Make Tempeh in Your Instant Pot!
Fresh tempeh right out of the Instant Pot!
In my quest to eliminate plastic packaging from our food, one item eluded me—tempeh! I’ve figured out firm tofu, silken tofu, soy milk, yogurt, and more, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do that with tempeh. Every reference I found said to ferment the tempeh in plastic zip lock bags. Some said to use banana leaves to avoid plastic, but banana trees don’t grow in Seattle so the only leaves I can get come in plastic bags from an Asian market freezer!
Then I watched a video from Love Your Belly Foods. They made their chickpea tempeh in a 9×13 glass baking dish, no plastic bag, no banana leaves! While they used a seed starting mat to ferment their tempeh, I wondered if I could do that in the Instant Pot, like I do to make my yogurt. I’d seen people making tempeh in ziplock bags in the Instant Pot, so I figured it was conceivable. Well…it works! You can make plastic-free tempeh in your Instant Pot! (Disclaimer, there is a little mylar plastic bag for the innoculant, but that’s significantly less plastic than when I buy tempeh at the store.)
It takes several days to make tempeh, but OMG, it makes the best tempeh you have ever tasted! I’m not kidding, we ate it right out of the Instant Pot when it was done, even before cooking with it! Its so worth making!
The Set Up
Here’s what you need:
- An Instant Pot or other electric pressure cooker with the Yogurt setting (any of the Duo line, Viva, Ultra, Smart WiFi, or Max). Some Instant Pots don’t have the Yogurt setting and it’s necessary for this.
- A trivet that fits in the bottom to hold your pans over water. I use the one that came with my Instant Pot.
- Pans that fit inside the Instant Pot. My two 8¼-inch hand-me-down cake pans from my grandmother fit perfectly! You can buy stacking pans made to go into the Instant Pot but I’m all for using what you have.
- Something to stack the pans, if you’re doing more than one pan of tempeh at a time (this recipe makes two 8¼-inch pans of tempeh, so halve the recipe if you don’t want to stack pans). I didn’t have another trivet, so I cut two bamboo skewers to fit to make a platform over the bottom pan. They worked great!
- Tempeh starter culture. (More on that in a bit)
Soaking and Pre-fermenting the Soybeans
I decided to use whole soybeans for my tempeh. You can use all kinds of different beans and even grains, but I started with traditional soy tempeh. Love Your Belly Foods suggested a long soak before cooking your beans for tempeh so that they have an additional ferment to make them even more digestible and more flavorful. I soaked 2½ cups of dried soybeans in water for 2 days and they started to grow a little sprout, which is great! Sprouted beans and grains are much more digestible. They should be soaked for at least 12 hours. Use a big bowl with lots of water as the beans will expand!
Hull the Soybeans
Hulls from the soaked soybeans.
After soaking, the outer skin, or hull, loosens up. It’s the same thing as the skin on the outside of a soaked or cooked chickpea. It’s kinda fibrous and doesn’t make for great tempeh, so we want to remove as much as we can. Use your hands to massage the soaked beans to loosen the hulls and pull those off to compost. A lot of people find this part tedious, but I just kinda zenned out and enjoyed it. You don’t have to get every single hull off, just get what floats loose. If you don’t want to have to hull the soybeans, you can start with split and peeled soybeans instead of whole ones.
You can see the little sprout.
Cook the Soybeans
Cover with water in your Instant Pot.
Drain and rinse your beans really well and pour into your Instant Pot. Cover the beans with fresh water and cook on High Pressure for 40 minutes with a natural pressure release.
Drain the cooked soybeans really well and then spread out onto towels to dry. You can pat them off with towels and leave to dry off for about 30 minutes or use a hair dryer on low to speed up the process. It’s important that the soybeans are dry.
Drying the cooked soybeans. These are still damp and need a little more time.
Adding the Starter Culture
Roughly mash some of your soybeans.
Once your soybeans are dry, put them into a bowl and cool until lukewarm (about 95-98°F). Add 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, or other light-flavored vinegar, and mix well so it’s well-incorporated. Then use a potato masher and mash so about half of the beans are mashed. This helps the tempeh culture get into the soybeans.
Half mashed soybeans. Perfect!
Then sprinkle with tempeh starter culture (the packet I use has about 1-1½ teaspoons of starter in it) and mix well so that the starter is completely distributed throughout.
I use tempeh starter from Northwest Ferments which I can get with my Azure Standard order.
This is the starter I use, from Northwest Ferments.
Set up in the Instant Pot
Now divide the prepared soybeans into your two pans that fit inside your Instant Pot. Pack the beans well with a spatula into a firm cake. You want about a 1-inch thick cake, the thickness you’re used to buying.
When cooked, 2½ cups of dried soybeans yields the perfect amount for 2 8-inch cake pans.
Put a cup of water in the bottom of the Instant Pot and then your trivet. Put in the first pan, then top with a trivet or bamboo skewers.
This first pan is on a trivet over a cup of water.
Carefully place the second pan on top, set right on the bamboo skewers, or second trivet, if you have one.
Second pan goes right on top.
Put on the lid. The vent position doesn’t matter.
This next step is important. You need to put the Instant Pot into Less Yogurt Mode. Plug in the Instant Pot and hit the Yogurt button three times so it’s set on “Less.” Set the timer for 36 hours. Yep, it will actually go that many! It’s going to take about 36-48 hours to grow the mycelium throughout your soybeans to turn it into tempeh. You definitely want to time this for when you aren’t planning on needing the pressure cooker for a bit.
Make sure you use LESS yogurt mode!
Incubating the Tempeh
And now you just walk away and let it do its thing!
16 Hours
After 16 hours, white fuzz just starts to appear:
16 hours in, you can just barely see fuzzy white mycelium.
24 Hours
Lots more fuzz at 24 hours!
At this point I carefully rotated the pans from top to bottom as they were progressing at different rates.
31 Hours
Lots of fuzz!
One of my skewers slipped and pressed into the tempeh, but its all good. Do be careful not to drip water that collects under the Instant Pot lid onto the growing mycelium, it hinders its growth. The bare spots are where I dribbled water on the developing tempeh. Do rotate the pans occasionally if you see one pan growing faster than another.
36 Hours Later—And Its Done!
Beautiful tempeh!
The mycelium grew thick and lush, except for the spots where I dripped water from the lid and the bamboo skewer fell in. There’s still mycelium under the surface holding it all together.
I was concerned that the tempeh would stick to the cake pan. I ran a knife around the edges, set the cutting board on top and flipped it over—it came right out beautifully, completely intact.
Running a spatula around the edge.
Sliced fresh tempeh!
It was so good that we ate a bunch right off the cutting board! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never liked the taste of raw tempeh I’d bought at the store. This is delicious, tender, and sweet.
Blackened tempeh.
We added some of my Blackening Seasoning and cooked them up for Blackened Tempeh Tacos.
Blackened Tempeh Tacos on Spinach and Sweet Potato Tortillas.
This made two big rounds of tempeh, way more than we usually buy. Your fresh tempeh will last about 4 days in the refrigerator unless you pasteurize it (described next). So I put one chunk into a glass freezer container and popped it in the freezer for later. Tempeh freezes beautifully, up to six months. Simply move the dish into the refrigerator and use within a day or two (don’t refreeze it).
You can pasteurize your tempeh to keep it from continuing to ripen in the refrigerator. This will keep it more sweet and prevent the growth of any other microorganisms that may have gotten into your tempeh. To do this, before removing the tempeh from the pans when you take them out of the Instant Pot, cover them with an oven-safe lid and bake for 30 minutes at 180°F. Cool and refrigerate. This will extend the time you can keep the tempeh in the refrigerator up to 7 to 14 days.
So is it worth spending five days on making tempeh? HECK YEAH! Most of the time is hands-off, so it’s not time-consuming. The only down-side is not being able to use the Instant Pot for 3 days. This is the best tasting tempeh I’ve ever had, and its guilt-free without all the plastic! Give it a try and let me know how it goes for you.
**Update**
You can watch Cindy demonstrate how to make this tempeh in this class during Bellingham Veg Fest!
I’m planning on trying some other beans and even some grain combinations to share!
Tempeh in Your Instant Pot
Ingredients
- 2½ cups soy beans whole or split
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar rice wine vinegar, or other light vinegar
- 1 packet tempeh starter Northwest Ferments or other brand, about 1-1½ teaspoons
Instructions
- Soak soybeans in a large bowl with lots of water for at least 12 hours, up to 48.
- Massage the soaked beans in water and remove as much of the outer hulls as you can. If using split soy beans, skip this step as they have already been de-hulled.
- Pour de-hulled soybeans into the Instant Pot and cover with fresh water. Set for 40 minutes at High Pressure and do a natural pressure release.
- Drain the cooked soybeans thoroughly and spread onto towels to dry. Leave to dry 30 minutes or use a hairdryer on low to speed things up.
- Put dried cooked beans into a bowl, cool to lukewarm (95-98°F). Add vinegar and mix thoroughly.
- Mash soybeans with a potato masher until half of the beans are mashed.
- Sprinkle tempeh starter over and mix well so it is evenly distributed.
- Divide prepared soybeans into two pans that fit inside your Instant Pot. Pack down well with a spatula into a firm cake, about 1 inch thick.
- Add 1 cup of water into the Instant Pot and install a trivet. Place the first pan in, install a second trivet or bamboo skewers trimmed to fit over the first pan, then place the second pan on top.
- Put the lid on the Instant Pot, vent in any position. Plug in the Instant Pot and hit the Yogurt button three times until it displays "Less." Set the timer for 36 hours.
- Let the tempeh incubate for 24-36 hours. Rotate the top and bottom pans to even out mycelium growth. Take care not to drip water from the Instant Pot lid when removing it.
- Tempeh is done when it is fully covered with a thick layer of mycelium. Remove from pan and refrigerate up to fours days or freeze for 6°months.
Notes
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Cindy wants you to be Trimazing—three times better than amazing! After improving her health and fitness through plant-based nutrition, losing 60 pounds and becoming an adult-onset athlete, she retired from her 20-year firefighting career to help people just like you. She works with people and organizations so they can reach their health and wellness goals.
Cindy Thompson is a national board-certified Health and Wellness Coach, Lifestyle Medicine Coach, Master Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator, Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Behavior Change Specialist, and Fit2Thrive Firefighter Peer Fitness Trainer. She is a Food for Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional, and Harvard Medical School Culinary Coach, teaching people how to prepare delicious, satisfying, and health-promoting meals.
She provides health and lifestyle coaching at Trimazing! Health & Lifestyle Coaching. Cindy can be reached at info@trimazing.com.
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Wow, Cindy, that sounds great. I had a few questions.
* I occasionally cook with fava beans and have problems removing the skins; do the skins come out easier from well soaked soybeans?
* For my homemade soymilk, I use Laura’s soybeans. We prefer organic, but when I started making my own milk a year or two ago, I read in a number of places that Laura’s soybeans are the best and that they do minimal spraying and no spraying after the crops germinate. However, we’ve found organic soybeans locally and have been using them; the Laura’s does come out better, but the ones we’ve found recently still make good milk. Do you have any recommendations on the kinds of soybeans that work well for tempeh?
* Are there alternatives for tempeh starter or is the starter quite specific? I know that there are different kinds of tempeh like hemp and chickpea, so perhaps there are different starters. If I could use my soy yogurt I make in the Instant Pot, that would be great, but I bet it’s a very different kind of culture.
* It looks like just doing one pan would work fine, no?
I’ve never even thought of making my own tempeh, but maybe I should! I also don’t like it raw but love it cooked. My elementary school-aged daughter enjoys tofu but not tempeh, but maybe she’d like this. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for you questions, Dilip!
1. Yes, the soybean skins are easier to remove than fava beans. These are more akin to chickpea skins and really loosen with soaking. After soaking, you drain, add new water and agitate the soaked beans with your hands, just dunking your hands in, massaging the beans by squeezing handfuls and releasing, and a lot of the skins come right off. They kind of float and you pull them off. I do this massage and removal of floating skins about four times and then remove a handful of beans at a time, grab and discard any loose skins, and put those beans in the Instant Pot for cooking. You don’t have to get all the skins off, it’s ok. Some more skins will come off when cooked in the Instant Pot, and you’ll pull those out after draining as well.
2. I use certified organic soybeans from Azure Standard, a drop ship bulk supplier (you can read more about my experience using Azure Standard here), because I can get a 25 pound paper sack from them. They have worked well for me for soy milk, firm and silken tofu, and tempeh.
3. The starter is specific. Tempeh is cultured with the rhizopus fungus (either Rhizopus oryzae or R. oligosporus), regardless of the type of bean or grain you are using. It is very different than yogurt culture, which is bacteria-based (bifidobacterium, lactobacillus, etc.). As the rhizopus fungus grows in the tempeh, other fungi, yeasts, and lactobacillus bacteria grow as well, making tempeh a fungal ferment. Yogurt culture will not make tempeh, it is very specific. I like NW Ferments tempeh culture, because it’s from my local area, but it is also available nationwide.
4. Yes, one pan would work, however, you don’t want the tempeh over 1″ thick (think typical store-bought tempeh thickness), as the density blocks oxygen and can inhibit fungal growth to an anaerobic state in the center. You may have to change the amounts of beans, vinegar, and culture to accommodate one pan. I tend to make a bunch of something at a time and freeze the excess to maximize output and minimize time! There was space in the Instant Pot for two pans, so I used it. But it’s not necessary to make that much if you don’t want to.
We thought it was much better tasting than store-bought. I typically steam or simmer commercial tempeh before using, which helps assuage that raw flavor. This we could eat right out of the Instant Pot before cooking. I hope you try it!
I’d like to make tempeh with white beans. Would the instant pot recipe be different? Also what is a trivet?
Hi Nancy! I’ve not used white beans but it should work. You just may need to adjust the cook time on the soaked beans because you don’t want them fully cooked soft, more al dente. The trivet can be the wire stand that came with your Pressure cooker that fits inside the pot, like this:
Cindy, Thank you so much for these clear, concise directions for using the IP for tempeh. I followed them and now have 2 beautiful and delicious rounds of tempeh. Who knew it was so easy?! I bought 2 silicone 8″ cake pans, and used the 2 IP trivets that I have. When they were finished I pasteurized one of the rounds. I made some tempeh bacon, and today will make a tempeh sloppy Joe. I can’t wait to try this with other types of beans, too. Thank you!
That’s so wonderful to hear, Laura! Thank you for letting me know how it went and I’m excited to hear how your foray into other beans goes as well!
Thanks for the idea! My IP is never available that long, but maybe have to get a smaller one for backup and tempeh inoculation! One way to eliminate the little Mylar bag is to make your own starter just like you would with soy yogurt etc. Basically grow some tempeh until spares are mature, slice, dry, powder, mix with some rice flour, use!
Do you get good results with this? How much do you need to go to spore?
Hi Cindy, I want to start my IP today, the beans are de-hulled and ready to cook! I’m just wandering, normally I cook soybeans not more than 20 minutes (soaked) with NR. So 40 minutes seems a bit long. Is there a special reason for this? Thnx!
No special reason, it’s just the time that it takes in my Instant Pot with the soybeans I use. Try 20 minutes with yours, there can be some variability between beans and devices. If that works, awesome! If not, do a second time in the Instant Pot. I’m so happy you’re making tempeh!
I love this recipe. Definitely worth to try, I used the old traditional way version making it
Hi Cindy!
Thank you SO much for your recipe without using plastic! I made tempeh for the very first time following it and was thrilled with the result although not perfect. Please advise on the following couple of points:
1)After pressure cooking the beans for 40 mins and allowing for depressurization my beans were soft. I believe this must be part of the problem why I only have a white coating on the surface of my tempeh. I am at sea level so should I cook the beans for less time?
2) Am I packing the beans down too hard? Do you mean lightly pack down not squash?! 😀 Is this preventing the mold from spreading throughout the tempeh? Alternatively, should I increase the 36 hours?! I already have a beautiful white film completely covering the surface.
Although delicious my end product is not hard enough to cut into strips. It’s a delicious kind of paste that’s wonderful on sourdough bread.
Thanks in advance!
Plant-based fanatic
Hi Ana!
1. Try cooking your beans for less time. Mine take 40 minutes, but others take less. I don’t know if it’s the dried beans I have or my elevation which cause the variability, but both can change cooking time.
2. Don’t squash the beans in. You want to lightly pack down but not smoosh them. There needs to be small spaces for the fungus to grow into. It shouldn’t be a paste.
Sounds like decreasing bean cooking time and lightly packing the beans into the trays will be the trick for you! Let me know how it works!
Hi Cindy, I love your tutorial here and am brand new to making tempeh. I was happy to excited to find that I could use my IP and the the IP stacking insert pots that I already have. I have attempted 2 batches at this point, but unfortunately I have struggled to get my beans fully set both times. They seem to set at the top and somewhat at the edges, but not all the way through (I have ended up with very loose/crumbly tempeh both times. I’ve pretty much followed your recipe exactly, except that both times I’ve let my tempeh culture much longer than 36 hours, because it wasn’t set at 36 hours. I’ve let it go almost 4 days both times without seeing significant setting up. Do you think that I should let it go longer? I’m hoping that you might have some suggestions for things that I might try tweaking. I am using tempeh starter from Cultures for Health. Also I live at altitude (over 10,000 feet in CO). I wonder if that might be slowing down it’s growth? Thanks in advance for any ideas you might have. I really would love to find some success making my own tempeh and I’d really prefer to do it without plastic.
Hi Gita, you are the second person who has contacted me regarding difficulty culturing tempeh using Cultures for Health tempeh starter. I have never used that brand and am also at 1,000 feet, so it may be either or both of those variables. I recommend contacting Cultures for Health regarding your issues as I think they may have more information for you. The other person switched to NW Ferments tempeh starter and that fixed their issue…
Hi Cindy – I’m attempting homemade tempeh for the first time. The beans are soaking! I have stacking pans for my IP – does the tempeh need air circulation between the pans as with your skewer method, or can I just stack them and put on the lid to avoid having condensation drip in? Thanks!
I think you’ll be just fine. I use the skewers as my pans are nesting and the top one would fall into the bottom one. Stacking pans would be great!
Thanks for the reply – for you nesting pans could you put the smaller pan on the bottom?
My main question is is it ok to have lids on? Will this inhibit growth? Does the mold need air circulation? Since your instructions say the vent position doesn’t matter, I’m guessing lids are OK. Thanks!
My nesting pans are the exact same size, they are cake pans that happen to fit into each other. Tempeh needs a little bit of ventilation, but a loose lid or a larger pan set on top of a smaller pan would be fine. Most people make tempeh in zipper top bags with some holes poked in them, so they don’t need a lot of ventilation. I’ve also seen GAIA clay sprouters used to incubate tempeh, and they have lids that set on top too.
Thank you . Just wanted to say altitude counts making soybean stuff. At higher altitudes it is almost impossible to cook soybeans without a pressure cooker. Also dried soybeans will keep forever (decades) and taste fine but take longer to cook.
I did the Instant Pot Yogurt LESS setting wrong for my first try at tempeh. I could see it was getting too hot, so I removed it and reread your instructions. I was worried I had killed off all the starter, so I just dumped another packet on the black beans. Let’s see what happens…!
Oh darn! I’ve had my Instant Pot on the wrong heat level for things as well. I think letting the bean mixture cool back down and adding another starter packet should work! Fingers crossed.
Question: I don’t have an IP but thought I would use my stove-top pressure cooker. Without a yogurt setting, what if I put a heating pad in a cooler and placed 1/2 recipe in one cake pan on heating pad? Using a thermometer, what temperature should it remain?
Great question, Sue Ann. I’ve never made tempeh any other way, however, there is a great book out there, Miso, Tempeh, Natto & Other Tasty Ferments: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fermenting Grains and Beans by Kirsten Shockey that would be a great resource for that. I highly recommend her books.
This is fascinating, and I am eager to try it. My Instant Pot does not have a dedicated yogurt setting (I make yogurt using the sous vide setting, and I can set the temperature I want for culturing the yogurt, usually 115 F.) Do you happen to know what the “less yogurt” temperature is on your pot?
That’s great, Jennifer! I didn’t know about the sous vide settings on some Instant Pots. The ideal temperature for culturing tempeh is between 85-90 degrees F, so if you can set your sous vide for that range, it’d be great!
Your step-by-step instructions are different from your recipe card on the amount of soy beans and the starter. The instructions mentioned 2.5 cups soy beans, but also 2 cups soy beans on different occasions. You also mentioned 1 packet of starter equivalent to 1 tsp starter, but in the recipe card it says 1.5 tsp. Could you please clarify?
Fixed! The photo caption was missing the “1/2” from 2-1/2 cups of beans. Starter culture packets have 1 to 1-1/2 teaspoons of starter in them.
Been making Tempeh on and off for 5 years, trying different ways and using other equipment. Not always successful. I went though your clear instructions and my first batch has turned out to be one of the best I have made. I used fresh beans and starter and did the long soak. I have two instant pots and I’m keeping one just for this now I have found this recipe.
That’s fantastic, Phil! Thank you for sharing and enjoy your tempeh!
Hi Cindy, Are you using water in the bottom of the pot or just doing it without? This is not clear, as some recipes for instant pot tempeh tell you to use water and some say don’t. I woud think the water would cause a ton of condensation on the lid to drip down on the beans etc.
Yes, as in the post and the recipe, I add 1 cup of water in the bottom of the Instant Pot.
I tried putting my IP yogurt setting on to “Less” but it goes: High, Normal, Boil. And there is no way I can reach the Less setting. Any clues?
There are many different models of Instant Pot and I haven’t used them all. I recommend that you call their help line for your specific model. You can find the number at the bottom of the page at this link: https://instantpot.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/InstantPotTroubleShooting.pdf
It worked! Thank you for testing this out for us.
I used pinto beans and forgot the directions, so ended up cooking them in their skins, but it worked out fine — simply mixed all the starter and vinegar together w them and did a tad of mashing. Didn’t remove skins.
Used a sachet of Cultures for Health, which said that they were best by November 2023, but they worked fine for me.
Incubated in the IP for a little longer than 72 hours. So fun.
Do you really have to heat it up for 36 hours in the Instant Pot? I read that the tempeh produces it’s own heat after 12-18 hours, and in my first try (in the oven) it did produce in fact it’s own heat. Could leave it on the counter after that. But I want to try it in IP to see if I get a better result (it has a tendency to overheat in the oven).
Try it and see.
Good day,
New to make our own tempeh.
Is it really 40 minutes at high pressure plus natural pressure release to cook the soaked soya beans ?
The dried beans I use do, yours might be different. Try it and see.
Hi, just want to make sure…
Excerpt from your recipe…
” I soaked 2½ cups of dried soybeans in water for 2 days and they started to grow a little sprout,”
”Drain and rinse your beans really well and pour into your Instant Pot. Cover the beans with fresh water and cook on High Pressure for 40 minutes with a natural pressure release.”
Please reconfirm that this is what you do for your tempeh.
Regards