Homemade Tempeh
Time Soaking: 12 hours Prep: 2 hours Fermentation: 24 hours Difficulty 4/5 Ingredients 4 Steps 13
Tempeh is a traditional Indonesian food made from soybeans. It is a fermented food, utilising a special type of mould that forms a cake. When fresh, tempeh has a nice mushroom-like smell and flavour.
Ingredients
- 400 grams (14 ounces) dried soybeans
- Water
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon tempeh starter (or ragi tempe)
Steps
- Cover soybeans with water. Soak overnight or at least 12 hours.
- Remove hulls by rubbing beans between both hands (see notes).
- Skim off most hulls by washing away or with skimmer or strainer. Some hulls may remain.
- Cook beans until just tender, not mushy; undercooked is best (see notes).
- Drain beans. Spread to dry somewhere with airflow (see notes).
- Collect beans in bowl. Mix in cider vinegar to acidify slightly and inhibit spoilage organisms.
- Sprinkle tempeh starter over beans. Mix in well (see notes).
- Pack beans loosely into banana leaves, zip-lock bags or shallow dishes. Puncture zip-lock bags at roughly 1 cm (½ inch) intervals for oxygen.
- Load into incubator, preferably on racks for air circulation. An electric oven with light on works as incubator.
- Incubate about 12 hours at around 30–35°C (86–95°F) with heat source, unless already that hot.
- After 12 hours, remove or turn off heat source; fermenting beans make their own heat and may overheat.
- Monitor periodically. Remove when beans are totally consumed by fluffy white tempeh with no gaps.
- Serve straight away, refrigerate two to three days, or freeze up to two months.
Notes from the original
- Tempeh can be made from almost any legume (beans, chickpeas, split peas), most grains, and some nuts. Soybeans are probably one of the cheapest beans to use, but more flavoursome beans make more flavoursome tempeh!
- Tempeh can also be made from okara, the presscake left over from making soy milk and tofu. In Indonesia, this is called tempe gembus.
- There are many ways to remove the hulls or skins from the beans, including:
- cracking dried beans in a grain mill and winnowing to remove hulls
- grinding soaked beans in hands
- rubbing soaked beans between both hands
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Homemade Tempeh” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-06-19, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Tempeh fava.jpg by Webaware, Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.