What is Asparagus Tempura?
What’s your favorite vegetable tempura? A lot of vegetables are great in this Japanese cooking technique, but asparagus is definitely one of my favorites.
When you fry asparagus the right way, it stays crisp and fresh inside and gets a light and crunchy outside coating. The mild flavor and convenient shape is perfect for dipping, making it an ideal appetizer or snack. Delicious!
In this recipe article, I’ll walk you through the whole process of making perfect asparagus tempura, sharing all my essential tips and techniques for achieving the best results at home!
Visual Walkthrough & Tips
Here are my step-by-step instructions for how to make Asparagus Tempura at home. For ingredient quantities and simplified instructions, scroll down for the Printable Recipe Card below.
This section aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the cooking steps and techniques with visuals. It also includes more in-depth tips and tricks and explains why I do what I do.
Begin your tempura by measuring cold water into a pitcher and placing it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. For carbonated water, keep the bottle chilled and unopened until you’re ready to mix your batter.
When cold water meets flour at low temperatures, it significantly slows down gluten formation. Cold batter creates a magical reaction when it hits hot oil, resulting in that iconic airy, crisp tempura coating we all love. The sudden temperature change creates tiny steam pockets that make tempura light and puffy rather than dense and greasy.
Take cornstarch and cake flour and sift them together in a medium bowl. This sifting process removes any lumps and incorporates air into the dry ingredients.
Once combined, transfer the mixture to the freezer for 20-30 minutes.
Choosing the right flour is key to getting the perfect tempura texture. Cake flour has less protein than all-purpose or bread flour. Since there’s less protein, gluten isn’t as well-developed, so you end up with a delicate, light coating instead of a chewy, heavy one.
And when you mix it with cornstarch, it reduces the gluten even more while adding a nice, crunchy texture to the final product.
Once your ingredients are chilled, get your frying oil ready. Pour neutral cooking oil with a high smoke point (I always use rice bran oil) into a pot that has a thick bottom. Make sure the oil is at least 2 inches deep. Preheat the oil to 180°C (356°F).
A contactless cooking thermometer gives you a fairly accurate reading, but if you don’t have one, try this traditional method:
- Drop a small amount of batter into the oil.
- If it sinks halfway and then immediately rises to the surface with a gentle sizzle, your oil is at good temperature.
- If it browns too quickly, your oil is too hot.
- If it sinks without bubbling vigorously, it’s too cool.
When you’re ready to cook, combine your chilled water and sparkling water in a cold bowl. Add an egg yolk and whisk gently until just combined.
Add your chilled flour mixture to the liquid in three separate additions, gently folding with chopsticks after each addition. The key is minimal mixing – just enough to combine the ingredients.
Unlike most baking techniques, tempura batter actually benefits from being slightly lumpy. Those little pockets of dry flour create those crispy bubbles when they hit the hot oil, which is what gives it that great texture.
If you overmix, you’ll activate the gluten, and that’ll make the texture chewy instead of crisp.
Tempura batter begins developing gluten the moment liquid touches flour, even at cold temperatures. The longer it sits, the chewier and denser your tempura becomes.
Place ice cubes in your batter bowl, being careful to position them where they won’t be scooped up with the batter. This maintains the crucial cold temperature throughout the frying process.
Just before frying, prepare your asparagus by snapping or cutting off the woody base (about 1cm or ½ inch from the bottom). For thicker stalks, use a vegetable peeler to remove the tough outer skin from the lower third of the stalk.
If you can, try not to cut the asparagus into pieces. When you cut them, you make openings where moisture can escape during frying, which makes the vegetable less juicy and less aromatic. But if your pot is too small to accommodate the whole like mine, just cut the asparagus in half.
Thoroughly pat the asparagus dry with paper towels. Next, lightly dust each stalk with flour, ensuring even coverage from tip to base. This critical step creates a barrier between the vegetable’s moisture and the batter, allowing the coating to adhere properly without slipping off during frying.
Working with a few stalks at a time, quickly dip each floured asparagus into the batter, allowing excess to drip off for a second. Carefully place them in the hot oil, separated from each other.
Asparagus cooks quickly, so you just need to fry it for about 90 seconds. When you first add the asparagus to the oil, let it cook undisturbed for about 30 to 45 seconds.
You’ll see tiny bubbles forming around it and hear a lively sizzling sound. This is the perfect rate of water evaporating. Then, gently roll each piece using chopsticks or cooking tongs for the remaining time to make sure they cook evenly.
The batter should be a light golden-brown, and the asparagus should stay vibrant green.
Once cooked, immediately transfer to a wire rack positioned over a container. This allows excess oil to drain while maintaining the coating’s crispness. Serve immediately for the best texture and flavor.
For the best experience, I recommend serving asparagus tempura with high-quality sea salt to enhance its natural sweetness.
Alternatively, prepare a classic tempura dipping sauce.
Asparagus tempura also makes an excellent addition to tempura soba or tendon.
Jump to Full Recipe MeasurementsEssential Tips & Tricks
- Don’t overmix the batter – lumps are actually good! Mix gently with chopsticks, not a whisk.
- Mix the batter immediately before frying – letting it sit causes gluten development and results in chewy tempura.
- Thoroughly dry asparagus before dusting with flour to make sure the batter adheres properly.
- Use cake flour (not bread flour) for its lower protein content, which creates lighter, crispier tempura.
- Maintain oil at exactly 180°C (356°F) – too hot and the outside burns before the inside cooks; too cool and the tempura absorbs oil.
- Fry asparagus quickly (about 90 seconds total) – it needs just enough time to cook the batter while keeping the vegetable crisp inside.
With these simple tips in mind, you’re set for success every time you make Asparagus Tempura.
Storage and Reheating Tips
Tempura reaches its peak quality immediately after frying and gets soggier and soggier over time, but any leftovers can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
For reheating, avoid microwaves entirely, as they create steam that destroys crispness. Instead, place pieces on a wire rack in a preheated 200°C (400°F) oven for 3-5 minutes until thoroughly heated and re-crisped.
Serving Suggestions
FAQ
Here are answers to frequently asked questions I have received across all platforms, including here, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to me anytime! It will be a big help for everyone in this community!
The batter should be a light golden color (not deep brown), and you’ll notice the bubbling around the tempura becomes less vigorous as moisture is released. Total cooking time is usually about 90 seconds for asparagus.
Unfortunately, tempura batter doesn’t work well when prepared in advance. The moment flour meets liquid, gluten development begins, resulting in a chewy rather than crispy texture. For best results, always mix your batter immediately before frying.
I hope you enjoy this Asparagus Tempura recipe! If you try it out, I’d really appreciate it if you could spare a moment to let me know what you thought by giving a review and star rating in the comments below. It’s also helpful to share any adjustments you made to the recipe with our other readers. Thank you!
More Tempura Recipes
Asparagus Tempura
Equipment
- Japanese-style fryer
Ingredients
- 8 stalks asparagus
- cooking oil neutral flavor for deep frying
- cake flour or starch for dusting
Tempura Batter (see note)
- 75 ml cold water chilled
- 50 ml carbonated water chilled
- 1 egg yolk
- 15 g cornstarch
- 75 g cake flour
- ice cubes
Serving suggestion (optional)
- salt
Instructions
- Before you start, chill all of the tempura ingredients thoroughly. Sift 15 g cornstarch and 75 g cake flour into a bowl and place it in the freezer. Keep 75 ml cold water, 50 ml carbonated water (sealed) and 1 egg yolk in the fridge until right before mixing. (At least 30 minutes)
- Start heating your cooking oil to 170 °C (338 °F). While you wait, wash 8 stalks asparagus and pat them dry with kitchen paper. Break off the woody stems, taking about 1cm/ ½ inch off the bottom of the stalks. If you have a small cooking pot, cut each stalk in half.
- When your oil is almost ready, take a mixing bowl and add the 75 ml cold water, 50 ml carbonated water and 1 egg yolk straight from the fridge. Whisk gently until combined.
- Take the dry ingredients from the freezer and add them to the egg mixture in 3 additions. Instead of whisking, use chopsticks to draw crosses in the batter until there is no more dry flour. Be careful not to overmix, lumps are fine in tempura batter.
- If you are making multiple batches or are in a warm environment, add a few ice cubes to the batter.
- Coat the asparagus in a thin layer of cake flour. Tap off any excess, too much flour can cause the batter to fall off.
- Once the oil is hot, dip the asparagus into the batter and place straight into the pot. Deep fry for 90 seconds or until the bubbles have settled down and the batter is lightly golden.
- Transfer to a wire rack to drain excess oil.
- Serve with salt, your favorite dipping sauce, or as part of a larger assortment of tempura. Enjoy!
Notes
- Although salt or tentsuyu are commonly served with Japanese tempura for dipping, this recipe also goes great with other dipping sauces.
- This recipe is likely to have leftover tempura batter. Leftovers can be used for other ingredients such as shrimp, eggplant, sweet potato etc. You can also make your own tenkasu (tempura flakes) to serve with udon and soba.
- For best results, fry other ingredients in separate batches of the same ingredients.
- The egg yolk can be replaced with 2 tsp of egg mayonnaise (this is convenient if you want to half the recipe and use 1 tsp mayonnaise instead of half an egg yolk).
- If you’re looking for an eggless tempura batter, check out my shojin age recipe.
- Serve Asparagus Tempura as an appetizer, side or with tempura rice bowl (tendon), kake udon or zaru soba.
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