In America, I buy ready-made soyamilk. But when in India, I don't have that choice. So here is the recipe for home use (it is very time consuming and tedious, but we did it anyways during our last trip!):

Take one cup (8 oz.) of raw soy beans, inspect them thoroughly for removing pebbles, etc. foreign objects. Wash them 3-4 times. Let soak in 2-3 cups of water for overnight (or at least 8-10 hours). Then they should be soft, swollen and grindable. Again wash and inspect for removing the unswollen ones.

Now you grind them! Over and over, again and again! At least 5-6 times! Each time with 2-3 cups of new water. When you grind each time, they release milky white fluid. Each time you sieve them with a very thin clothe such as sari or dhoti. In the earlier batches, the fluid is enough thick to make ice cream out of it. But in the later batches it starts getting thinner. You use your judgment when to stop grinding any further.

Now you have a total of about 12-15 cups of milk! But it is not ready yet. It has smell and you need some taste and texture. Add about 15-20 cloves ("laving") to suppress the smell, and a little (about one teaspoon) of salt for taste. Then you bring it to a boil on stove and then continue for about 15 minutes more for texture. Don't forget stirring it with a large spatula otherwise it will settle and burn at the bottom (just like the cow's milk!). Now let it cool, and it is ready for consumption. The milk stays good for a few days in refrigerator. Both myself and my wife drink this milk. I also make ice cream (actually it should be called soy cream) out of this, and we love it. My wife makes tea also from it. We haven't got much success in making 'dahin' (yogurt) out of it yet, but we need more experiments. Again, in America, we can buy soy yogurt easily, so we have no pressing need for it.

Early this year we were there. Mostly we lived in Rajkot. But we went on a tour to Rajasthan for a week. At that time for the sake of convenience, my wife resorted to drinking cow's milk. But she wasn't happy!

Because, when we came back to Rajkot, upon getting back on the soyamilk, she thanked for the satisfactory feeling of taste!! It is difficult to believe, that now she actually preferred (not only for health and animal compassion cause, but also for taste) soyamilk over the cow's milk. I myself have remained a perfect vegan for all the past 7-8 years.

You can make milk from rice also. It is much easier. You don't even need special preparations. Just take the leftover cooked rice, throw them in grinder, and add some salt and sugar for taste. Grind well and sieve through the loin clothe. It is ready! Tastes different, but you can get used to it. And it is so convenient, because you always have cooked leftover rice with home cooking...

The soyamilk process is lengthy, but it is unbelievably economical! One cup of soy beans cost about 10 rupees. But you produce 3-4 liters of milk, that may be worth at least 100 rupees! The heart patients usually are wealthy people, so they won't care. But the non-heart patients, the poor ones, should care for this cheaper and healthier product. The rice milk is also similarly very cheap to make. However, both the processes need at least one food grinder, which may not always be affordable initially to the poorer ones. However, in long run, the cost of grinder also is recoverable if the whole family turns to this milk.

Someday somebody should start this as a business. It would be very profitable. And the cows and their babies would thank us for letting them live their lives as the nature intended