Japanese Kakiage Tempura (Mixed Vegetable)
This Kakiage Tempura is crispy, light, and so simple to make. Served with a delicious soy maple dipping sauce. You’ll love how easy it is to make this Japanese appetizer at home.
Servings: 8 pieces
Ingredients
- 1 cup sweet potato thinly sliced
- 1 cup rainbow carrots thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup snap peas thinly sliced
- 2 shiso leaves
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup ice cold water
- Vegetable oil for frying
Soy-Maple Dipping Sauce
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp maple syrup add more to taste
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- sriracha/red chili hot sauce to taste
Instructions
- Peel and thinly slice the vegetables (sweet potato, rainbow carrots, snap peas & shiso leaves).
- Add the thinly sliced vegetables to a large bowl.
- Then toss in all purpose flour, cornstarch, and salt.
- Stir in the ice cold water and mix until just combine.
- To a large fry pan add about 1.5 inch layer of vegetable oil. Heat over medium high heat until oil is hot. Oil is ready when wooden chopstick inserted into the hot oil forms tiny bubbles around it.
- Using a wide spatula, scoop the vegetable mixture and gently add to the hot oil. Fry until crispy and golden brown on both sides about 4-5 mins total.
- Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain any excess oil
- Serve kakiage with soy maple dipping sauce (recipe below). Tempura must be served immediately as it will lose its crispness.
- To make soy maple dipping sauce: In a small bowl mix the soy sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar and sriracha until combined. Serve with hot tempura.
Video
Notes
- Don’t over mix as this will activate the wheat gluten. Stir gently until vegetables are just combined with the batter. Seeing a few patches of flour is fine.
- Make sure the temperature of the vegetable oil is hot by testing with a chopstick inserted into the hot oil and you can see tiny bubbles forming. It should ideally be around 350F, If your oil is not hot enough your tempura will be greasy and not as crispy.
- It’s best to use starchy/low moisture vegetables since vegetables with a lot of moisture will add excess water to the tempura which will make the oil spatter.
- If you don’t want to make the soy maple dipping sauce you can always just dip in soy sauce.