Sunday, January 4, 2009

TEMPEH BLITZ!

Over the last three days I've been converting dry soybeans into tempeh. It is a mixture of boiled soybeans and a fungus, Rhizopus oligosporus that is incubated for 24 hours. Tempeh is the richest vegetarian source of vitamin B12.

The second batch I blended the soybeans with 20% volume sesame seeds. These were 'unhulled' sesame, that I ran through a processor to break the seed coats open. Sesame of this kind is a rich source of calcium.

Third batch is a comparison between whole soybean tempeh and chopped fragmented soy tempeh.

So far I've prepared about three pounds of soybeans - at a cost of $2.50. Of course tempeh is tasty and best prepared when salted and fried in oil [I use canola] so there is some concern  that it might be too salty & greasy.

Whenever I get a digital camera, I will take pictures of the whole process.

1 comment:

Nick said...

Vitamin B12 is one of those nutrients that is hard to get in a vegetarian diet.
This website shows assays of vitamin B12

http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/plant

According to this tempeh doesn't have much B12, when they did find B12 in it, it was from the other bacteria present in it (the tempeh was rotting!)

Maybe to jazz up the B12 content of your tempeh you have to leave it sitting out until it gets REALLY stinky.