A HEALTHFUL AND MEATLESS DIET

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Sort the dried beans and soak them overnight in about 12 cups of cold water. Then rinse the beans and puree them in a blender, using 1 cup of soaked beans to each quart of water (you can also use a food grinder or processor for this step, adapting as necessary). Pour the resulting slush into a large cooking vessel and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring continually. This is one instance in which it pays to watch the pot: Soymilk can foam up and boil over very quickly.

When the mixture has cooked for the allotted time, situate your cheesecloth-lined press over the catch container and pour the hot liquid through. Cover the strained mash, or okara, with the folds of cloth, place the lid over it, and push down slowly to force out any excess soymilk. At this point, you might want to set aside a quart or two of fresh soymilk (it's especially tasty when mixed with a teaspoon of honey). Save the okara for later use, too.

Now, rinse out the large kettle and return the soymilk to the pot. Bring it to a near boil, then turn off the heat. Next, stir the liquid rapidly in one direction, pour in 1/3 cup of the diluted nigari, stir once or twice in the opposite direction, sprinkle in another 1/3 cup of the salt mixture, and cover the pot. After 3 minutes, lift the lid and softly poke the curds to determine if the whey has completely separated. If the whey is still milky, add the last 1/3 cup of the solution, stir it briefly, and wait another couple of minutes.

When the milk has completely curdled, pour it slowly through your cheesecloth-lined press, cover the curds with the cloth, place the lid on top... and plan on enjoying a delicious meal of tofu in about four hours.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Suggestions/or serving tofu and other soy foods can be found in the main article of this mini-manual. . . and for more detailed recipes, you can consult the cookbooks given in the source list. Back issues of MOTHER contain a wealth of information on and recipes for using tofu, as well: Issues 39-45 include a series of excerpts from The Book of Tofu, by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, and more recent articles include "Cooking With Tofu" (No. 65, page 124) and "Toothsome Tofu Pies" (No. 87, page 42).

Ms. Prescott, author of this article, also contributed some recipes that use the leftover okara from making tofu... and you'll find these on page 36 of MOTHER NO. 83.

Favorite Vegetarian Victuals

Something about food has a way of grabbing folks' attention. As soon as word got out around the office that we were doing a meatless mini-manual, various staffers began bringing in the recipes for their favorite vegetarian dishes.

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