Step by Step Instructions

Congratulation in taking the steps to make your own tempeh at home. Contrary to what you may think, the process is rather simple.

You only need these 3 Ingredients to make your very first tempeh at home:

  1. 300g or 1 cup of dry Soybean (we recommend non GMO, bio-dynamic or organic soybeans).
  2. Two tbsp white vinegar
  3. One tsp (3-5g) Tempeh Starter

With these ingredients above, you will get approximately 500g worth of tempeh.

By following the detailed step by step instructions below, you’ll be off to a great start. We use whole soybeans instead of split de-hulled soybeans (you can skip step 3-5 in this case). We show you how to do manual de-hulling process here, however, you can also choose to use other more efficient methods too if preferred.

  • Wash soybeans thoroughly and drain for 2-3 times.
  • Soak the dry soybean in a large container with plenty of water (3-5 cups cold water) overnight, at least 8 hours if you are using split soybeans or at least 16 hours for whole soy beans, before it’s ready for splitting & de-hulling process
  • Rinse & drain then re-fill with water and swirl. Give the beans a brief moment to settle then drain off the water and hulls into a colander in your sink. Repeat the process, occasionally knead and massage the beans until you have most of the hulls removed. Try to enjoy this process as it can take a while, I find it really useful for mindfulness practice.
  • Make sure all beans are split. It’s not possible to completely remove the hull, as long as most of it are removed. The remaining hulls t won’t affect the end result.
  • Give the de-hulled soy beans a final rinse & drain then transfer them to a large cooking pot.
  • Cover them with water and bring to boil
  • Reduce heat to medium and cook for approximately 30 minutes. The remaining hulls will gradually come up to the surface, you can scoop them off at this time.
  • Drain the water as much as you can then put them back on low heat to dry it further for 5-10 minutes until no leftover water in the pot. Constantly stir to avoid burning.
  • Turn off the heat & continue with step 2 in the drying process. This is where you use your hair dryer. Constantly flipping the beans & expose it to the hot air. This drying process is extremely crucial to avoid ending up with rotten tempeh so don’t skip it.
  • Let the beans cool down to body temperature. This should take about 5 minutes.
  • Mix the white vinegar in, and stir.
  • Then in goes the tempeh starter. You will need to mix the starter really well for good result. Stir the mixture in for at least 60 seconds, covering every corners and in different directions to make sure that it is all evenly distributed.
  • The mixture is now ready to go into your selected molds. You have a few different choices here, check out our blog post – Tempeh containers/moulds: which type do you prefer to use?
  • Our preferred medium is glass container. You can either divide into 2 smaller containers or 1 bigger container.
  • Cover the container with warm moist cloth and place it in your preferred incubator. The incubation time is between 24-36 hours (depending on the outside temperature & incubator type). You know it’s ready when all the soybeans are covered with a very dense white mycelium.
  • Moisten the cover cloth every few hours. You can reduce the frequency after the 1st 24 hours as the tempeh cake starts to produce it’s own heat.
  • The tempeh is now ready for consumption. For best result, refrigerate the tempeh cake for 1-2 hours before cutting.
  • Enjoy your delicious and fresh tempeh.