In this video, we are going to be talking about five different and delicious ways that you can enjoy and repurpose
your okara,
which is the soybean pulp leftover from making homemade soy milk, and five different Japanese dishes that you're going to definitely
enjoy. Mottainaisurna! Don't be wasteful.
so in Japanese,
there's this phrase called Mottainai. Mottainai means to be wasteful and that's exactly what we do not want to do.
Konnichiwa. Pat Tokuyama here, creator of All Day I Eat Like a Shark and the Japanese Cooking Club where I help people learn how to make
plant-based Japanese food.
If this is your first time here, consider saying hello in the comments below as well as
subscribing and hitting the alarm bell if you want to see more plant-based Japanese cooking videos, kind of like this one today.
So as you may know, Okara is what's left over from making soy milk.
It's that mushy soybean pulp which has plenty of nutrition in terms of both fiber,
protein, some vitamins, and then some minerals, so it's got a lot going for it and you can reuse it in many different ways.
So the first way that I was going to share with you is one of my favorites and that is
hambagu. Hambagu is the Japanese pronunciation of hamburger and you might think
just from hearing that that it calls for beef or pork or something else. But in this case, we are talking about okara
hambagu. Okay, so okara hambagu
is actually made from a little bit of okara, a little bit of tofu, and maybe even some fresh shiitake mushrooms or
dashigara shiitake, which is shiitake mushrooms that have been used to make dashi, and it's very, very delicious.
It's one of my favorite ways to use
okara, and that's one of the reasons why it's first. And if you're interested in making it, I'm actually gonna be sharing a video which
may or may not be available in the description below right now,
which shows you exactly how you can make okara hambagu with the ingredients that I just told you about. And you might be very, very
surprised to find that it's quite delicious even more so than regular hambagu,
especially if you're not craving meat. And let me tell you about one time
I was in Japan. When I was in Kyoto, there's actually this place, I think it's still there today,
it's called Mumokuteki Cafe, and it's actually a cafe and they specialize in
Vegetarian Japanese food. And I think this is one of the first times that I had okara hambagu, and it was amazing.
Amazing. The entire
meal was vegetarian, of course, but the okara hambagu, and I was used to eating regular hambagu,
but this is the first time I had okara hambagu, and life-changing.
So this is probably the closest thing that I have been able to recreate in my own kitchen
that was kind of like what I ate in
Kyoto at that restaurant. I'd be curious to know what you think. And if you've ever had okara hambagu,
what did you put in it? Because there's a lot of different variations and recipes with which you can experiment and
repurpose your okara.
So my second favorite dish is unohana, which is actually,
it's a type of plant which the dish resembles, I guess, in terms of
its appearance.
So this is a flower in Japan and it kind of looks like-- I don't know how you'd say it, how to describe it.
But basically, this dish got its name from that flower because it sort of resembles the appearance of the flower. And
maybe if you saw them too, if you saw the two side-by-side,
which I'll show you right here, unohana here, the actual flower here, do they look the same?
I don't know. You tell me. But anyways, that's one of my favorite dishes because it's very nutritious.
Usually it calls for a little bit of dashi, a little bit of shoyu or soy sauce, and some
vegetables. And it's very filling and very nutritious, and also very tasty.
It's one of the savory ways that you can enjoy okara.
So if you've ever tried that dish, you may know what I'm talking about. And if you haven't yet,
maybe this is something you can give a try.
So the third dish that I was going to share with you is called korokke or also croquette in
English. And you may have had this before. It's actually a fried thing like morsel.
It's like a fried patty which has a panko on the outside and usually there's something like okara, potato,
kabocha is another filling, maybe even some minced meat. And it's very, very savory and it's kind of a comfort food.
It's not exactly the healthiest thing for you because it's deep fried.
You can also bake it, but it doesn't come anywhere near close to the actual deep-fried versions.
So that's something that you might also want to give a try if you're into
trying things and if you enjoy a good fried
dish or two every now and then. It's not gonna hurt you and then you'll know what I'm talking about. Korokke daisuki.
I love korokke. So the fourth dish that I was gonna share with you is also known as potato salad or potato sarada.
And there's a couple ways that you can make this. One is to do a
replacement or substitution of the potatoes in a traditional potato salad or Japanese-style potato salad.
So maybe you could do 25%
okara and maybe 75% potatoes, or you could do 50/50, which is my favorite ratio.
And your potato salad will taste quite
similar to the potato salad that it would have been if you use 100%
potatoes. Alternatively, you can do 100% okara and see how you enjoy that. Because okara has
already been extracted from a lot of its flavor components to make soy milk, it is very delicate in flavor and
tends to take on seasoning pretty easily, which is why it can be used in so many different ways.
And potato salad or okara sarada is one way that you can also enjoy
reusing your okara. The fifth way that you might want to repurpose
your okara is to use it in some sort of baked goods. So there are many different ways that
you can repurpose your okara.
You might have seen some of my videos on making okara cookies, as well as okara cake,
okara muffins, okara biscotti, and some of these other dishes that you can simply
put in a little bit of okara to add a little bit more
nutritional value, a little bit more protein and fiber, and a little bit more moisture and density.
That's what the okara will do to your baked goods
So those are a few examples of baked goods that I personally enjoy and I make every now and then with my okara.
You might be wondering if you have a bunch of okara, you're not exactly sure or ready to use it just yet,
how can you preserve it so that it doesn't go bad. Well, there's actually two different ways that you can preserve your okara
so that it maintains its freshness. And one is to freeze it. So, as soon as you're done making your soy milk, put it into a
freezer ziploc bag and freeze it. Try to use within a few weeks
so it doesn't get freezer-burned and it'll be as good as new. The second way is to
microwave it and dehydrate it completely
So this takes a little bit more work,
but the end result is going to be sort of like a panko,
which is like a Japanese bread crumb. The texture is going to be very crumbly, very dry,
and you can actually use it in a variety of baked goods or rehydrate it for something else.
So those are two ways that you can actually
preserve your okara if you're not ready to use it right away,
both of which I have tried and are very effective in maintaining the freshness.
So let me know what you guys think about that. If you have any other
ideas or tips,
suggestions for preserving your okara or
repurposing it for a Japanese dish or other
non-Japanese dishes, I'd be curious to see what you guys have experienced and what you've experimented with. Let me know in the comments below and
let me know if you're going to be trying one of these five dishes, which one you'll be trying first.
And in the next video
I'll be sharing with you a few of my favorite ways that you can actually use your freshly
homemade soy milk in Japanese cuisine, of course. So, see you then. I love korokke. Korokke, korokke, korokke.
daikoubutsu - it's one of my favorite foods. Can't eat too much of it though.
Yabe. Yabe.
