Vegetable Tempura
Light and crunchy, these tempura battered veggies will melt in your mouth.
Combine all the dipping sauce ingredients together and let sit so the flavors can meld together, stirring occasionally to ensure the sugar fully dissolves.
Thinly slice the sweet potatoes/butternut squash to a 1/4″ or less, and slice the zucchini about 1/2″ thick.
Combine the batter ingredients, whisking until just combined. Will be the consistency of pancake batter.
Use chopsticks or tongs to dip each veggie (that has first been lightly coated in cornstarch) into the batter, shaking excess off, then into the hot oil. Fry in batches to ensure oil temperature does not lower (thereby allowing the veggies to soak up more oil due to the longer cook time). Flip halfway through cooking – test one to know how long the cook time will be. Let drain on a wire rack, then keep warm in the oven until everything has been fried. Be sure to strain out any bits of batter that have floated to the surface using a metal mesh strainer or they will start to burn.

Vegetable Tempura
Ingredients
- 4-6 cups vegetable oil for frying
Batter
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ tsp salt
- 1-1 ½ cups club soda or GF beer
- 3/4 cup rice flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- ½ tsp xanthan gum
Vegetables
- Butternut squash
- Sweet potato
- Zucchini
- Asparagus
- Snow peas
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
Dipping Sauce
- 2/3 cup GF soy sauce
- ¼ GF rice vinegar
- 1 Tbsp sesame oil
- 2 Tbsp fresh ginger minced
- 2 tsp brown sugar
Instructions
- Whisk together dipping sauce, stirring until sugar is dissolved and set aside.
- Heat oil (enough to be 2” in depth) in a heavy bottom pan with high sides to 375°F.
- For batter, in a large bowl whisk together the dry ingredients, then add enough club soda until thick batter forms.
- Peel and cut the butternut squash/sweet potato to 1/8" thick,and the zucchini to 1/4" thick. Rinse the asparagus and snow peas in water and shake off excess Dredge the veggies in a dish with some cornstarch, shaking excess off. Next dip in batter (chopsticks work great), shaking off excess then place in oil.
- Fry for 3-5 minutes, turning half way through cooking, until tender. Remove and place on paper towels to drain, then place in warm oven until everything has been fried. Do not overcrowd the oil, or the temperature will drop too quickly and it will take too long to cook and absorb too much oil.
- Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
Can Tapioca starch be substituted for the cornstarch? If soy is an issue what else can be used in the dipping sauce to replace the soy?
This looks so yummy! Oh for the days of old when I could eat anything at all and not hurt and still be skinny!
would this tempura batter be successful for fish or chicken pieces?
Yup, just make sure you pat the fish/chicken dry with a paper towel before dipping it in the batter (otherwise the batter will slip off).
Yes tapioca can be substituted for cornstarch in most cases with no problems. Try our Soy-free Soy Sauce!