Crazy for Soy

Soy has gone glamorous. Certainly, Asian and vegetarian cooks know a thing or two to do with tofu, soy beans and soy milk. And health food cooks certainly haven’t abandoned it. But there’s something else out there--tofu conspiracy, or just soy luck?--that’s making us soy-aware.

For one thing, the word “tofu” is out and “soy” is in. “Soy,” after all, connotes not only white blocks of protein but the whole world of soy foods. Fresh soy beans, for instance. Once, they were seen only in sushi bars; now they’re popping up in hip restaurants, upscale supermarkets and on the covers of soy cookbooks.

Two of the newest soy cookbooks are “The Complete Soy Cookbook” by Paulette Mitchell (Macmillan, $17.95), which should be in stores next month, and “The New Soy Cookbook” (Chronicle Books, $17.95), by Lorna Sass, who is known to cooks for her pressure cooker books. Though both soy books work hard on finding new ways to cook with soy beans, tempeh, miso and soy milk, there are plenty of recipes for good old tofu too.