Tempura is a typical dish of Japanese cuisine and it is a quick and crispy fry, whose main ingredients are usually seafood or vegetables. Tempura is characterized by its preparation and the cooking process, that is, the ingredients that we are going to cook must be cut into “bites” – pieces of a suitable size to be taken directly to the mouth with chopsticks. Cooking consists of frying battered foods in oil that is not too hot until they are lightly browned. In no case should the oil boil or the ingredients burn.
The recipe that I share is a vegetable tempura that is spectacular, accompanied by an Asian dressing of soy sauce, garlic and ginger. For this recipe you can use any vegetable that you like without any exception, since it is delicious, with a fine and crunchy batter. I have added some poppy seeds to the batter to add an extra crunchy touch, but the tempura is just as delicious if you decide to skip this ingredient. This recipe for vegetables in tempura is an excellent option to serve as a starter that will undoubtedly leave your guests speechless.
Ingredients to make Vegetable Tempura:
- 150 grams of wheat flour
- 250 milliliters of very cold water
- 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ green bell pepper
- 2 frozen artichokes
- ½ onion
- ½ zucchini
- 2 carrots
- ½ cup cauliflower and broccoli
- Oil for frying
- Sauce for vegetable tempura:
- ¼ cup vegetable broth
- 3 tablespoons of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1 piece of fresh ginger minced (small)
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
How to make Vegetable Tempura:
Cut the vegetables into medium pieces: you can cut the carrot and zucchini into sticks and the pepper into strips. If you use frozen vegetables, defrost them beforehand and drain them well.
To know how to make vegetable tempura, in addition to cutting the vegetables, the first thing is to sift the wheat flour to break up the lumps of particles and obtain a much finer and fluffier batter. Also, make sure the water is very cold. Prepare the tempura by mixing the flour, salt and poppy seeds in a bowl.
Add the very cold water little by little and stir continuously with a few rods to integrate all the ingredients of the tempura.
Stir until a homogeneous, thick and lump-free mixture is left. This last point is very important so that the vegetables in tempura are crispy, with a certain sponginess and, above all, soft.
Heat the oil in a frying pan or saucepan until it reaches approximately 160°C. Take the pieces of vegetables and dip them in the batter so that they are well covered.
Fry several pieces of tempura vegetables in oil at the same time without touching them until the batter is lightly golden. Once all the vegetables are fried, place them on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.
As an option, you can serve the vegetable tempura recipe with a delicious Asian sauce. You just need to mix the vegetable broth, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, crushed garlic and ginger in a saucepan, cook all the ingredients for 5 minutes and let cool before serving. That easy!
