From lab to plate: New chickpea tempeh aims to curb Western diet health risks

A team of US-based food scientists are developing plant-based protein foods in a bid to counteract the negative effects of the Western diet. Funded by a four-year, US$387,000 USDA Pulse Crop Health Initiative grant, the team is focused on creating a new type of tempeh using dry chickpeas and dry peas. Tempeh is traditionally made with fermented soybeans.

The research, which comes from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, looks to combine taste and nutrition and build on preliminary research showing that chickpea tempeh may mitigate health risks associated with the Western diet, including obesity, fatty liver, hyperlipidemia and diabetes.

“Tempeh is a fermented, fungal food that originated from Indonesia but is now gaining popularity all around the world because it’s a good approach to producing plant-based protein food,” says lead researcher Hang Xiao. 

“Tempeh fermentation is mainly done empirically without a scientific understanding of the molecular basis by which fungal fermentation impacts product functionality, such as nutritional and sensory properties and health impact. This limits our ability to develop tempeh-based meat alternatives with optimal functionalities.”

Fermenting nutrition

The project, which includes Xiao and his co-investigators, aims to optimize the fermentation process by blending science and tradition.

During the research, the team will conduct a chemical analysis to identify compounds like amino acids and flavonoids produced during fermentation. These nutrients are expected to enhance the health benefits of chickpeas and peas, resulting in a high-fiber and low-fat tempeh.

However, the researchers note that for chickpea and pea tempeh to succeed as plant-based meat alternatives, they must be both nutritious and palatable. The team says it will organize consumer panels to evaluate the products’ taste, smell and texture to ensure broad appeal.

“If it’s not tasteful, people won’t like it, and they won’t consume it frequently enough to offer health benefits,” Xiao says. “That’s one of the major challenges of plant-based protein.”

He further states that the team will “study the dynamic changes — because the fungi will be utilizing the nutrients in the peas and then transform them into different compounds. This will have an impact on the nutritional value and the sensory properties of the final products.”

Toward a healthier tempeh?

Health impacts will be assessed through trials on obese rodent models fed a Western diet high in fat and sugar. 

“People consume everything mingled together,” Xiao says. “This dietary intervention is a preventive measure. We want to see if the tempeh products counteract the bad influence of the high-fat, high-sugar diet.”

He emphasizes that early results are encouraging — feeding obese mice chickpea tempeh inhibited weight gain, reduced fatty liver development and improved gut microbiome health.

“These findings are important because they suggested that tempeh fermentation enhanced health benefits of chickpeas and provided a strong rationale to develop pulse-based tempeh with desirable health functions,” reads the research summary.