Data

Fermentation type: rhizopus oligosporus

Edible: yes, but see notes below

Tastiness: good

Recipe

• 563 g dry Austrian winter peas (Pisum sativum)
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp tempeh starter
• (optional) 1-2 tbsp of rice flour

Instructions

1. Soak the peas in water for at least 12 hours.
2. Sprout the peas until they have about a 1 cm long sprout (this took about 48 hours)
3. Peel the peas as well as possible.
4. Run the peas through a food processor to break them up a bit. A little goes a long way.
5. Boil the peas until they are al dente. This took about 20 minutes, including the time it took to reach boiling.
6. Add vinegar and mix well
7. Get the peas as dry as possible, I put them back in the pot on high heat and let them dry for a while
8. Let the peas cool down to ~35 degrees
9. Add the starter and rice flour and mix well
10. Put the peas in containers that have small holes in them. I use ziplock bags that I have made holes in with a toothpick. My bags fit ~300 g each.
11. Incubate at ~30-35 degrees for 24 hours
12. After 24 hours, consider moving the tempeh to a slightly cooler place - it should now be producing its own heat
13. After at most 36 hours, the tempeh should be ready. In this case it took about 30-32 hours.
14. Put the tempeh in the fridge or freezer

Pictures

Sprouted, processed and boiled

Packaged

Finished (whole block)

Finished (sliced)

Notes

This was based on my two previous failed attempts, see here and here.

This time, I was even more aggressive about removing the skins of the peas. After sprouting, I went through a specific step of trying to get as many of the skins off as possible. I also ran the peas through a food processor to break them up a bit.

I still had some problems with peas that stayed whole. They did not get soft enough from boiling and affected the texture of the tempeh.

This was not perfect, but it was an improvement on the previous version, and this was good enough that I am willing to serve it to other people.