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    Home » Recipes » Vegetable Dishes

    Sweet Potato Tempura

    Jan 8, 2023 by JURI · This post may contain affiliate links

    5 from 3 votes
    JUMP TO RECIPE JUMP TO VIDEO

    Learn how to make delicious Sweet Potato Tempura using only three ingredients! Tempura is one of the most iconic Japanese dishes and is super easy to make. I'm sure your whole family will love it!

    Sweet Potato Tempura.

    Tempura is a Japanese dish of shrimp or vegetables deep-fried in light and golden batter.

    Japanese sweet potato is a popular vegetable for making tempura—the starchy, sweet, and rich flavor pairs well with the tempura's light yet crispy texture.

    I'll show you how in this recipe with some helpful tips for success! Ready? Let's get cooking!

      This recipe is for you if:
    • You love Japanese sweet potato.
    • You want to make sweet potato tempura.
    • You are looking for easy sweet potato tempura recipe.
    • You want to know how to make crisp tempura.

    Let me walk you through the ingredients and the instructions. If you want to check the recipe, jump to the recipe. Let's get started!

    Jump to:
    • About this recipe
    • 📋 Ingredients
    • 🔪Instructions
    • Helpful tips for making crispy Tempura
    • How to eat it
    • Vegetable Tempura Moriawase
    • Best vegetables for Tempura
    • Thanks For Stopping By
    • 📖 Recipe
    • Sweet Potato Tempura

    About this recipe

    • Easy sweet potato tempura recipe
    • Tips for making crispy Tempura
    • The batter without egg
    • Vegetable variations

    📋 Ingredients

    Here are the ingredients (amounts are in the recipe card below).

    Ingredients for sweet potato tempura.
    • Sweet potato: Cut sweet potato into thin slices with the skin on.
    • Oil: I love using White sesame oil (taihaku) or rice oil to get an extra crispy texture. White sesame oil may be hard to get if you don't live in Japan, so you can use your regular cooking oil and add toasted sesame oil to add flavor.
    • Batter: This recipe uses water, cake flour, and baking powder. No egg required.
    • Tentsuyu (Tempura sauce): This is the tempura dipping sauce. Put grated daikon radish in mentsuyu (noodle soup) in this recipe. You can find a homemade mentsuyu recipe in the Kake soba noodle recipe.

    Tempura batter mix

    The fastest way to make tempura batter is using tempura batter mix. You just need to add water and mix it up.

    But we won't use it as we can easily make the batter with simple ingredients.

    🔪Instructions

    Let me show you how to make it. Click here to watch the recipe video.

    How to make sweet potato tempura step by step.
    1. Cut the sweet potato into thin slices.
    2. Make a batter to mix water, flour, and baking powder in a bowl.
    3. Put oil about 2 cm (1 inch) high in a pan and heat it to 170C (335F). Dip the sweet potato in the batter and put them in the pan.
    4. Deep-fry until cooked (about a couple of minutes).
    5. Place them on a cooling rack to drip excess oil.
    6. Dilute mentsuyu (noodle soup) with water according to the bottle instructions and add daikon oroshi.
    sweet potato tempura on a plate.

    Here you go! They're so crispy and tasty.

    Dip them in tempura sauce and enjoy the authentic Japanese dish!

    Helpful tips for making crispy Tempura

    Tips for batter

    The batter is the key to the success of your Tempura.

    It is important to avoid forming gluten in the batter! Otherwise, you will get the pancake-like heavy texture, not crispy!

    So, let's check the following easy and simple tips to make your Tempura perfect!

    tempura batter.

    1. Use cake flour

    Use cake flour with a lower gluten content (about 7%). Do not use bread flour with a high gluten content (about 13%).

    You can substitute it with all-purpose flour, which is 8%.

    2. Use Cold water

    Use cold water rather than lukewarm water because gluten is easily formed when the temperature is high. It's also better to chill the flour if possible.

    3. Shift the flour

    Shifting the flour makes the texture finer and lighter as air comes in.

    4. Do not mix it until smooth

    If you combine the batter ingredients too much, the gluten will be formed, and your Tempura will be heavy and chewy.

    5. The timing to Make the batter

    The batter will start to become sticky over time, so it's better to make it right before frying.

    How To Make Tempura Batter (3 Ways)
    5 from 1 vote
    With just a few ingredients, you can make a delicious homemade tempura batter! Learn the best tricks to making delicious and crispy tempura.
    Make This Recipe
    vegetable tempura on a cooling rack.

    Other Tips

    deep-frying kabocha tempura in a frying pan.

    1. Dust flour on the ingredients

    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.

    So dust bell peppers and eggplants (which contain a lot of moisture) with flour. Kabocha and sweet potatoes are not necessary.

    2. Do not fry too many at once

    You will lower the oil temperature by adding many ingredients to the pot at once.

    Then the moisture in the batter will not evaporate well, and your Tempura might become soggy.

    To keep the oil temperature consistent, put the ingredients in less than ⅔ of the pot and save some space open.

    3. Remove Tenkasu (Agedama)

    Tenkasu (or agedama) is crunchy bits made from the leftover batter during cooking tempura.

    If you leave them in the pot, old tenkasu stick to the new Tempura and ruin the texture.

    So, remove the tenkasu with a fat skimmer spoon before adding a new Tempura.

    4. Drain off the oil

    Draining oil after frying is also essential.

    After cooking the Tempura, remove any excess oil by placing them on a cooling rack. Keep them upright as much as possible, and do not stack them.

    How to eat it

    If you go to a Japanese restaurant, Tempura serves commonly with tentsuyu (tempura sauce) or just salt.

    But at home, you can enjoy more options. Here are how to eat Tempura!

    tentsuyu and daikon oroshi.
    • Tentsuyu: A dipping sauce for Tempura made from soy sauce and dashi. See the following section for more details.
    • Salt: Add a little salt on top and eat it; then, enjoy the simple taste. You can also use flavored salts such as matcha, spicy, citrus, etc.
    • Soy sauce: Add a bit of soy sauce. Do not dip in it as it is salty and overpowers the taste of Tempura.
    • Chuno sauce (Japanese Worcestershire-style sauce): Add the sauce to your taste.
    • Or without any condiments.

    When I was a child, I would eat Tempura with soy or tonkatsu sauce, but now I like tentsuyu with grated daikon radish, which helps digestion.

    Tentsuyu

    Tentsuyu is a special dipping sauce for Tempura made from dashi (soup stock), soy sauce, and mirin.

    Mentsuyu (noodle soup) is made from the same ingredients, and it's easier to get at a store, so I use store-bought mentsuyu for this recipe. (You can also check my homemade mentsuyu recipe here)

    Adding grated daikon to tentsuyu is common as it helps digest fatty food like Tempura. You can also add lemon juice or grated ginger for the same reason.

    If you are a vegetarian

    Store-bought tentsuyu or mentsuyu include dashi stock made from fish, so you should avoid using them.

    Vegetable Tempura Moriawase

    vegetable tempura moriawase on a plate

    Moriawase is a dish that has many different ingredients on one plate. This one has kabocha, Japanese sweet potato, eggplant, and bell peppers.

    Once you know how to cook tempura, try other vegetables as well. Here is my recipe for making vegetable tempura.

    Best vegetables for Tempura

    Let's make more vegetable tempura!

    Shiso, asparagus, and okra are all delicious. There is so much variety in this Japanese dish that you could try something new every time!!

    best vegetables for tempura.
    • Kabocha squash
    • Sweet potato
    • Eggplant
    • Bell pepper
    • Okura
    • Shiso
    • Shishito pepper
    • Asparagus
    • Zucchini
    • Onion
    • Carrot
    • Shiitake mushroom
    • Maitake mushroom
    • Eringi mushroom
    • Enoki mushroom
    • Lotus root
    • Kale

    Thanks For Stopping By

    sweet potato tempura.

    Thank you for taking the time to read my blog♡ If you've tried this recipe(or any other recipe on the blog), please give it a star rating below!

    Also, feel free to leave comments if you have any questions. I love hearing from you!

    Chef JA Cooks is a Japanese food blog that shares simple and healthy Japanese home cooking recipes, including vegan and vegetarian. From traditional Japanese recipes to modern recipes with step-by-step instructions.

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    📖 Recipe

    sweet potato tempura on a plate.

    Sweet Potato Tempura

    5 from 3 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Prep: 5 minutes
    Cook: 10 minutes
    Total: 15 minutes
    Servings: 4 serving
    Author: JURI
    Learn how to make delicious Sweet Potato Tempura using only three ingredients! Tempura is one of the most iconic Japanese dishes and is super easy to make. I'm sure your whole family will love it!
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 Japanese Sweet Potato
    • Oil for deep-frying

    Batter

    • 200 ml Cold water
    • 100 g Cake flour
    • ½ teaspoon Baking powder

    Tempura Sauce

    • 600 ml Mentsuyu, Dilute with water according to the bottle instructions.
    • 1 inch Daikon radish

    Instructions

    • Cut sweet potato: Cut sweet potato into thin slices.
    • 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.
    • Deep-fry: Dip the sweet potato in batter, put them in the pan, and deep-fry until cooked (about a couple of minutes). 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

    • Equipment: I use an Iron frying pan 22 cm/9 inches. Any deep pot is ok.
    • Variations: See "Best vegetables for tempura" for more variations.
    • Do not mix the batter until smooth. If you mix too much, the gluten will be formed, and your tempura will be heavy and chewy. 
    • Do not fry too many at once to keep the oil temperature consistent.
    • Do not throw the leftover batter. You can make tenkasu (tempura flakes) and use it as a topping on noodles or rice bowls.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1serving | Calories: 250kcal
    Course: Main
    Cuisine: Japanese
    Keyword: sweet potato tempura, vegetable tempura
    Did You Make this recipe?Please Leave a star rating!

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