On my recent trip to the Bay Area, I spent a couple of days with my friends Jasmine and Mike. They never cease to amaze me with their cooking. This most recent time, they surprised me by telling me that they're now making their own tofu and showed me the ginormous bag of soybeans to prove it. After hearing about how much it all breaks down to cost wise, it's crazy that more people don't do it.
Not only do my friends make their own tofu, but they also reuse the byproduct of it. The formal name for this is okara, which is the leftover bean pulp that you skim out of the homemade soymilk. We're not sure what tofu manufacturers normally do with this stuff , but they probably just trash it.
Okara is actually quite good for you and can be made into numerous foods. I tried both okara veggie burgers and chocolate chip cookies and they were great! Jasmine and Mike have also made faux crab cakes and meatloaf with it. I keep telling my friends that they need to open a restaurant. It would be amazing.
Besides for cooking, Jasmine and Mike also reuse for drinking. They reuse glass bottles for their household beverage containers. They're definitely on my team!
Thanks as always Jasmine and Mike and see you next time!