoy soybeans I recommend that you roast your own. It's fun, fairly easy, saves money, and the taste is the real motivator for doing this.