Dairy & Eggs

Soy Milk

Soy milk is nutritionally the closest common plant milk to dairy milk, notably in protein content, since soybeans are naturally high in protein, unlike almond or oat milk, which are considerably lower.

It's one of the oldest plant-based milks in continuous use, with roots in East Asian cuisine going back well over a thousand years, long predating the recent Western wave of plant-milk alternatives.

Its protein content lets it curdle with heat and acid somewhat similarly to dairy milk, a property used deliberately in tofu-making, giving it an edge in recipes relying on that kind of protein reaction.

Traditional soy milk production involves soaking, grinding, and boiling whole soybeans, then straining out the fibrous pulp left behind, called okara — rather than discarding it, many East Asian kitchens repurpose okara into its own dishes, using it in stir-fries, patties, or baked goods rather than treating it as pure waste.

Hot, freshly made soy milk (doujiang) paired with a fried dough stick (youtiao) is a classic Chinese breakfast combination, served at street stalls and breakfast shops across China in a savory-and-sweet pairing quite different from soy milk's more familiar cold, carton-packaged role in Western grocery stores.

Soy milk was the dominant plant milk in the US health-food movement of the 1970s and 80s, well before almond and oat milk rose to prominence more recently — its early popularity was driven largely by its protein content and its role as a base ingredient for making tofu at home.

Commercial soy milk in the West took shape in the early-to-mid 20th century through pioneers like Harry Miller, a doctor and food scientist who worked to develop and promote soy milk products for people with dairy allergies, laying groundwork for the plant-milk industry decades before oat and almond milk became household names.

Soy milk is one of the few plant milks whose protein content lets it curdle usefully under heat and an acid or coagulant, the exact reaction used deliberately to turn it into tofu — a bit of nigari or gypsum added to hot, freshly made soy milk causes the proteins to separate from the liquid, and the resulting curds are pressed into blocks of varying firmness, a process with no real equivalent using almond, oat, or rice milk, none of which carry enough protein to set into a solid curd the same way.

Because of that same protein content and relatively neutral flavor, soy milk is often the plant milk recommended first to someone switching away from dairy for the first time, since it comes closer to matching dairy milk's role in a recipe, in coffee, and in general nutrition than a thinner, lower-protein alternative typically does.

Some brands offer a slightly sweetened "original" version alongside an unsweetened one, and the difference matters more in soy milk than in some other plant milks specifically because its naturally beany, more assertive flavor compared to almond or oat milk is something a touch of added sweetness can noticeably soften, which is part of why plenty of first-time buyers prefer the sweetened version over unsweetened.