Eggless Vegetable Tempura (Shojin Age with Matcha Salt)
Shojin Age is a traditional plant-based version of Japanese tempura made with a light and crispy eggless batter. It's seriously good, especially paired with homemade matcha salt for dipping!
- Prep time
- 40 min
- Cook time
- 20 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 175 ml water (chilled)
- 60 ml carbonated water (chilled)
- 95 g cake flour (plus extra for dusting)
- 30 g cornstarch
- 15 ml rice vinegar
- 3 ice cubes
- ½ tsp baking powder
- cooking oil (for deep frying)
- 1 Japanese sweet potato (satsumaimo) (cut into thick rounds)
- 1 king oyster mushroom (eryngii) (quartered lengthways)
- 6 asparagus (halved)
- 100 g bamboo shoots (cut lengthways)
- 8 slices lotus root (renkon) (pre-boiled)
- ½ tbsp salt
- ½ tsp matcha powder
Instructions
- 1
Start by chilling 175 ml water and 60 ml carbonated water (preferably unopened) in the refrigerator. Measure 95 g cake flour and 30 g cornstarch into a bowl and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- 2
In the meantime, wash, dry, and cut your vegetables according to the ingredients list.
- 3
Once your batter ingredients are thoroughly chilled, start heating your cooking oil to 170 °C (338 °F) to 180 °C (356 °F). While it's heating, pour the water and sparkling water into a bowl, then add 15 ml rice vinegar and 3 ice cubes.
- 4
Pour the cake flour, cornstarch and ½ tsp baking powder into a sifter, then sift it into the water one-third at a time, gently mixing by drawing crosses with chopsticks.
- 5
The batter is ready once there is no more dry flour. Be careful not to overmix, tempura batter should be a bit lumpy (not smooth).
- 6
Once your oil is hot, dust your ingredients with cake flour and dip them in the batter before placing them straight into the oil.
- 7
Cook each type of ingredient in separate batches for even cooking. Most vegetables take 2-3 minutes, root vegetables will take 2-4 depending on thickness. Leaves (like perilla) and nori will take about 30 seconds.
- 8
Once light and crispy, transfer to a wire rack to drain the excess oil.
- 9
Take a small bowl and sift in ½ tsp matcha powder. Add ½ tbsp salt and mix well to make the matcha salt for dipping.
- 10
Serve immediately and enjoy!