Our Products:

Smiling Hara specializes in not only traditional soy tempeh, but also many other cultured beans such as Yellow Split Peas, Black Beans, Black-eyed Peas and more. The process by which tempeh is made from these beans is similar to that of soy beans as well as the nutritional benefits.

What is Tempeh?

Tempeh(pronounced Tem-pay), or tempe in Indonesian, is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. Tempeh is unique amoung major traditional soy-foods in that it is the only one that did not originate in China or Japan. It originated in today’s Indonesia, and is especially popular on the island of Java, where it is a staple source of protein. Like tofu, tempeh is made from soybeans, but tempeh is a whole soybean product with different nutritional characteristics and textural qualities. Tempeh’s fermentation process and its retention of the whole bean give it a higher content of protein, dietary fiber, and vitamins. It has a firm texture and strong flavor. Because of its nutritional value, tempeh is used worldwide in vegetarian cuisine.

Nutrition:

The protein in tempeh becomes more digestible as a result of the fermentation process. In particular, the oligosaccharides that are associated with gas and indigestion are greatly reduced by the Rhizopus culture. In traditional tempeh making shops, the starter culture often contains beneficial bacteria that produce vitamins such as B12. In western countries, it is more common to use a pure culture containing only Rhizopus oligosporus which makes very little B12 and could be missing Klebsiella pneumoniae which has been shown to produce significant levels of B12 analogs in tempeh when present. Whether these analogs are true, bio-available B12, hasn’t been thoroughly studied yet.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about our products.