Tempeh, a fermented soy product, is high in protein and prebiotics, packed with vitamins and minerals, quite apart from being versatile, according to healthline.

Indonesians are familiar with tempeh as part of their daily meals, as the food item is often fried in different shapes and sizes with various seasonings, fried and layered with flour or cooked as part of soup. However, there are many other attractive ways of enjoying tempeh and its nutritional benefits.

Coffee table

Have you ever eaten, or maybe imagined, a cake made of tempeh?

Banten’s Tangerang regency-based cake shop Lady Eve Patisserie recently launched its “Tempeh Cake”, featuring tempeh as its main ingredient, balanced with white chocolate couverture. To create a soft texture for a cake projected to become a crowd-pleaser, the cake shop uses coconut crème brulee, as well as palm sugar. On top of the cake is chocolate tuile sprinkled with tempeh crackers.

The taste? Upon the first bite, I was reminded of carrot cake and red velvet cake. It has a pleasant nutty flavor with a rich, velvety texture from the cream cheese-like white chocolate and coconut crème brulee mix.

Lady Eve Patisserie sends a message that says, “Don’t try to find where the tempeh is [in the cake].” However, I could taste the tempeh, crispy like it was just taken out from the frying pan, engulfed in smooth, rich cake. It surprisingly works. This is a tempeh cake as its name suggests.

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Now that we know it’s possible for tempeh to be incorporated into a cake, be ready for a multiple-course meal featuring 10 kinds of tempeh and nine ways of cooking. It was an experience offered by Indonesian restaurant Nusa Gastronomy in Kemang, South Jakarta in April, but still available upon special request.

Nusa Gastronomy wrote in an Instagram post that tempeh is a great source of probiotics due to the yeast and bacteria involved in the fermentation process, and these good bacteria will make your intestinal environment healthy and happy.

Well-known for its expertise in sourcing and cooking rare ingredients from across Indonesia, Nusa features homemade tempeh from red bean, black-eyed peas, corn, rice and jack beans.

Apart from coming out in real tempeh forms, some also came out in the form of mousse, pudding, noodles and even marshmallow. A huge variety of shapes, colors, textures and flavors were combined with appealing ingredients from shrimp, chicken and gindara, to duck, beef and the rare, indigenous kulat pelawan mushroom.

Read also: Wida Winarno: tempeh warrior

Massage table

Meanwhile, at The Dharmawangsa Jakarta, tempeh has reached the massage table through a spa treatment dubbed “The beauty of tempeh”. It is a 90-minute treatment that starts with a massage, followed with a body scrub using crushed tempeh and Papuan sago, and a body and face mask.

Available at The Dharmawangsa’s Bimasena spa, the tempeh spa treatment is the fruit of collaboration with the Indonesian Tempeh Movement. Together with food safety company MBRIO, Bimasena and the Indonesian Tempeh Movement have conducted research that found how tempeh is beneficial for the skin as the isoflavone found in it contains skin-brightening and anti-photoaging agents.

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