Tempt Hemp Tofu - Chorizo

What on earth is hemp tofu? Is it regular tofu that just has hemp in it, or is simply made purely from hemp? In this case, it is the later - I had no idea that such a thing was even possible. I only just recently discovered Burmese chickpea-based tofu, and now there's hemp tofu too?! I'm honestly very curious to see what it's like!

Buying. Tempt hemp tofu comes in four varieties: original, chili lime, chorizo and chimichurri. I picked up my 8oz package at New Seasons on sale for $3.99. So it's a good bit more expensive than regular ol' soy tofu. Their website doesn't offer a product finder. The only place I've found it online was from a place called Food Service Direct. I'd recommend trying a local health/natural food store.

This is what it looks like from the bottom.

Packaging. This "tofu" comes vacuum sealed in plastic. There's no notches or anything for easy opening, and you'll likely have to use another container to store what you don't use.

Nutrition. This product is pretty much just the hemp, some binders and seasonings. Can't argue with simple ingredients like that! The fat content seems pretty high, but it's coming from a whole food, and it's rich in EFAs too, so it's all good.  This tofu is also loaded with protein and it's got a decent amount of fiber as well. Overall, this is a very healthy food!

Before cooking.

Preparation. I've never had hemp tofu before, so I wasn't sure what to do with it at first. Thankfully, the package had a recommendation on how to prepare it, so I went with that (it's right above the ingredients). As you can see, pan frying did little to help the appearance of it.

After cooking.

Tasting. Look at the pictures above. Does it look like disappointment? Good. Now you know exactly what it tastes like.

First of all, the texture of this stuff is just plain wrong. As you can probably see, it's got whole hempseed all throughout. Instead of having a uniform texture that you would expect tofu to have, this stuff instead is very grainy and crumbly. It seems to be very dense, like a super firm tofu, but it just doesn't hold up.

If the texture wasn't bad enough, the flavor itself is very bland (and slighty bitter from the hemp). I could excuse it for being bland if it was an unflavored variety, but the one I tried is supposed to be chorizo! It did taste slightly of the chorizo seasonings, but not nearly enough to make it not bland/bitter. Adding salt only seemed to emphasize the bitterness. Overall, it wasn't very palatable at all.

I have to confess that I was planning on trying it a different way with the second half of the block. I was going to try it crumbled up in a sauce or something, maybe like sloppy joes, something that would be better suited to the texture. But I ended up forgetting the remainder of the block out on the counter overnight. While I was angry at myself over the food waste, I was also relieved to not have to suffer through eating any more of it. It was just that bad.

Bottom Line. I would not buy this product again, not even to try the other flavors. There are much tastier ways of getting protein and EFAs. I'd much rather just eat hempseed straight out of a bag than this stuff ever again.

Needless to say, I can't recommend trying it either. Unless you really, really want a protein that's free of pretty much everything. It's soy free, gluten free, and all that stuff. You can do better than this though, I'm sure of it.

Living Harvest (Tempt) website.