Vegan, Gluten Free Tempura

Vegan, Gluten Free Tempura

Here's a simple recipe for one of my favourite Japanese classics - tempura.  With oat flour, sesame seeds, and no egg, the batter isn't very traditional, but the result is very similar to what I remember eating every month at the Crayon House in Harajuku.  (If you are going to Tokyo, I highly recommend checking them out for tasty, organic food, which is always well-labelled for vegetarians/vegans...not a common thing in Japanese restaurants!)

The batter is a cinch to prepare, but do leave yourself plenty of time to fry the vegetables...it always takes much longer than I expect!

Vegan, Gluten Free Tempura

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 4-6 with rice and miso soup

About 8 cups of your choice of vegetables, cut into reasonably large pieces. (I like onions, broccoli, sweet potato, carrot, lotus root, and bell peppers best)

1 cup of (certified gluten free) oat flour

1 tablespoon of white sesame seeds

1 1/2 cup of very cold water

Pinch of salt

Oil for frying

Mix the flour, sesame seeds, water, and salt together - they should make a relatively thin batter.  Let stand in the refridgerator for 10 minutes.  Add more cold water if needed to thin.  Dip the vegetable pieces in the batter, then shallow or deep-fat fry in oil until crispy and brown.

Tempura dipping sauce - if you have the ingredients, I really recommend making this to serve with

1/4 cup tamari

1 tbsp cooking sake

1 tbp mirin

1 tsp water

Place all the ingredients in a pan or small pot, and bring to the boil.  Let the sauce simmer for 30 seconds, then remove from the heat.  Serve warm.