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batch
SAT
this week
Year-round
0 flavours
This season
1 flavour
Across the year
4 flavours
Where it comes from · Java, ~400 years on
From the island
of Java
to Swiss beans
Tempeh was born on the island of Java, in Indonesia, around four centuries ago, traditionally from soybeans wrapped in banana leaves, where a wild Rhizopus mould did the work, the living starter Indonesians call ragi, the very word behind our name. It's one of the few ferments in the world powered by a mushroom rather than bacteria.
Tempeh is usually made with soy. We make it with other beans too, and we grow them as close to home as we can: Swiss soy in winter, Valais chickpeas in spring, Italian green peas in summer, Swiss beluga lentils in autumn. Same ancient method, a different bean each season.
How it tastes. Firm and sliceable, with a gentle nutty, mushroomy flavour and a clean savoury depth, think roasted hazelnut meets fresh forest. It soaks up marinades beautifully and crisps at the edges in the pan. And because ours is fresh, there's none of that bitter aftertaste.
More than protein. Fermentation does something clever: the microbes pre-digest the beans, breaking down what's hard to absorb and making the minerals and vitamins far more available to your body. So tempeh isn't just rich in protein, it's protein your gut can actually make the most of.
~400
years of history on Java
~30°C
the exact incubation temperature
Fresh
made every weekend · never pasteurised
100%
plant-based · vegan · gluten-free
How it's made · in our kitchen
4 days, 4 steps,
1 noble mould
at Sara & David's
01
Soak & cook
We soak the season's beans overnight, cook them until tender, then slip off the hulls. Bare beans let the mould grip and knit them together.
Night before → Day 1
02
Cool, acidify & inoculate
We cool the beans to lukewarm and dry them well, add a splash of vinegar to protect the culture, then sprinkle in the Rhizopus oligosporus spores.
Day 1
03
The incubation chamber
~30 h at a precise ~30 °C. The white mycelium grows and knits the beans into a firm, sliceable cake. It's the trickiest step, one degree off and we start again.
Days 2 → 3
04
Chill & Box by hand
Overnight in the fridge to stop the ferment, then we wrap each cake in compostable, plant-based packaging and label it by hand.
Day 4
Autumn · Beluga lentils
From October to December it's Swiss beluga lentils. Dark, rich and earthy, our most robust tempeh, made for hearty autumn cooking.
How to drink it
Grill, marinate,
crumble
Unlike our drinks and kimchi, tempeh is meant to be cooked: heat brings out its nutty flavour. You can marinate it for 10 minutes first, or simply pan-fry it and add the sauce after. Here are our four favourite ways.
🍳
Pan-fried golden
Cube it, pan-fry until golden, then add your sauce (tamari, garlic, a little maple) and cook one more minute. Crisp outside, tender within.
🥪
Plant-based "bacon"
Sliced thin, smoky marinade, fried crisp. In a vegan BLT, a club sandwich, or piled onto a weekend brunch plate.
🍛
Crumbled into sauce
Grate it coarsely and fry with onions for a rich, protein-packed ragù base, or fold it into a curry or a chilli.
10 d
Storage.
10 days in the fridge (2–5 °C). Grey or black patches on the mycelium are normal (it's sporulating) and safe to eat. You can also freeze it for up to 1 year.
No, relax. Those are spores of the Rhizopus (the noble mould) starting to sporulate. Perfectly edible, and actually a sign of a lively tempeh. In fact, in parts of Indonesia they let it ripen on purpose to make tempe bosok ("over-ripe" tempeh), prized for its deep, intense flavour in cooking. So a few dark patches just mean character.
Most shop tempeh is pasteurised so it lasts for months, but that gives it a bitter aftertaste, which is why people boil it before cooking. We make ours fresh every weekend instead. No bitterness, nothing to boil away, and the cultures stay alive. The trade-off: it keeps for 10 days, not 10 months. Worth it.
Between 16 and 24 g per 100 g, depending on the bean, with soy the clear champion. Per 200 g portion that is roughly 30 to 40 g: more than eggs and well over twice tofu, and not far off chicken breast, but from a humble bean. Better still, it's a complete protein, with all nine essential amino acids, which most plant foods can't claim. Meat-level protein, no animal required.
Tofu is pressed soy curd: smooth, mild and unfermented. Seitan is cooked wheat gluten: chewy, and not gluten-free. Tempeh is the whole bean, fermented by a living mould (the ragi) into a firm cake, so it keeps all its fibre, carries more protein, and the fermentation makes it easier to digest. Three very different things.
Often easier than the beans themselves. Some people find plain pulses heavy, but during fermentation the ragi pre-digests them, breaking down much of what makes beans hard on the stomach. Cooking it well helps too. Many people who struggle with beans get on better with tempeh.
Better to cook it, at least lightly. Cooking develops the nutty flavour, improves digestibility, and is the safer choice. Six minutes in the pan is enough. Unlike our kombucha and kimchi, tempeh isn't made to be eaten raw.
To cut plastic, our tempeh is wrapped in compostable, biodegradable, plant-based packaging. Pop it in your compost or green waste when you're done, no rinsing, no guilt.
We're not allowed to answer: Swiss law forbids makers of fermented foods from making health claims without a validated scientific dossier (and we don't have the budget of the supplement giants). What we CAN say, factually: it's high in protein, it's gluten-free, and it's fermented, and fermentation pre-digests the beans, making their nutrients, minerals and vitamins more bioavailable and easier to digest. What we'd like to say: it's basically a steak that grew its own coat and asks for nothing in return. But that's not a promise. Just an observation. ✨
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