Oh, the wonderful things you can do with okara

You can whip up some pancakes
That’s what you can do.
You can stew up some soup,
You can soup up some stew.

You can add it to flour
to make muffins and cake.
Even scones and soufflés,
Oh the things you can make.

You can even make meat balls,
and sausage, and fish.
I could go on for pages
If that’s what you wish.

But where do you get it,
this marvelous stuff?
You make it yourself
and the stuff isn't tough.

Just start off with soybeans,
they're easy to get.
And soak them in water,
they love to get wet
and the longer they soak
the bigger they get.

They swell and they swell
till they're three times the size
they were at the start,
now they're fat little guys.

I hate what comes next,
it couldn't be fun,
to be put in a blender
and get chopped up and spun.
and your bones turn to soymilk
before it gets done.

But then to get boiled.
What a terrible thought.
To get dumped in a pot
and that pot it gets hot.
I wouldn't want that,
Oh no, I would not!

The milk is delicious,
but cows don't like it a bit.
Milk can't come from a bean
cause a bean's not a bit
like a cow, and they're
off in a snit.

The pulp is strained out
of the milk by the way.
And up until now it was all thrown away,
or fed to the cows
who were happy that way.


WE call it okara
when we use it to bake
those wonderful goodies
that great tasting cake
The sandwiches that I
take to the lake.

And the cows are contented
they don't mind what we do.
We eat the okara,
not beef in our stew,
and they know that most soymilk
is used for tofu.

Cal Smith