Vegan Japanese Tempura

This easy crispy, golden Japanese tempura is made with fresh veggies and a light, air egg-free batter. Vegan AND gluten free – your new favourite crunchy side dish!

This crispy Japanese side dish is something that I grew up eating a lot – whether it’s at Japanese-fusion hawker stalls or high end restaurants. Tempura is traditionally not vegan (there’s egg in the batter, and usually comes with seafood-based dipping sauces).

This plant-based recipe doesn’t compromise on crunch or flavour. The ingredients matter – always use fresh vegetables! Choosing the right classics like sweet potato, eggplant, mushrooms, zucchini, green beans, bell peppers will make all the difference. For this recipe, I’ve used thinly sliced sweet potato, eggplant, okra and enoki mushrooms.

For extra crispiness, ensure your batter basics – use ice-cold sparkling water and cornstarch for extra crispiness. The cold batter combined with the hot oil is what gives this dish its signature crunch! Also, remember not to overmix the batter – lightly stir to keep the batter airy (you should see tiny bubbles!)

This recipe is gluten free as we use rice flour as the base. You can make a quick dipping sauce that can be found here. Alternatively, you can combine soy sauce, mirin, and a touch of agave and grated ginger.

Ingredients You Need

• vegetables – brinjal, okra, sweet potato, mushrooms, tofu
• aquafaba – I got mine by whipping the water from a can of chickpeas for 10 minutes
• ice-cold sparkling water
• baking soda – crunch factor
• corn starch – adds to the crispiness
• rice flour – keeps the recipe gluten free
• salt – or you black salt for a more ‘eggy’ flavour!

You can serve the tempura with many dishes like my 10-min Chili Peanut Noodles or Japanese Curry Udon.