Who can resist delicious crispy homemade vegetable tempura? When making tempura at home, the goal is a crispy yet airy coating that doesn’t absorb oil when deep-fried. I’ll teach you how to achieve excellent results in this recipe.
Alongside sushi and ramen, tempura is another mandatory menu item for Japanese restaurants. Encased in a crunchy, crispy yet light batter, these perfectly deep-fried seafood, and vegetable are seriously addicting.
After sharing my Shrimp Tempura recipe, I am excited to share today’s recipe on Vegetable Tempura (野菜の天ぷら) since many of you have requested it. Dipped in batter and deep-fried, each vegetable gets cooked perfectly on the inside, while the natural sweetness and flavor are enhanced. You would enjoy them piping hot with a delicate dipping sauce with grated daikon.
Some of the common vegetables used for Tempura include Japanese sweet potatoes, mushrooms (shiitake or king oysters are delicious), Kabocha squash, bell peppers, lotus roots, and eggplant. When I make vegetable tempura at home, I also like to include shiso leaves as well.
Table of Contents
The Key for Perfect Vegetable Tempura
Before I start talking about how to make Tempura, please understand that even for the Japanese, making perfect Tempura is not easy. It requires a lot of skills and practice so don’t be discouraged if your first tempura does not look like ones from restaurants. But how do you get that crispy texture without the food being too oily?
The key to perfect tempura is the batter and the temperature of the oil. I created a few steps below to go over the tips for making tempura.
Vegetable Tempura Cooking Tips
How to Make Tempura Batter
Most of Tempura chefs recommend that flour to water ratio should be 1:1. Some recipe requires an egg (or two depending on the amount of flour and water), and some don’t. It’s up to you. When the batter is too thin, the ingredients won’t have much of batter around it and there is no fluffy and crisp texture to it. When the batter is too thick, you feel like you are eating the chewy exterior.
Please remember a few tips about the batter. Always mix the batter using chopsticks for only a few seconds to at most 1 minute, leaving lumps in the mixture on purpose. Overmixing the batter will result in the activation of wheat gluten, which causes the flour mixture to become chewy and dough-like when fried.
The cold batter is absolutely necessary for the unique fluffy and crisp tempura. All the ingredients (water, egg, and flour) must be cold prior to making the batter, and it has to be made RIGHT BEFORE you deep fry and has to be kept cold at all times to avoid activation of wheat gluten.
What Oil To Use for Tempura
The Tempura specialty restaurant uses untoasted sesame oil (clear) or a special blend of oil that is a combination of many kinds of oil. Each restaurant has its own secret recipe and blends that they perfected over the years. At home, you can simply enhance the flavor by adding sesame oil into the vegetable oil.
The temperature has to be between 320-356°F (160°C – 180°C) depending on how long it takes to cook through the ingredients. If it takes a long time to cook, then deep fry at a lower temperature because high temperature will cook the batter too fast and inside won’t be cooked thoroughly. And remember, cold battered ingredients will lower the oil temperature quickly; therefore, if you need to deep fry vegetables at 338°F (170°C), you need to bring the oil to 356-365°F (180-185°C) first.
How to Deep Fry Tempura
If you ask me what’s the most difficult part of making Tempura, I’d say it’s to keep the right temperature at all times while deep frying. It cannot be too high or too low. Most of the time I do not require a thermometer, but if you are not used to deep frying, I highly recommend you get a thermometer to precisely know at what temperature you are deep frying. The right sound of tempura being deep-fried is like a light sound. Like cider just being opened. That kind of light bubbly sound.
In order to maintain the correct temperature, do not overcrowd with ingredients when deep frying. As guidance remember just half of the oil surface should be covered with ingredients. When you put too many ingredients in at once, the oil temperature will drop too quickly.
What if the oil gets too hot? The quick solution to this is to add a bit of extra oil or add more cold-battered ingredients. As I said, it is all about temperature control when deep frying.
Lastly, please pick up crumbs in the oil between batches. The burnt crumb will attach to your new tempura if you don’t pick them up, and oil will get darker once the crumbs become burnt and it leaves a bad flavor in the oil.
Other Tempura Recipes
Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram.
Vegetable Tempura
Ingredients
For the Dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu)
- ¾ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp sugar
For the Tempura
- 1 Japanese sweet potato (Satsumaimo) (unpeeled)
- ⅛ kabocha squash (unpeeled and seeded)
- 2 inch lotus root (renkon) (peeled and precooked; I used boiled lotus root (renkon no mizuni) from a Japanese grocery store)
- 2 king oyster mushrooms (eringi)
- 1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant
- 4 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba)
For Deep-Frying
- neutral oil (enough for 1½ inches or 3 cm of oil in the pot; or use a 10-to-1 ratio of neutral oil to sesame oil)
- flour (for dusting the shiso leaves)
For the Batter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) (chilled; weigh your flour or use the “fluff and sprinkle“ method and level it off)
- 200 ml iced water (¾ cup + 4 tsp)
- 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell) (chilled)
For Serving
- 2 inches daikon radish (grated)
Instructions
Before You Start…
- I encourage you to weigh your flour in metric using a kitchen scale. Click on the “Metric“ button at the top of the recipe to convert the ingredient measurements to metric. If you‘re using a cup measurement, please follow the “fluff and sprinkle“ method: Fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle the flour into your measuring cup, and level it off. Otherwise, you may scoop more flour than you need.
To Make the Dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu)
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Combine ¾ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock), 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp mirin, and 2 tsp sugar in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Then, lower the heat and let it simmer until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.
To Prepare the Ingredients
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Slice 1 Japanese sweet potato (Satsumaimo) into ¼-inch (6 mm) rounds and soak in water for 15–30 minutes to remove the excess starch. Then, pat dry them with paper towels.
- Cut ⅛ kabocha squash and 2 inch lotus root (renkon) into ¼-inch (6 mm) slices. Soak the lotus root in vinegar water (2 cups water + 1 tsp vinegar) for 5 minutes and pat dry them with paper towels.
- Cut 2 king oyster mushrooms (eringi) into thin slices.
- For 1 Japanese or Chinese eggplant, set it aside for now and prepare it right before you deep-fry. Cut off and discard the stem and calyx, then cut in half lengthwise. Place the halves flat side down on the cutting board and cut lengthwise into very thin slices (⅛ inch or 3 mm), leaving 1 inch (2.5 cm) of the bottom tip intact so the slices stay connected. Then, gently press down to fan out the slices. Keep 4 shiso leaves (perilla/ooba) whole.To get crispy tempura, make sure your ingredients are dry; pat them dry with a paper towel, if needed. Any excess moisture will make the tempura soggy.
To Prepare the Oil
- Once the ingredients are ready, add neutral oil to a deep fryer or pot to a depth of 1½ inches (3 cm) and heat to 320°F (160°C). Use a thermometer for precise temperature control. To check with wooden chopsticks, dip them in the oil; when small bubbles form around the tips, the oil is ready. Tip: For enhanced aroma and taste, I like to add 1 part sesame oil for every 10 parts neutral oil.
To Make the Batter
- While the oil is heating up, prepare the tempura batter. We‘ll use a 1-to-1 ratio (by volume) of flour to egg + water. Gather all the ingredients.
- Sift 1 cup all-purpose flour (plain flour) into a large bowl.
- Add 200 ml iced water to a measuring cup or bowl. Then, add 1 large egg (50 g each w/o shell).
- Whisk the egg and water mixture vigorously and discard the foam on the surface.
- Slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour while mixing the batter with chopsticks in a figure 8 pattern for about 15–20 seconds. Do not overmix to avoid activating the wheat gluten; it‘s fine to leave some lumps in the batter. Keep the batter cold at all times by adding 1–2 ice cubes to the batter or by putting the batter bowl in a larger bowl of iced water.
To Deep-Fry
- Deep-fry starting with the root vegetables, which need a lower oil temperature than the non-root vegetables. For the root vegetables, deep-fry at 320°F (160°C) for 3–4 minutes. For the other vegetables and mushrooms, deep-fry at 338–356°F (170–180°C) for 1–2 minutes. Deep-fry the shiso leaves for 15–20 seconds.When the oil reaches the right temperature, dip one piece of vegetable in the batter, let the excess drip off for a second or two, and very gently place it into the hot oil.
- Continue dipping and adding one piece at a time. Do not add too many ingredients at once, and make sure to maintain the right temperature at all times. Tip: When you deep-fry, do not crowd the pot because the oil temperature will drop quickly. Your ingredients should take up no more than about half of the oil surface area at any one time. For more helpful hints, read my post on how to deep-fry food.To batter the shiso leaves, sprinkle a bit of sifted flour on the back of the leaves and dip only the back of the leaf into the batter. Tip: Dusting the shiso with extra flour before dipping helps the batter adhere better. We do this with Shrimp Tempura and Kakiage, too. The flour acts as a glue and the batter tends to stay on the ingredients better.
- Deep-fry until golden and remove from the oil. Transfer the tempura to a wire rack or paper towel to remove the excess oil.
- Continue to deep-fry until you‘ve cooked all your ingredients. Between batches, use a fine-mesh skimmer to remove the tempura crumbs, which will burn and turn the oil darker if you leave them in the oil.
To Serve
- Peel and grate 2 inches daikon radish and gently squeeze out some of the liquid.
- Prepare 3–4 Tbsp of warm tentsuyu in each individual dipping bowl with 1 Tbsp grated daikon per serving on the side. Serve the tempura immediately. Mix some grated daikon into the dipping sauce for a refreshing taste and dip the tempura pieces in the dipping sauce to enjoy.
To Store
- If you have unused dipping sauce, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to 1–2 weeks.You can keep the leftovers in a single layer between paper towels and put in an airtight container or a resealable plastic bag. Store in the freezer for 2 weeks. To reheat, place the tempura on a wire rack in the preheated oven (400ºF or 200ºC) or the toaster oven for 5 minutes or until crisp on the outside and heated through on the inside.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on Jan 20, 2013.
How do I cook tempura in my air fryer?
Hi Louise! Thank you very much for checking Nami’s recipe!
The Tempura batter is very watery, so we don’t think this recipe will work well with an air fryer.
You may try thickening the batter, but the texture of the tempura will be different. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
Greetings Nami! Have to say I love all the recipes. I have a question about using Lotus Root for tempura, the only way I could get it was fresh, do I need to slice and boil it before using it for tempura or can I just peel and slice then use flour and the batter straight into the fryer?
Hi Jason! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your kind feedback!
Nami and JOC team are glad to hear you love all the recipes from our site!🥰
To use fresh Lotus Root, please peel and slice them. And soak lotus root in vinegar water (2 cups water + 1 tsp vinegar) for 3~4 minutes. Please make sure to dry them with paper towels before putting them in the tempura batter.
We hope this helps!
Hi Nami. Can you please post an air fryer version of the tempura ? Thanks 🙏🏼!!
Hi Gina! Thank you very much for reading Nami’s post!
Tempura batter uses a wet batter, so it’s impossible to use an oven or air fryer to solidify the wet batter instantly.😞
We hope we can find a better trick.
I love tempura.
And I like experiments in the kitchen, so I tried celery – stalks in 0,5 cm stripes and also leaves. And it came out great! It’s worth trying.
Hi Anna, Thank you very much for sharing your cooking experience with us! We have never tried making tempura with Celery before, so this is something new to us.😀
Hi Nami,
I love Tempura (and your recipes), but I am very uncomfortable with a vat full of boiling oil (frying not really a thing in my family). I am guessing an air frier is not a possible replacement?
Kind regards
Helen
Hi Helen, The Tempura batter is very watery, so we don’t think it will work well with an air fryer. You may try thickening the batter, but the texture of the tempura will be different. If you try it, let us know how it goes!
I tried this tonight. Loved it. Thank you
Hi Kristine,
Thank you very much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback!
We are so happy to hear you loved it!☺️
Hey girl hope you and your family are doing well. I was wondering about making tempura wakame?
Hi, 渓愛中村
You may use Wakame for this recipe as well.
Please make sure to dry them with a paper towel before dredging in the batter.😉
Can I use dried wakame or do I need to reconstitute it before hand?
Hi, 渓愛
If it’s dried Wakame, you need to reconstitute first. You may also use fresh Wakame. ☺️
Great recipe with awesome results on the first try. I used lotus root, pumpkin, zucchini, zucchini blossoms, and oyster mushrooms. The zucchini blossoms were definitely a highlight, both visually and taste-wise. Extra compliment for the batter recipe adapted to grams and the very useful note to use the same *volume* of water and flour. Otherwise I would have used the same weight with undoubtedly interesting yet inedible results. In case you ever re-work this recipe again, I would like to suggest including a printable table for all usual tempura suspects with notes on how thick to cut them, and how long to deep-fry at which temperature.
Hi Olesya! Thank you so much for your kind and detailed feedback and I always want to make a pdf of tips etc… something to think about for the future update. Thanks for the idea!
want to make yellow squash in tempura should i bake the squash for about 5 to 7 minutes first
Hi Brian! No, you do not need to do that. Thinly slice it (about 7 mm) and deep fry. 🙂
I bought raw lotus root, because I want to make Renkon chips. To prepare the lotus root for Tempura how long should it be boiled for? Thank you.
Hi Wesley! Until the skewer goes through. That way, you can just deep fry it quickly to cook the batter, but not the lotus root. 🙂
Dear Nami
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made tempura before and never really thought it matched what I had in top rated restaurants but this came out perfectly first time. Your clear instructions and tips made it very easy.
I would like to make this for friends but one who especially loves Japanese food is celiac and I was wondering if I could substitute rice flour (or another flour) for the wheat flour and would the proportions be the same?
Thanks again for the great website I will be returning for more inspiration.
Hi Graham! I’m so happy to hear your tempura came out well! AWESOME!!! Thanks for your kind feedback. It made me happy!
Oh please make this Gluten-Free Tempura! We love it as much as regular tempura. I hope your friend will enjoy it too!
https://www.justonecookbook.com/gluten-free-tempura/
Can the soaking of the vegetables be done in advance? Thank you!
Hi Mar! Yes, you can do that. 🙂
It is I, again. We avoid oil deep frying.
Looking for an oven baking method for Tempora.
I have tried panko not enough batter stayed on the vegetable.
Maybe oven temperature should be the same or higher than the oil temporary?
Hi Tom! Unlike panko-crusted foods like Tonkatsu or Croquettes, Tempura has wet batter and it’s impossible to bring up to the high temperature instantly to solidify those wet batter. The batter will be all dripped down if you put into the oven and wait for the coating to become crusty/crispy. So the oven temperature is quite impossible. Deep frying oil would instantly coat around the batter to solidify. I’m sorry the oven method doesn’t work for this recipe. 🙁
Hi Nami! Wonderful recipe! Just wondering, have you ever tried using potato starch in place of the flour? When making Korean fried chicken, it’s used to get a more crunchy crispy batter. Wondering if it would work here as well.
Hi Henry! We use it for Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) but not Tempura. Tempura batter is very specific and wet, unlike fried chicken coating that’s dry. 🙂
Hello, Nami!
As usual, thank you for all of your wonderful recipes. My best friend and I will be moving to Japan in a few weeks, and we’re both very excited about the opportunity to try out more of your recipes in our new kitchen! However, we’ve run into a few questions about some of your fried dishes.
We’ll be purchasing a Japanese microwave/oven that has an air-frying function (過熱水蒸気) built into it. Do you have any idea if we would be able to make your tempura, karaage, and other fried recipes with this device? We were both hoping that if we could make these dishes a little bit healthier, we might be able to enjoy them even more often!
Thanks again, and best regards,
– Abigail
Hi Abigail! I’ve read about it (in Japanese) and it looks like it’s great for grilling fish etc, but not for homemade tempura and karaage. They said the store-bought deep-fried foods (tempura/karaage etc) will be crispier, but I doubt you can make it from scratch in the same way as deep frying on the stove… that’s my understanding. 🙂
So exciting to live in Japan! Good luck, and keep me posted on your adventure!