The fermented soybean product of Indonesian origin is finding more takers among chefs, restaurants and startups who are selling it as a protein alternative to health-conscious Indians
Bean Me Up founder Shawn Rodrigues travelled to Indonesia to learn how to make tempeh from scratch, and now has customers from across the world
Image: Edric George for Forbes India
Shawn Rodrigues believes he was possibly the first in India to include tempeh in a restaurant menu.
His restaurant Bean Me Up in Vagator, Goa, is in its 25th year of business, but it was 12 years ago when he did away with all dairy products and turned vegan. His quest to add more protein alternatives to the menu resulted in Rodrigues travelling to Indonesia to understand how to make its indigenous tempeh. He learnt how to hull, boil, add starter culture, and incubate soybeans at the right temperature, the duration and level of moisture that make the beans bind together in a fluffy patty. Since then, he has been making tempeh from scratch, after importing the starter culture (containing fungi rhizopus oligosporus) required for fermentation from Indonesia.
Today, dishes with tempeh are among the most popular on his menu. Rodrigues says he has used its versatility to experiment with dishes such as Malabar tempeh, where the tempeh is cooked with organic ground spices from the Malabar region of Kerala and is served as a curry, along with brown rice; then there is a barbeque tempeh, which goes into sandwiches and wraps, and tempeh pan-fried with soy sauce, served as a starter alongside a spicy peanutpo dip. Earlier, while it was mostly international tourists who ordered tempeh, Rodrigues has been finding more and more Indians ordering it too. Many of them have become repeat customers. “We have people flying down to Goa just to eat tempeh here, and also find people from other cities wanting to take the tempeh with them when they fly out,” he says. “Urban India today is willing to experiment with food options, and for health conscious Indians who break down nutrients of everything they consume, tempeh turns out to be a good, healthy protein option.”
The plant-based protein market in India is estimated to be worth $565 million by 2023, up from $374 million in 2018, according to a 2018 report by Hypercube Insights, a Bengaluru-based consulting and market research firm. The report adds that the protein market in India accounts for 10 percent of the Asia-Pacific region. According to nutrition experts, the reasons for this include increasing awareness about healthy and organic food, innovation and advancements in vegan diet options, the need for people to find alternatives to meat, and the increasing availability of funding to back health-food ventures. Globally, the plant-based protein market is estimated to be worth $15.6 billion by 2026, recording a compound annual growth rate of about 7.2 percent in terms of value, according to a February 2021 global market forecast report for plant-based protein consumption by Research and Markets, a market research organisation.