Should the water used to soak red beans be poured away?

I believe that many people need to soak grains overnight before eating them. Especially soybeans and red beans, two common grain-free grains, people often like to soak them no matter what they are used for. Because studies have shown that soaked beans can make them taste better, but if you are soaking red beans, do you need to pour out the water that has been used to soak the red beans?

Removing the soaking water can improve the taste.

This is because, after soaking coarse grains and beans, the phytic acid, tannins, oxalic acid, anthocyanins, flavonoids, etc. in the skin will dissolve, and they all have more or less astringent taste. Excessive oxalate intake can also increase the risk of kidney stones.

First, while not soaking the beans may sound convenient, it actually takes longer. It only takes one or two minutes to soak the beans the night before, but you can make soy milk quickly after soaking; if you don’t soak the beans, the process after starting the soy milk maker will take a lot longer, and it will take a period of heating to promote the beans to absorb water and soften, which is actually more energy-consuming and time-consuming.

Therefore, from the perspective of low-carbon environmental protection, or from the perspective of saving time by drinking soy milk in the morning, it is obviously more beneficial to soak the beans.

Secondly, soaking the beans can increase the yield of pulp. Compared with not soaking, the yield of soy milk can be increased by 10% after soaking the beans for 12 hours, while the yield of dregs decreases. Within 12 hours, the longer the soaking time, the higher the pulp yield.

In other words, soaking the beans helps break up the tissues, making the soy milk finer and releasing the nutrients better. In terms of taste, soy milk made from soaked beans naturally tastes better.

Perhaps people wouldn’t mind if there was a little more or a little less soy milk. However, there will be obvious differences in the content of anti-nutritional factors in the soy milk made from soaked beans and unsoaked beans.

Traditionally, Chinese people soak the beans overnight before grinding them into soy milk. This is quite scientific and helps the body fully utilize the nutrients in the soy milk.

How to soak beans:

1. Soaking soybeans at room temperature of 20-25℃ for 12 hours will allow the soybeans to fully absorb water. Extending the soaking time will not produce better results.

2. However, in the summer when the temperature is high, soaking the soy milk at room temperature for 12 hours may lead to excessive bacterial growth, which will make the flavor of the soy milk worse.

Therefore, it is recommended to soak the beans in the refrigerator. Soaking beans in a 4℃ refrigerator for 12 hours is roughly equivalent to soaking them at room temperature for 8 hours. If you find 18 hours too troublesome, you can soak the beans in the refrigerator for 24 hours, which can achieve the best effect and is very convenient to operate.