Soybean

Soja

What it is

Domesticated in China more than three thousand years ago, and almost nothing about it is eaten as a bean — it becomes tofu, miso, soy sauce, oil and animal feed. Fresh in the pod it is edamame, which is the exception.

In the kitchen

Dried soybeans must be boiled hard and long — they contain trypsin inhibitors that raw or gently cooked beans retain.

Goes with

Soy sauce Miso Sesame Ginger Spring onion Garlic Chili pepper Tamari

Same species

Chunjang Dark soy sauce Doenjang Douchi Edamame Fermented bean curd

Also used with

Barley koji Glucono delta-lactone Nigari Koji spores (tane-koji) Calcium sulfate Rice koji

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