Okara is the pulp left over after you make soybean milk out of soybeans. (Click here for my Foods of Michigan blog entry on making soybean and other nuts milks using a device called Soyabella.)
Finding uses for okara has become an obsession (wallpaper paste? glue?) because we end up with quite a bit of it. But the best use may be to make gluten-free “cream” soups. Where you would normally make a roux of butter, flour and milk or cream, you can instead just put the okara into whatever soup you make, and it turns it into a mock cream soup. Below is the recipe for the hearty soup you see in the photo.
Hearty Bean-Potato-Kale Okara Soup
2 C black-eyed peas
3 white potatoes, diced
1 small onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, diced
3 C kale - remove spines and dice
2 ears sweet corn, cut from the cob
2 gluten-free veggie bouillon cubes
1 C okara (soybean pulp)
2 T olive oil
1 t salt
1 t pepper
You can either soak the black-eyed peas (or Great Northern beans) overnight or you can do a quick five-minute boil, then let them sit a half-hour before bringing them to a boil and simmering them until they get soft.
Meanwhile, in your stockpot, put the olive oil in over medium to high heat, then add the potatoes and onions, as well as the bouillon cubes. Sweat the mix for five or six minutes, then all the tomatoes, kale and sweet corn. Cook until the potatoes are tender, then add the black-eyed peas and the okara just before serving.
