The tempeh it is a derivative of soy; it is a fermented food which, due to its appearance and perhaps also with regard to the good protein content, is also defined soy meat.
NB. Tempeh is a food preserved in brine, therefore the sodium content is significantly higher than the raw material of origin.
The culinary applications of tempeh are diverse; it can represent an ingredient to accompany first courses or bread, but also to eat stewed, fried or steamed similarly to a dish; just like a piece of meat!
Production
To produce tempeh it is necessary to partially cook the soybeans; then we proceed with the addition of vinegar and then with the inoculation of fermenting microorganisms. These are basically represented by a fungus (mold) belonging to the Mucoraceae family: the Rhizopus oligosporus. The mixture is then spread and left to ferment for 24 hours at a temperature of about 30 ° C, so that the Rhizopus oligosporus can synthesize the characteristic mycelia (ramifications) that give the tempeh solidity and compactness. NB. The microbial action determines the release of little ammonia.
Nutritional characteristics
As anticipated, tempeh is a more digestible food than the soy from which it is produced; this characteristic is to be attributed to the action of the Rhizopus oligosporus which, in addition to partially degrading the proteins (fungal peptidase), determines an almost definitive splitting of the oligosaccharides (raffinose and stachinose) generally responsible for the bloating and intestinal tension produced by ingested legumes.
Nutritional values per 100g of tempeh
Furthermore, if the processed soybeans were used raw, anti-nutritional molecules such as peptidase and amylase inhibitors would be present in the tempeh; on the contrary, undergoing the initial cooking, these unwanted molecules undergo a significant thermal inactivation losing any inhibitory effect on digestion.
Tempeh can be used successfully in improving vegan diets but cannot replace meat; compared to it, tempeh boasts strengths and weaknesses. However, even assuming that (from the point of view of biological value) the soy proteins can be appropriately compensated, the legume in question does NOT contain cobalamin (vitamin B12). This vitamin - essential for the synthesis of nucleic acids and whose deficiency (in the long term) can induce pernicious anemia - is contained exclusively in foods of animal origin (its presence in some algae debated); some studies have scrutinized the presence of vit. B12 also inside the tempeh but, alas, they all provided conflicting results; but fortunately the reason is also understood! To produce tempeh it is necessary to inoculate microorganisms; these, as for cheeses, are deliberately selected strains but the whose composition necessarily varies according to the location and the growing environment. It follows that, for example, the tempeh produced in Indonesia will NEVER be identical to that produced in Germany; at this point the reader will wonder what is the correlation between the fermentation strain and the cobalamin content of tempeh. Well, vitamin B12 is an exclusively bacterial synthesis product and man introduces it by eating meats already contain it (thanks to the synthesis of the intestinal bacterial flora of the animal itself and the fortification of the feed).
NB. In dairy products (cheese and yogurt) the cobalamin content is increased by fermentation microorganisms.
In short, it seems that the microbial strains inoculated in different areas of the planet do not have the same pro-vitaminizing effect on tempeh, therefore, this food cannot be considered a valid supplier of vitamin B12.
It is however necessary to specify that tempeh boasts many other valuable nutritional characteristics; it possesses dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates useful for providing energy, proteins of medium biological value, polyunsaturated and essential lipids (ω3), mineral salts (iron and magnesium), vitamins and cholesterol-lowering molecules such as phytosterols, saponins and lecithins; therefore, as long as the overall sodium intake is not exceeded, tempeh can also be consumed frequently in the context of a balanced diet.
Homemade Tempeh - Video Recipe
Tempeh - Soy Meat
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