Vegetable Tempura
Lacy, light-battered fried vegetables with dipping sauce.
Ingredients
- 150 g All-purpose flour
- 1 Egg
- 1 Zucchini
- 1 Carrot
- 150 g Button mushrooms
- 120 ml Mentsuyu (noodle base)
- 600 ml Neutral oil
- ½ tsp Salt
Method
- Cut the zucchini and carrot into batons and halve the mushrooms.
- Dilute the mentsuyu with a little water in a small bowl for dipping.
- Lightly stir the egg with ice water and the salt, then fold in the flour just until barely combined and still lumpy; do not overmix.
- Heat the neutral oil to 180 C. Dip the vegetables in the batter and fry in batches until lacy and pale gold, about 12 minutes total, then drain on a rack.
- Serve straight away with the dipping sauce.
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About Vegetable Tempura
Vegetable tempura is the Japanese technique of frying vegetables in a light, barely-mixed batter until the coating turns lacy, pale, and shatteringly crisp. What defines real tempura is restraint: the batter is stirred with ice-cold water and left deliberately lumpy so gluten never develops, which is why it fries up delicate rather than heavy or bready. Here zucchini, carrot batons, and mushrooms are the canvas, dipped and fried in batches so the oil temperature holds steady around 180°C. The mentsuyu dipping sauce, loosened with water, is the traditional partner.
The pleasure is in the featherlight crunch giving way to a vegetable that has steamed tender inside its crisp shell, tasting fresh and clean rather than greasy. Kept pale and quickly drained on a rack, good tempura stays crisp and light, which is why it's eaten straight away rather than left to sit. It works as an appetizer or as part of a larger meal, dunked bite by bite into the savory dipping sauce. The two rules that make or break it are ice-cold batter and gentle mixing, both of which this method insists on.
Vegetable Tempura: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Vegetable Tempura?
A serving has about 349 calories — 8.5g protein, 37.9g carbs, 18.5g fat, 1.7g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is Vegetable Tempura gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains All-purpose flour, Mentsuyu (noodle base). You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for those ingredients to make it gluten-free.
How long does Vegetable Tempura take to make?
About 30 minutes start to finish, but only around 24 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
How many servings does Vegetable Tempura make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.