using soy milk
#150446 - 02/15/05 02:56 PM
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Meryl36
Reged: 09/03/04
Posts: 163
Loc: Dallas, Texas
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Hi
I'm very new to cooking (to be honest I hate it but with IBS I have to) & was wondering about using soy milk. Is there a big taste difference? I'm an awful cook to beging with (guess that's why I hate it LOL) so I've been afraid to use soy milk for fear that it would taste even worse. I love cream sauces & such but don't know if how things would taste with soy milk. I'm already using Silk Very Vanilla in my smoothie every morning & I LOVE that. I make it with a fozen banana & it's super sweet. I just don't think plain soy will taste like the real thing.
Any input from you more experienced cooks?
thanks
Meryl
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I've used soy milk in several recipes. The only catch is that if a recipe calls for vanilla soy and you use plain soy, you probably want to add extra sweetener. (My chocolate silk pudding wasn't all that sweet because I didn't use vanilla soy like the recipe said!)
Other alternatives are rice milk and oat milk. I don't like the texture of rice milk, but oat milk is fine. I think it even tastes okay plain, though it's not white like milk.
I'm no great cook, so here's some words from Deborah Madison of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone:
"Milk can be whole, low-fat, skim, or soy unless otherwise specified. Rice milk and almond milk should only be used where their sweetness is desired."
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Using rice or soy milk in baking or making sweet things almost always works out (except pudding doesn't always set) but using it for cooking savory things usually is gross. Rice milk for cooking is much better than soy and I use that for mashed potatoes and soup and that kind of thing. Everytime I have cooked with plain soy milk it ends up disgusting. When I first went dairy free I made white sauce and that kind of thing and was quite disappointed. Since then I have learned what does work and what doesn't. If you do use soy milk in cooking make sure to put plenty of seasonings.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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...and use it with everything. The plain stuff is so gross!
My soy milk isn't flavoured...just sweetened with apple juice.
Btw, the main problem with creamy sauces and IBS is often the fat content, so it can be hard to replace them. HOWEVER, try Heather's Linguine with Butternut Squash Sauce (again, I use sweetened soy milk)...it is the smoothest creamiest sauce! Yum. Even my DH loves it.
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Personally, I use soy milk in pretty much everything (breads, cream soups, homemade ice creams, etc.) and never notice a difference. I usually use plain, unsweetened because I don't want to mess with the sugar content or change the flavor. Minnie's right, though, in cream sauces it doesn't work as well. But you can make alfredo sauce and things like that using tofu to make it creamy instead... check the recipe index for a couple of tofu alfredo recipes! 
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"Anyone can exercise, but this kind of lethargy takes real discipline." -Garfield
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I use Silk soymilk and have found that regular vanilla is great for baking, and the very vanilla is great for smoothies and making hot cocoa, but I always keep a carton of unsweetened soy milk for cooking dinners. (There's plain and then there's unsweetened, not sure what the difference is to tell the truth but i don't like the taste of the plain)
I've never made a cream sauce but i imagine it would be close to the white sauce i use. Very easy, just add a couple tbsp of flour or cornstarch to about 3 cups of soy milk and bring to a boil while stirring. It will thicken when it reaches the boiling point. You can add breakfast sausage for Sausage Gravy over Biscuits or add leftover chopped chicken or turkey and serve it over toast for a quick meal. I use it the most in a homemade tuna casserole recipe i subbed together out of a few others. The unsweetened milk is essential for savory dinners though or they come out tasting way too sweet.
Hope this helps a little...i didn't cook that much until my IBS got really bad either and i remember how hard it is to get started. What really helped me was printing out the recipes i liked from the message boards and starting my own cookbook with a 3 ring binder and some plastic sheet inserts.
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