Yay! My first homemade tempeh!

And wow... it turned out sooooooooooo delicious! :-D

But I’d like to briefly describe how it went for me while making it and what I’ll do differently next time.

1. Soya beans: I used unhulled soya beans. Although I’m a very patient person, I found the process of hulling them too tedious and time-consuming. Even though a few remaining husks aren’t a problem at all and I did my best to suppress my tendency towards perfectionism: never again will I use unhulled soya beans ;-)

2. Dehydrator: As the mushroom needs a fairly constant temperature to ripen and my oven wasn’t suitable, I borrowed my dad’s dehydrator (which he won’t be getting back for a very long time ;)). When I first started it up, I was so excited that I relied a bit too blindly on the temperature display on the machine. Be sure to test beforehand how much your machine’s temperature fluctuates. My target temperature of 31–32 degrees was exceeded or fallen short of by up to 4 degrees, which can damage the tempeh and encourage unwanted bacteria. For the tempeh to turn out well, the temperature should be as constant as possible. I’ve solved the problem by only using the top shelves of the dehydrator from now on and using a biscuit tin lid as a heat insulator. I simply place the soya bean bag on top of it, as if on a plate. This way, the fluctuations are only around ±2 degrees.

3. Greyish patches in the tempeh: When I unwrapped my fully matured block of tempeh after about 30 hours, I immediately noticed a few light grey patches and feared it might be mould. However, from the literature and information provided by the Fabulous team, I now know that this is simply benign fungal spore formation. So it’s perfectly normal!

4. Preparation: I’ve served my tempeh both marinated and baked in the oven, as well as pan-fried. As it has a neutral flavour, it can be used as a meat substitute in almost any dish. There are endless recipes to try!

5. Storage: I kept some of the tempeh in the fridge for about 5 days and froze the rest. So whenever I get a craving... ?

Well, I hope you have fun and good luck!

Yours, Olivia :-)