The Joy of Cooking

Getting high-protein, low fat food into your diet has never been easier, experts say.
By now the message seems pretty clear: Getting more soy into our diets can help improve your health.

For a variety of reasons, soy has been connected to cancer prevention and might fight symptoms of menopause and osteoporosis in women. Because it is low in fat and high in protein, often it is used as a meat substitute by vegetarians and people watching their weight.

The clamor for increasing soy in the diet has grown. There is substantial evidence that consuming 25 grams of soy protein daily can lower total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels. Easing soy into the diet also might reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, a claim the U.S Food and Drug Administration has allowed to appear on labels since the fall.

It adds up to great little package- if know what to do with it.
There are simple ways to incorporate soy foods into your diet. One of the easiest is to use soy milk. Stir it into cereal, pour it over cereal; blend it with fruit for breakfast drinks; use it in place of milk for puddings and pie fillings; add it to mashed potatoes. It can take the place of regular milk in most cooking and baking. Tofu can seem intimidating because it comes in a variety of styles, with consistencies ranging from almost as firm as cheese to silken and nearly liquid, almost like yogurt or mayonnaise.

Firm tofu an be cubed or crumbled and added to stews, stir-fries, soups or spaghetti sauces. Slice it ad cook it on the griddle, or use it in any dish for which it needs to hold up well in cooking. (Even firm tofu tends to be delicate, though, so handle it carefully.)

The softer tofus- the softest is called silken- can be curbed and stirred into dishes such as scrambled eggs, dips and dressings. Or use soft tofu as a substitute for mayonnaise.

Fresh tofu often is sold packed in water; it can be kept refrigerated, unopened, in it’s tub, although its a good idea to cover it with fresh water daily and store it in an airtight container. Firm tofu will keep a week or so, silken tofu only three days.

Miso, or soybean paste, is distinctive in soups, marinades and dressings. It is most commonly used as a seasoning in Asian cooking. It is very strong and salty, so a little goes a long way.

Soybeans themselves are becoming popular. “Edamame,” or soybeans in the shell, are showing up on appetizer menus. They’re popular in Asian restaurants. Fun to eat, tasty and high in protein, edamame are available in specialty and health food stores and some grocery stores.

Fresh soybeans are difficult to find but are sold in the odd organic food shop.

They can be used in soups. Or sprinkle them over salads. Dried and canned soybeans are sold in most health food stores.