Effect of Partial Replacement of Soybean with Chickpea to the Nutritional and Textural Properties of Tofu

  Abstract— Tofu is an oriental food that originated from China and later became a traditional cuisine in many South East Asia Countries, e.g. Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand. The tofu was made by coagulating soy milk with salt to form curds, which further compress to form a solid block. Tofu usually uses soybeans as the main ingredients; however, in this experiment, the soybeans were partially replaced with chickpeas to increase the amount of dietary fibre and reduce fat levels in the final products. The tofu was made of soybean and chickpea at a ratio of 100:0 (control), 90:10, 80:20 and, 70:30.  The products were evaluated based on their nutritional contents (crude protein, crude fat, and crude fibre), and textural properties using Texture Profile Analysis. Some analytical parameters, such as pH, moisture content, and colour were also studied. Partial replacement of soybean with chickpea decreased overall crude protein and fat content, whereas increased crude fibre. The presence of chickpea in the blends, up to 30% (w/w), had affected the tofu curd's protein stability, lowered their pH, and moisture content.  A denser tofu curd was obtained by adding more chickpea to the product. The 70:30 blend has the highest hardness value compared to the other formulations. This low soy content mixture, however, can not produce a cohesive and springy tofu gel. The CIELAB colour space of the soybean/chickpea tofu cubes records a trend of increase in redness and yellowness values for tofu with chickpea.