MiniMonos Meatless Meal -- Ten-minute Tempura

This week for our MiniMonos Meatless Meal my husband reminded me about a meal we used to cook often when we first met.  I had forgotten just how easy it is to prepare tempura, and how delicious it is. And of course, it's the ideal dish to prepare if you're looking to reduce your carbon footprint, not just because it is meatless, but because the cooking time is super-fast.

The building materials

Tempura batter:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cornstarch
4 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½  cups cold water

For cooking, 2 cups of vegetable oil.

The construction

Put dry ingredients into a bowl.  Slowly add water, mixing until it is smooth, without lumps.

Chop your favourite vegetables into large chunks.

Put the vegetables into the batter, swirling until well covered.

Heat oil in a saucepan until it is simmering.  We kept an eye on it to make sure it wasn’t smoking-hot and kept our son well away from it.  I have a very healthy respect for a pot of boiling oil.

Drop several vegetable pieces into the hot oil and remove when lightly browned.
A tip to use less paper towels is to place one layer on newspaper.  This way you can use it more than once.

Once it’s cooked, dip into your favorite soy sauce and enjoy!

Again, I had forgotten how filling tempura is, so a few vegetables go a long way.  The vegetables were tender, with a light, crisp batter that didn't give us deep-fried regret after eating them.

Yum! We'll be putting tempura back on our regular household menu again!

Comments

[Tara]

YUM! I'm making this tonight.