Shiso Tempura 3 Ways (Crispy Fried Perilla Leaves)

Name: Shiso Tempura 3 Ways (Crispy Fried Perilla Leaves)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 15 perilla leaves (shiso); cooking oil (neutral flavor for deep frying); unbleached cake flour (or starch for dusting); 75 ml cold water (chilled); 50 ml carbonated water (chilled); 1 egg yolk; 15 g cornstarch; 75 g unbleached cake flour; ice cubes; salt

Take a bite and you get that loud crisp snap like potato chips. Only after the crunch fades does the gentle shiso aroma rise up and fill your mouth.

Shiso tempura is one of those dishes that almost never fails. The only real way to miss is to let the fragrance fly away in the hot oil so all you are left with is plain fried bits. This is the way I cook it so you can truly taste shiso as shiso.

Shiso Tempura

Recipe Snapshot

What is it? A Japanese tempura made from a whole shiso leaf in a thin batter. Unlike tempura with a filling inside, it runs on leaf aroma and a light coating.
Flavor profile: Texture arrives first. The thin coating breaks with a dry snap, and that sharpness lingers for a moment. The shiso aroma and flavor come up faintly behind it.
Why this recipe works: Frying method changes how much aroma survives, so I put 3 answers on a single leaf and rank none. Cold flour and water, mixed right before frying, come out thin and light.
How to make it: Flour the leaf, batter it, drop it into hot oil. Single leaves take batter on the back. Stacks and rolls go through whole. A pastry brush and toothpick help.
What to expect: Prep takes 30 minutes, frying 5. 15 shiso leaves serve 3. Each side is a matter of seconds in the oil, and the stumble is lifting it a beat late.

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What Is Shiso Tempura?

Shiso tempura is a Japanese dish where you deep-fry a single perilla leaf as it is. It is one of the few ways a garnish herb becomes the star. This is not a dish where you wait for a golden brown color. For a single leaf the batter clings only to the back so the front stays bright green and translucent. When you stack or roll the leaves the way the batter coats them and the frying time both change.

What is ooba?

Sometimes shiso and ooba are listed as if they were different ingredients. They are the same leaf. Shiso is the name for the whole plant and covers the green leaves, red leaves, sprouts, flower spikes, and seeds. When the green leaves are sold as they are, the name given to them is ooba. Aojiso is simply the name of the green variety. The 3 terms point to parts that differ in size but they are not 3 separate plants. The names themselves are not the same age. Ooba dates from 1962 when the Toyohashi growers’ cooperative first shipped the leaves under that name. The characters for shiso are far older, and they mean purple and reviving grass. The writing comes from an old Chinese story in which a young man who collapsed from crab poisoning was revived by a decoction of the purple leaves.

How I make it, and why

I used to fry the leaves individually with nothing else done to them. These days I make all 3 styles. Some days I batter only the back of a single leaf. Other days I stick 3 leaves together with batter or roll them and secure the rolls with a toothpick. I kept all 3 not because I wanted more options but because the amount of aroma left after frying changes with each method. The same leaf in the same oil does not retain the same quantity of scent. That is why I could not pick a single technique and declare it the correct way. Which one you choose is up to you.

Shiso Leaf Tempura Ingredients

close up of a green Perilla leaf (shiso/ooba)

Shiso leaves: The first things to look at are color and tips. Vivid green with the tips still standing up means fresh. Black speckles, or a darkened cut on the stem, means old. Blackening on the underside shows through the pack, so check that before you buy. A limp leaf comes back after 10 minutes in ice water. Then dry it completely, after reviving and after washing.

Ingredients needed to make tempura batter on a white background with labels. From top to bottom, left to right: carbonated water, cornstarch, unbleached cake flour, cold water, egg yolk, ice cubes.

Cake flour: The same flour does both jobs here, the batter and the dusting. The lower the protein, the less gluten forms, and that is the foundation of the light coating. Buy unbleached cake flour (or pastry flour, low-protein, around 7-8%) first.
Cold water: Chill the water hard in the fridge before you use it. The colder it is, the slower gluten forms, and the coating never turns heavy.

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Substitution Ideas

Shiso → Korean perilla leaves (kkaennip): These are the leaves sold at Korean grocers, often labeled sesame leaf, and they fry closer to shiso than anything else does. We use them as a stand-in in Japan too. The leaf is thicker though, and the aroma leans heavier and a little bitter, so what you get is a different plate rather than a copy of this one.
Shiso → Vietnamese perilla (tía tô): The aroma sits close to shiso. The underside is purple, so in a dish where you fry a whole single leaf, that purple lands on the finished plate.
Cornstarch → Potato starch (katakuriko): The starch that goes into the batter can be swapped. Potato starch gives a thicker, harder crunch and cornstarch gives a finer, lighter one. Use 1:1 for frying, and for the dusting the difference barely shows either way.
Egg yolk → Mayonnaise, or nothing at all: The yolk that goes into the batter is there for richness and a pale color, and the batter works without it. Leaving it out is not unusual for leaf tempura. If you do want it, 2 teaspoons of mayonnaise stands in for 1 yolk. If you want to know how to make the batter without egg, check out my eggless tempura batter recipe.
Turn it into a mixed platter: The batter always makes more than the leaves need, so frying lotus root, asparagus, or shrimp tempura in the same round uses it up. Shiso fries in a matter of seconds and is at its best straight out of the oil, so fry it last.

Have trouble finding Japanese ingredients? Check out my ultimate guide to Japanese ingredient substitutes!

How to Make My Shiso Tempura

Before you start (Mise en place):

Rinse the shiso gently in cold water and pat it completely dry with paper towels. Cut the stems off at the base.
Chill the cold water and the carbonated water in the fridge for 30 minutes. Use an unopened bottle of carbonated water and open it right before you mix.
Sift the cake flour and cornstarch together and chill the bowl in the freezer for 30 minutes. Keep the egg yolk in the fridge until the moment you use it.

Ooba leaves with the stems cut off on a wooden chopping board on a white background

Still water in a jug and sparkling water in a sealed bottle

Sifting dry ingredients for tempura batter into a mixing bowl

Equipment Notes

To develop this recipe, I used a tempura pot with a built-in thermometer.

Japanese tempura frying pot with wire draining rack lid on a white background

STEP

Heat the oil and mix the batter

i. Start heating the frying oil to 170°C (338°F).

ii. Once the oil is coming up to temperature, combine the chilled water and carbonated water, drop in the cold egg yolk, and beat it lightly.

egg yolk and chilled water in a steel mixing bowl

whisking egg yolk and chilled water in a bowl to make tempura batter

iii. Add the chilled flour in 3 additions, stirring with chopsticks in a cross pattern. Stop while small lumps are still scattered through it. If you are frying in more than 1 batch, drop 2 or 3 ice cubes into this batter bowl as well.

egg, water and flour in a bowl, drawing crosses in the mixture with chopsticks to make tempura batter

Why the batter gets mixed at the last minute

Tempura batter can only be made at the last minute. Let it stand after mixing and the flour and water link up into something tacky that will not go light in the oil. So mix once the oil is heating, and stop while small lumps still speckle it. The moment it turns smooth all through, you are already past the line.

STEP

Flour and shape the leaves, 3 ways

i. For a single leaf, brush flour thinly onto the back only, the paler side with raised veins, then press it onto the batter to coat that one face.

Brushing one side on an ooba (shiso/perilla) leaf with flour to help tempura batter stick

ii. For the stack, dust 3 leaves on both sides, coat a single face of the first on the batter, and press the next onto it. Dip the glued bundle whole.

Ooba leaves coated with flour to help tempura batter stick on a white plate on a white background

iii. For the roll, lay 3 leaves face up, tips toward you, fold the tips and edges in, and roll from the wide end. Pin the middle with a toothpick, brush flour over the roll, then dip.

3 rolled perilla leaves on toothpicks on a wooden chopping board for tempura

Why the flour goes on before the leaves meet

With the stack, once batter joins 2 leaves, no flour reaches the faces in between, so all 3 get dusted on both sides first. With the roll, the folds and overlaps are hard to reach, so you brush it once the roll is a single piece. Spread the flour thin and even and the batter has nothing to slide off.

STEP

Fry the leaves and pull them while they are still green

i. Hold a single leaf by the tip, battered face down, and slap it onto the surface of the oil. The stack and the roll go in the same way, battered face first.

dipping stacked perilla leaves in tempura batter ready for deep frying

ii. A single leaf takes 45 to 60 seconds, until the bubbles around it settle, then 15 seconds on the bare face after you flip it. The stack and the roll take 45 to 60 seconds per side.

How to read the moment it is ready: The signal to pull it comes from the oil before it comes from the leaf. The bubbles go small and quiet, and the frying sound climbs from a low, heavy roar to something lighter and higher. The batter is still pale gold then, the green still there. That is your moment, and waiting for color is waiting too long.

removing ooba tempura from pot of oil using red cooking chopsticks

iii. Set what comes out on a wire rack, tilted a little so the oil runs off.

3 types of ooba tempura (shiso/Perilla leaf) on a wire rack to drain off excess oil

Why you slap it down instead of lowering it in

A leaf tries to curl the instant it touches oil. Hold it by the tip and slap it down battered face first, and the excess batter scatters out around it while the leaf spreads out flat. Lowering it in gently gives you less control over the shape than this does.

Tips for the Best Fried Shiso Leaves

Set your prep order: leaves dry first, oil on the heat, batter last. The flour, the water and the yolk can all be chilled ahead of time, but the mixing itself cannot happen early. So the batter bowl only comes out once the oil is already climbing.
Pause between leaves instead of feeding them in back to back. Every leaf that goes in pulls the oil temperature down, and the ones that follow sit in cooler oil, drink it up and go limp. Let a moment pass after you lift a leaf out, and the oil climbs back. The more leaves you have to fry, the more that pause earns its place.
Serve them straight off the rack, while the batch is still going. From the second a leaf lands on the rack, the water shut inside the batter starts moving back out. That is why the sound of fresh tempura dulls within a few minutes, and it is not a sign you fried them badly. Send each leaf to the table as it comes out instead of waiting for the batch.

The scent in a shiso leaf is not something I add to it. Frying is only ever a question of how much of it survives the trip to the plate.

Storage & Meal Prep

Fridge: Best the day you fry it. It keeps 1 or 2 days, though the batter takes on moisture and the just-fried lightness is gone.

Freezer: Freeze it after frying. Wrap each piece, press out the air, about 2 weeks.

Meal prep: Wash, dry and dust the leaves ahead. Only the batter cannot be made early.

Reheating: Air fryer, 180°C (356°F), 3 to 5 minutes. The crisp comes back.

What to Serve With Shiso Tempura

Perilla Leaf Tempura Troubleshooting

Why did the batter slide off my shiso leaf?

Either water was still sitting on the leaf, or the dusting step got skipped. Water turns to steam the instant it meets the oil, and that force pries the batter and the leaf apart. Press the washed leaves completely dry with paper towel, then dust the back with a thin layer of flour before the leaf goes into the batter. The flour takes up whatever moisture is left and gives the batter something to hold on to.

Why did my leaf curl up in the oil?

A leaf tries to shrink the moment it touches oil, and batter that lies thick in places pulls hardest where it has pooled, so the leaf rolls in on itself. Next time keep the coating thin and even across the coated face, hold the leaf by its tip, and lower it battered face down onto the surface of the oil. Anything that has already curled will open again if you hold it flat for a second with cooking chopsticks.

Why does the oil spit when I add a leaf?

It is the same cause as batter sliding off, water left on the leaf. In the oil, it turns to steam all at once and bursts out. So the fix is the same, take the leaves bone dry with paper towel before you move on to the flour and the batter. Leaves revived in ice water hold more than most, so press those with extra care.

Three flat and three rolled ooba (shiso) tempura made with Perilla leaves on a brown/purple plate on a wooden background

More Japanese Tempura Recipes

The one rule shiso taught you, that waiting for color is waiting too long, really only holds for this leaf. Where to pull everything else out is in my tempura recipe collection.