This vegan tempura is my go-to batter for deep frying anything: it’s super light, crispy, and simple with only 5 ingredients!
Simply put, who doesn’t like tempura? Crispy batter, lightly salted seasoning to dunk into soy sauce, and so many different vegetables to choose from for a variety of textures and flavours…tempura is awesome and can be difficult to find vegan at most sushi restaurants. I started buying these premixed tempura or fry batter mixes at the Asian markets that had the perfect amount of crispiness and lightness to them, I had no idea how they managed to do that with such simple ingredient lists. One day, I looked at one of the packages of the batter and noticed that there were percentages beside the ingredients, and thus, this recipe was born. Percentages turned into ratios, then worked it backwards into a recipe!
I use this batter for vegan shrimp, eggplant, mushrooms, broccoli, it’s all worked out deliciously and so long as you heat up the oil to the proper temperature, the batter will crisp up and cook quickly and avoid absorbing too much oil. If you have any veg that struggles to cling to the batter, make sure you dry your vegetables well and/or toss in a bit of cornstarch to help the batter stick a bit better.
If you want to add panko, feel free to coat in the batter and then quickly dunk into panko crumbs before placing in the hot oil. I learned that panko crumbs are made with bread that is baked (and kind of electrocuted) in a particular way to make the crumb light and airy as opposed to traditional breadcrumbs, which makes for incredibly delicate and crispy tempura!
It’s incredibly simple and now a staple recipe of mine for any battered and fried food, so I hope you try this vegan tempura batter and enjoy some fried goodness!
Vegan Tempura
This vegan tempura mix is my go-to for super light, crispy batter that makes for a delicious appetizer or salt & pepper shrimp. I've used this on eggplant, vegan shrimp, sweet potato, broccoli and mushrooms. All have been delicious!
Ingredients
- 50 g (1/3 cup) cornstarch
- 35 g (1/4 cup) flour
- 10 g (2 tbsp) rice flour
- 1 tsp (3 g) baking powder
- 1/2 cup sparkling water
- Oil for frying
- Whatever vegetables/vegan shrimp you freaking want
Instructions
- Heat oil in a pot to about 350F/176C (just slightly hotter than medium heat), I suggest at least 1 inch for frying, ideally 2 inches deep in the pot
- Mix the dry ingredients together and then add the sparkling water. Stir just until no lumps remain.
- Batter your vegan shrimp/sliced veggies (like eggplant, mushroom, broccoli, sweet potato slices, potato slices, green beans MM so many possibilities), then fry until they are crispy! They won't get super golden, but make sure you turn them so they fry evenly. Remove from oil and let drain on a paper towel.
- For salt+pepper shrimp, make a mix 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp white pepper, then sprinkle it on top of your freshly fried deliciousness. Or just dunk on soy sauce because delicious.
Melissa K. says
Any way I can use this with an air fryer, ya think?
Really enjoy your blog!
Lisa Le says
Hi Melissa! The batter might be too runny for it to work well in an air-fryer, but you might be able to do it if it’s panko’d and then air fried?
Brenda says
I always wondered (although never enough to actually investigate) what made panko the way it is. I’ve pretty much never used regular breadcrumbs for anything since I discovered it, though.
roni says
Amazing recipe thankyou – i made tofu fingers in about 5 mins served with lemon juice and salt – just what i needed !
Lala says
Do you have a recipe for making vegan “shrimp” or did you buy them? If they are premade, what brand did you use? I’ve never seen them before and would LOVE to try them.
Lisa Le says
They’re premade! They are konjac based, and from what I’ve seen, all the different brands I’ve tried are repackaged of the same initial manufacturer haha. I get it from my local Asian markets (they typically have a frozen section of vegetarian offerings), or I get it from Coven in Hamilton (a vegan specialty store)
Arielle says
Mind Blown vegan shrimp are incredibly delicious! I order mine from GTFO It’s Vegan site.
Mike says
I have been trying to change my eating habits due to some health complications, when some friend suggested me to try vegan food and I must say I am hooked for life. Most of the times, I crave for unhealthy junk food, but I try not go down that path by cooking light unhealthy food. I am glad to come across your tempura recipe. I just hope it turns out well. Thanks a ton.
Annie says
Hi, will this work without the rice flour?
Lisa Le says
You could replace with more flour and cornstarch, and it’ll work fine. It just will have a slightly different texture, but still good!
Vicente says
Hi I just wanted to ask something
You said here how to make the tempura but if I want to make vegan shrimp tempuras how to make vegan shrimp?
Did you mention how to make the shrimp in the recipe?
Lisa Le says
I use a vegan konjac shrimp I buy from the store. The brand Nelakee or Kings Vegetarian are the ones I find here!
Aurora says
Hello, I am very excited to try this recipe!
What type of oil do you use for frying?
Lisa Le says
I usually use vegetable or canola :)
Sorcha says
Hi, is there a way to make this without cornstarch??
Lisa Le says
You could replace with another starch? Perhaps potato starch?
L says
What can I substitute the regular flour with? The only flour I can use is rice and oat flour.
Lisa Le says
Oat would work fine. The wheat flour adds some more chew to balance the dry crunch/crisp of the other starches.
Roger Fredette says
I am on a strict vegan no oil diet, for cardiovascular problems. Have tasted the oil fried ones and are delicious. Love to have a no oil version.
Lisa Le says
Hi Roger, you could use the batter in this recipe, then coat in panko crumbs and then air fry? You could lightly mist with a small amount of oil before you airfry to get some crispiness, but if you baked it it would be good (not as crispy but still ok)
Vita says
The ads are covering portions of the recipe so it can’tbe made, just FYI.
Lisa Le says
Would you mind emailing me a screenshot? my email is lisa@thevietvegan. com
Amanda says
Hello
Do you cook veggies like sweet potato first?
Thank you
Lisa Le says
Hi! If you slice the sweet potato very thin, you won’t need to cook in advance. If they are more than 1/4 inch in thickness, you may need to parboil :)
Ant says
This batter came out so good. Thank you. Used fake duck and a sauce made from sweet chili, soy, hoison, red wine vinegar and sugar. Excellent. Didn’t have rice flour so I used extra flour. Didn’t have regular seltzer so I used black cherry. So tasty.
CB says
Thanks for the recipe. It worked great! I had to sub for the rice flour, so I used potato starch. And I didn’t have any carbonated water on hand, so I added some apple cider vinegar to get some bubbles from the reaction with the baking soda part of the baking powder. It probably wasn’t as good as your original recipe, but it was still delicious!
I wanted to ask you why you chose baking powder over baking soda for this recipe? I’ve read that baking soda helps to make fried foods crispy. Does the cream of tartar that’s in baking powder do something particular in this recipe? I never quite understand when to use baking soda, baking powder, or both, and am just looking to learn. Thanks!
Lisa Le says
Baking powder puffs, while baking soda spreads! I wanted poofier tempura for this. Baking soda I think would make more surface area for a crunchier experience though. Baking powder is double action: it works with chemical and heat, whereas baking soda’s activation is only chemical.