What is Tentsuyu?
Tentsuyu is a dipping sauce used to serve with tempura. Although you can buy bottles of premade sauce, it’s so easy to make by simply boiling soy sauce, mirin, and dashi broth together.
Ingredients & Additional Ideas
- Dashi Broth: The essential base of the flavor. Choose from simple awase dashi, vegan dashi, or for a quicker option, instant dashi granules or packets.
- Mirin: Hon Mirin (本みりん) is recommended for authentic Japanese flavor.
- Soy Sauce: Check out my detailed soy sauce guide for brand recommendations.
Tentsuyu is a popular Japanese dipping sauce that can be enhanced by adding extra ingredients, or “yakumi.” To enjoy, serve yakumi on the side and mix into the sauce to suit your preference. Common yakumi ingredients include:
- Grated Daikon: A classic topping that brings the dish a refreshing taste and sharpness. Some add pickled plum to create “Ume Oroshi” for a refreshing and sour twist.
- Momiji Oroshi (Grated Daikon with Chilli): Named for its reddish color resembling a Japanese maple leaf, Momiji Oroshi is grated daikon with red chilies. It adds a mature flavor and an attractive appearance to dishes.
- Grated Ginger (Oroshi Shoga): Grated ginger offers a fragrant and appetizing flavor, enhancing the taste of tempura ingredients and the overall dish.
FAQ
Tentsuyu and mentsuyu taste similar, but they are slightly different.
Tempura is often eaten as a side dish rather than as a meal, so tempura dipping sauce has a milder taste than mentsuyu. It is also common to add grated daikon or ginger to the tempura sauce to make it more refreshing. This compliments the tempura, which can be a little rich and oily.
On the other hand, mentsuyu refers to a dipping sauce used for noodles such as somen, udon or soba noodles.
Although the ingredients are almost identical, the quantities are different, and mentsuyu has a stronger taste and saltiness, while tentsuyu is milder and sweeter.
Yes, you can. However, mentsuyu as it is has a strong taste and saltiness, so the easiest way is to dilute it with hot water.
If you want to get closer to the original taste, you can add a bit of sugar or mirin to it and cook it down.
On the other hand, you cannot use tentsuyu as a substitute for mentsuyu.
I hope you enjoy this Tempura Dipping Sauce 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-Related Recipes
Tempura Dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu)
Ingredients
- 100 ml dashi stock use shiitake and kombu dashi for plant-based diets
- 4 tsp mirin
- 4 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu)
Optional additions
- grated daikon radish (daikon oroshi) (daikon oroshi)
- grated ginger root (oroshi shoga)
- spicy grated daikon radish (momiji oroshi) (momiji oroshi)
My recommended brands of ingredients and seasonings can be found in my Japanese pantry guide.
Can’t find certain Japanese ingredients? See my substitution guide here.
Instructions
- Add 100 ml dashi stock, 4 tsp mirin and 4 tsp Japanese soy sauce (koikuchi shoyu) to a small saucepan and turn on the heat to medium/high. Bring to boil and allow the sauce to bubble for 1-2 mins to burn off the alcohol in the mirin.
- Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool. Once cool to the touch, transfer to a sealable container and refrigerate until it's time to serve.
- Serve in individual dipping bowls and add grated daikon, ginger or momiji oroshi to taste.
- Enjoy with light and crispy tempura!
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