Norah’s Tempeh

Ingredients

• 1 cup of dried Organic Soybeans
• 3/8 teaspoon of tempeh starter (if using the packet of pre-measured tempeh starter by Cultures of Health, you need to double the amount of soybeans to 2 cups)
• 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar/apple cider vinegar

Equipment: InstantPot of any capacity, quart-sized ziplock bag, 1 toothpick

1. Measure 1 cup of dried soybeans and soak in water overnight. They will expand to about three times their size so you can expect 3 cups of soaked soybeans which will fill a quart-sized ziplock bag. If you didn’t get to soak the soybeans, no problem, but you need to pressure cook them on ‘High’ for 40 minutes (see next step). 

2. Drain the whole soaked soybeans the next day and pick out any discolored ones. Place the soaked soybeans in the inner liner of an InstantPot and fill with water until the water line is about an inch above the submerged soybeans. Pressure cook on ‘High’ for 2 minutes; deselect the ‘Keep Warm’ function, and opt for natural release (let it come down from its pressurized state naturally).
3. After the floating pin of the InstantPot drops, open the appliance and carefully remove the inner liner containing the whole cooked soybeans in water. Using a strainer, transfer the soybeans into a big bowl of ice water to cool down. 
4. The whole soybeans will be exceptionally easy to split and dehull by hand. This will take less than an hour and is your opportunity to engage in some zen fermentation therapy. Dehulling removes the skins off the soybeans so that the tempeh spores can form a better mycelium that binds the split soybeans. While splitting and dehulling about 90% of the soybeans, periodically dispose of the skins by pouring the excess water from your bowl into another bowl. I donate the soybean skins and water to dry patches of grass in my backyard. 
5. Congratulations! Your soybeans are now fully cooked, split and dehulled. Arrange them in a single layer on top of a clean towel and let them dry for about 30 minutes. You can place another towel on the top of this layer of wet soybeans. The soybeans need to be fully dry to the touch before proceeding. 

6. Perforate a ziplock bag with a toothpick. Poke holes 1-inch apart throughout both sides of a quart-sized ziplock bag. 

7. Once the soybeans are dry, transfer to a dry big bowl and add 3/8 tsp of tempeh starter. Mix thoroughly for a couple minutes to evenly coat the dry soybeans. 

8. Scoop the dry soybeans into the perforated ziplock bag and seal it. Now lay it down as evenly flat as possible on a rack to ensure that oxygen is evenly accessible for both sides of your bag of tempeh. In AZ, I place it for some hours in my warm garage and when the bag shows heavy condensation, I bring it inside to continue fermenting at room temperature. The tempeh, at this point, generates its own heat and overheating will result in oversporulation aka black mold. The mycelium will initially appear as patches of white fuzz but will spread to cover and bind the soybeans. Once you see a few tiny black dots appearing, proceed to place the bag of tempeh in the fridge (keeps for about a week) or prepare for consumption.