Both black and yellow soybeans are available as uncooked dried beans and as canned beans. Black beans cook more quickly and have a more delicate flavor, but the nutrition profile is similar for both varieties. Green, immature soybeans, also called edamame, are a Japanese delicacy. They are boiled in salted water in their pod and then removed from the pod and served as a vegetable or snack. Miso, a fermented soybean paste, is an essential condiment in every Chinese and Japanese kitchen.
Soy milk is the liquid expressed from heated, soaked soybeans.
Soy nuts are soybeans which have been soaked and then roasted to produce a crunchy snack food or ingredient in salads and grain dishes. Soy sauce, also called tamari or shoyu, is a fermented salty liquid used as a condiment. Tofu is soybean curd. It is made by adding a curdling agent to soy milk, then pressing the curds together to form a block of tofu. Depending on the curdling agent used and the extent to which the curds are pressed, different types of tofu are produced.