Tempura Fried Greens Are The Tasty Way To Use Every Part Of The Vegetable

Japanese cuisine is known for its artistic and stunning presentation and light nature. Top-quality seafood sashimi and sushi, pickled and fermented vegetables, and thinly sliced beef teppanyaki, not to be confused with hibachi, pack immense flavor and leave you satisfied without feeling overly full. Even Japanese techniques for battered and fried tempura is lauded as the lightest, crispiest, and daintiest fried food on earth. Consequently, tempura batter is the perfect way to utilize those delicate greens sprouting from your carrots, beets, squash, turnips, or radishes.

Despite buying root veggies for the hearty bulb, discarding their nutritious greens would be a waste of food. Seize the opportunity to transform them into an elegant appetizer by tossing them in tempura batter and frying them. Deep frying may be daunting for first timers, but tempura frying these greens is quick and easy. The neutral yet rich tempura batter and hot oil will upgrade the texture of these greens and enhance their subtle vegetal flavor in a matter of minutes. Simply wash, dry, and cut your greens, dip them into the tin tempura batter, and fry them for a minute on each side, and you'll have a sophisticated side dish or appetizer to serve with a soy or mayonnaise-based dipping sauce.

Despite the messy and temperamental reputation deep frying has, tempura is a frying method that even beginners can master. Unlike typical batter or breading, tempura batter is ultra-thin, consisting of egg yolk, flour, and ice water (and requiring far less oil). The trick to the lightest tempura batter is to barely mix it, using a whisk or chopsticks to give the yolk, flour, and ice water a few quick stirs. A fully blended batter will develop a gluten network that will transform into a heavy, doughy coating when fried.

Cold batter is also the key to light and crispy tempura, so you can house your bowl of batter in a larger bowl with ice to keep it cold. Once you've dipped and fully coated the greens in batter, you'll add them to a skillet of frying oil at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. A cast-iron skillet is the best option to maintain the same temperature with each batch. Canola, safflower, or any other neutral oil will work to render the perfect texture, but you could also add sesame or olive oil to the mix to impart complementary flavors.

Thin tempura batter is key crispy texture, but it's also prone to breaking. So, you should introduce, flip, and extract the greens from the hot oil as gently as possible. Chopsticks are the perfect tool to manipulate your greens with minimal splatter and batter breakage. Coincidentally, you can also use them to check if the oil is hot enough to fry.