History

I have been consuming an evolving variation of the recipe for the last three years for around 90% of all meals. The goal was to have a recipe that was tasty and versatile enough to not get boring, but at the same time, easy to make.

A recent change was to use guar gum in addition to the xanthan gum to add body. The combination work better together than each by themselves. The combination of the two allows the recipe to use half the total amount of gums for the same result. Gums are a black hole for flavor, so reducing the total amount of gums also reduces the amount of flavorings and sweeteners needed.

Ingredients

Each one of the macronutrients are in redundant groups of at least three. A particular ingredient may fail to have the proper nutrition levels due to processing, source issues, or aging. The reasoning is the others within the group will act as a backup.

A jupyter notebook using the scipy linear optimizer is used to balance the proportion of the protein sources to ensure that there is a good margin for all essential amino acids, macro/micro nutrients and key constraining nutrients.

Flaxseed is used to level the ω-6:ω-3 ratio closer to 2:1 in the fats macronutrient group. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is added as a preservative for the ground flaxseed. Flaxseed will quickly go rancid after being ground otherwise.

Wheat bran provides insoluble fiber. The other fiber sources; flaxseed, oat, corn, and barley flour, provide a lot of fiber, but mostly in the soluble form.

Lecithin is used to provide choline and also to act as an emulsifier for the liquid fats. Choline Bitartrate also provides a backup choline source and increases the level recommended from ASU

The alpha-galactosidase enzyme, aka Beano is more of a safety-net. A few recipes back, the protein levels were much higher. The Beano did it's work very well then, but may not be needed anymore.

Preparation

A two-week's supply of soylent is about the right volume to mix in a 20 l / 5 gal bucket. Measure amounts on a digital scale in a very large bread mixing bowl (large enough to hold about 3 kg of flour) and put it into the bucket for mixing.

A spreadsheet calculator for mixing a batch for number of days you want of the mix comes in handy. Just replace the "Days to Mix" number with the number of days you want to mix for your batch size.

Useful Tips:

• Granulated Lecithin is difficult to dissolve. Preprocess the granules into a powder using a blender first. I've used a Vitamix with a "Dry Grains" mixing container with good results
• Flax Seed will quickly go rancid once ground. Grinding the flax seeds the day before use and storing the rest whole limits the exposure to oxygen.

The ingredient mixing order:

• Oil Powder Ingredients
  • Mix the oil and lecithin together and heat in a microwave just enough to allow the lecithin to dissolve, which should be no higher than 40°C
  • Add the Xanthan and Guar Gum powder and the ascorbic acid to the oil and thoroughly combine. I use a stand mixer to do the work.
  • Add the rest of the Oil Ingredients (the green section of the spreadsheet ingredient list), and lastly, add the Wheat Bran to the oil mixture and blend. This produces the "powdered" form of the only liquid ingredient
• Dry Ingredients
  • Flaxseed will clump together while processing. Combine the flaxseed half-and-half with the measured barley flour during processing to avoid clumping. A Vitamix "Dry Grain" mixing container works great while working in smaller batches of ~100 ml.
  • Add the dry ingredients into a 20 l / 5 gal bucket in any order. Also add the above powdered oil ingredients into the mixing bucket
• Pill Ingredients
  • Blend the pill quantities calculated from the above spreadsheet in a small coffee grinder into a fine powder, but without overheating the contents, and beware of breathing the dust.
  • Weigh the remaining non-pill vitamin components on a digital scale and add to the mixing container
  • Give the contents of the mixing container a brief mixing with a stirrer. The Gamma lid has a honeycomb of crevices which will trap the material at the top of the bucket. A brief pre-mix keeps your pill contents from being lost or poorly mixed.

Mixing Method

The following worked well for mixing a 14 day supply of soylent:

• Add a mixing "fin" made of 2 cm x 2 cm angled aluminum to the inside of a 20 l / 5 gal bucket to stir the contents. Also add a "Gamma Seal" top (see attached images).

• Add unmixed soylent to the bucket, seal the top tightly. Place in a clothes dryer along with enough rolls of paper towels to securely hold the mixing container in the center of the dryer, with the axis of the bucket co-linear with the axis of the dryer.
• Run the dryer on tumble mode (NO heat) for at least 30 minutes. Use the time waiting for mixing to clean up the awful mess you made while preparing the soylent.
• Vacuum seal 900 ml of soylent into 1 l glass Mason jars, approximately 400 g per jar, and store jars in a freezer

Notes

• V9.2.1
  • Keeping the 9.2 recipe and adding ascorbic acid as a preservative with no extra adjustments