The Best Japanese Vegetable Tempura Recipe
If you’re looking for an authentic Japanese experience at home, look no further than this easy-to-make Vegetable Tempura recipe! You can make this delicious and crispy Tempura with simple steps without failure!
Looking for simple vegetable dishes? Try my Steamed Vegetables, Eggplant Teriyaki, or Cabbage Steak!
I’ll walk you through the ingredients and step-by-step instructions. I hope you enjoy it!
Why You Will Love This Recipe
Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need the following ingredients to make this Vegetable Tempura Recipe:
How To Make Vegetable Tempura: STEP BY STEP
Tempura is a simple dish, and how to make it is super easy! Cut ingredients, make the batter, dip ingredients in the batter, and deep fry until cooked.
Step 1
Slice to prepare vegetables.
Step 2
Make tempura batter with flour, baking powder, and cold water.
Step 3
Dust the eggplant and bell pepper with flour (no need for kabocha and sweet potato).
Step 4
Heat oil in a frying pan or any deep pot. Dip the vegetables in the batter and put them in the pan.
Step 4
Flip them over and deep-fry until cooked.
Step 4
Make a tempura sauce with mentsuyu and grated daikon.
Bell pepper, eggplant, sweet potato, and kabocha squash tempura from the left. They are incredibly crispy and delicious! Serve them with a side of tempura sauce for dipping, and savor the authentic flavors of this traditional Japanese dish!
Other Serving Options
If you go to a Japanese restaurant, Tempura is commonly served with tempura sauce (tentsuyu) or just salt. But at home, you can enjoy more options. Here’s how to eat Tempura!
Variations
If you are looking for more vegetable options, here is the list!
- Okra
- Shiso
- Shishito pepper
- Asparagus
- Zucchini
- Onion
- Carrot
- Shiitake mushrooms
- Maitake mushrooms
- Eringi mushrooms
- Enoki mushrooms
- Lotus roots
- Kale
- Butternut squash
- Snow peas
Your Questions Answered
Common vegetables for Tempura are kabocha squash, sweet potatoes, shiso leaves, eggplants, bell peppers, okra, mushrooms, lotus root, and onion. See more variations in “Best vegetables for tempura.”
Cut vegetables, make the tempura batter, dip the vegetables in the batter, and deep fry until cooked.
Tempura is a delicious dish you enjoy for its light and crispy texture.
But it soaks up all those fried oils, so It’s not a healthy choice. You can also bake your Tempura if you want them healthier.
The most common way to eat them is with tentsuyu, a dipping sauce for Tempura made from soy sauce and dashi. Other common ways are eaten with salt, soy sauce, and chuno sauce (Japanese Worcestershire-style sauce).
Tempura flakes are called tenkasu (or agedama), crunchy bits made from the leftover batter during cooking tempura. These are used for toppings on noodles, rice bowls, or ingredients for okonomiyaki.
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The Best Japanese Vegetable Tempura Recipe
Print Pin SaveEquipment
- Frying pan 22cm (9 inches)
Ingredients
- ⅛ Kabocha squash
- 1 Japanese sweet potato
- 2 Bell peppers
- 2 Eggplants
- Oil for deep-frying
Batter
- 200 ml Cold water
- 100 g Cake flour
- ½ tsp Baking powder
Tempura Sauce
- 600 ml Mentsuyu, Dilute with water according to the bottle instructions.
- 1 inch Daikon radish
Instructions
- Prepare vegetables: Slice the kabocha and sweet potato thinly, cut the bell pepper into quarters, cut the eggplant into quarters and make slits 4 to 5 times.
- Prepare a pan: Put oil about 2 cm (1 inch) high in a pan and heat it to 170C (335F).
- Make the batter: Add cold water to a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder with a strainer, and mix.
- Dust with flour: Dust the eggplant and bell pepper with flour (no need for kabocha and sweet potato).
- Deep-fry: Dip the vegetables in batter, put them in the pan, and deep-fry until cooked (about a couple of minutes, depending on the vegetable). Place them on a cooling rack to drip excess oil.
- Make Tentsuyu: Grate the daikon radish (daikon oroshi). Dilute mentsuyu (noodle soup) with water according to the bottle instructions and add daikon oroshi.
Video
Notes
- Do not mix the batter until smooth. If you mix too much, gluten will form, and your tempura will be heavy and chewy. See ‘Homemade Tempura Batter Recipe‘ for more tips.
- If you dust ingredients with flour, the extra surface will reduce the water content of vegetables and keep them from getting soggy. In addition, the batter sticks to vegetables, and you can fry them without having the tempura skin come off.
- Do not fry too many at once to keep the oil temperature consistent.
- Tenkasu (or agedama) are crunchy bits made from leftover batter when cooking tempura. If left in the pot, old tenkasu can stick to the new tempura, ruining its texture. To prevent this, use a fat skimmer spoon to remove the tenkasu before adding new pieces of tempura.
- Draining oil after frying is also essential. After cooking the Tempura, remove excess fat by placing it on a cooling rack. Keep them upright as much as possible, and do not stack them.
I love this! Simple ingredients that taste amazing and so easy to follow and make. Thank you!!
Thank you for your comment, Raine! I’m so happy to hear you enjoy the recipe!
Really useful tips for tempura veg cooking.
Thank you, R! I’m glad to hear this recipe is helpful!