Vegan Tempura Soba

Classy, classic tempura soba is warming, saucelicious and crunchy. In this vegan tempura soba recipe, the tempura batter is made with fizzy water for extra light crispy textures and bubbly outer layers. Nominate a slurping buddy and devour!

Background content: is this popular at certain times of year? Special holidays?

This was inspired by my other recipe on this site, and pairs well with this amazing sidedish recipe. Contextual, in-content links are far more valuable than a group listed at the bottom of the post.

Ingredients

Serves 2 | Prep time 15 minutes | Cooking time 30 minutes

Broth:

• 1L water
• 10-14g kombu
• 2-3 dried shiitake
• Half teaspoon dashi powder (optional)
• 3 tablespoon soy
• 2 tablespoon mirin
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon wakame

Vegetable tempura:

• 1 cup of all purpose flour 
• Pinch of salt (maldon or any good quality sea salt)
• ¾ cup of sparkling water (chilled)
• 4 sprigs of tender-stem Broccoli 
• 2 tender asparagus stems
• ½ medium carrot
• ½ sheet nori seaweed 
• ½ small red onion

Yaki tofu:

• ½ block (140g) of tofu
• 1 teaspoon Sesame oil 
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• Tbs soy
• ½ tablespoon mirin
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon ginger powder

Other ingredients:

• 2 bunches (about 160g) of dry soba noodles
• Shichimi Togarashi
• 2 spring onions

Instructions

Step 1: Make the broth: Add water to a medium sized saucepan, with kombu and shiitake and bring to a light simmer for at least 10 minutes. Then add your soy sauce, mirin, sugar, wakame and optional dashi powder. Set to one side.  

Step 2: Boil up a large saucepan of water and throw in your soba noodles. Stir so they don’t stick together. Read the packet instructions and undercook them by a minute so they have plenty of bite left in them.

Step 5: Make the tofu seasoning by whisking together, soy sauce, mirin, onion and ginger powder in a small bowl. Set aside.

Step 6: Now drain and chop up your block of tofu into little steaks, roughly 1cm x 4cm (it honestly doesn’t matter as long as they’re fairly equal). 

Step 7: Time to fry your tofu! Get your frying pan over a medium heat, pour in sunflower and sesame oil then add your little steaks. They should sizzle and spit. Get them lightly golden on one side then flip over and add your seasoning. Shake your pan to prevent stickage and fry on each side for a minute or two. They should look slightly charred, like they’ve been barbecued. Set aside on a plate, ready for topping your soba.

Step 8: Prepare your tempura veg. Slice your carrot into thin cross sections, approximately ¼ cm thick, then slice your onion into slim discs (similar width). Your tenderstem broccoli will be fine as is (just choose the slimmer, less chunky ones, same with your asparagus. Remove any grubby looking ends. With some scissors, cut your nori into wide strips (approximately 5x10cm).

Step 9: Batter time! Sieve your flour into a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt and mix in with your fingers. Then add cold sparkling water. With a fork, combine roughly but do not over mix! Just draw a figure of 8 through the mixture, six or seven times and that’s it. Lumps are good. We should see a batter that looks half done, if that. 

Step 10: Now heat up some oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. You’ll need about 2 cm in depth to fry your tempura. Once the oil is hot enough (around 180℃ or 365℉) place your veggies, one at a time, into the batter and then into your oil (carefully), turning them a few times until crisp and bubbly. Drain on a cooling rack or a plate covered in kitchen towel. 

Step 11: Heat up your broth and as soon as it starts to simmer add your pre-cooked soba. Crank up to high heat and, once piping hot, decant your noodles and soup broth into your favorite noodle bowl.

Step 12: Heat up your broth and as soon as it starts to simmer add your pre-cooked soba. Crank up to high heat and, once piping hot, decant your noodles and soup broth into your favorite noodle bowl.  

Step 13: Place the yaki tofu carefully in the centre atop of your noodles.

Step 14: Finally, arrange your tempura over the top and sprinkle over springs onions and shichimi powder and have a lovely crispy and slurpy time devouring your tempura soba!   

Hint: leave a useful hint here, like let the grill run for 4-5 minutes to burn off any remnants, then clean it. I like to use this bristle-free barbecue brush (affiliate link) for cleaning the grill.

Substitutions

If you know how to make the recipe fit a certain diet, let the reader know here. Don't fake it - only provide guidance on topics you have actual experience with.

• Lettuce - instead of ice berg lettuce, you can use romaine lettuce or spinach
• Bun - use gluten free buns instead of white bread buns to make this gluten free
• Vegetarian - the beef hamburger can be replaced with a plant-based burger to make this vegetarian

Even if your reader doesn't follow a specific diet (eg. gluten free), they may have friends or family that they're cooking for that could use this. This is also a great idea to link out to another blogger with a similar recipe that fits a different diet.

Variations

Giving the visitor ideas on how they can change this recipe to better suit their dinner guests, or their cultural cuisine, is a great way to increase the chances they make the recipe

• Spicy - add chili pepper flakes while cooking to imbue heat into the dish, or banana peppers
• Deluxe - add guacamole, crispy onions or
• Kid friendly - add crushed potato chips (ketchup chips!)

See this spicy version of this recipe on my website! (placeholder for in-content link)

Equipment

Equipment can have a big impact on how a recipe turns out. Stone bakeware takes longer to heat up than metal pans, and also retain heat for longer, which could make the recipe more watery, or burnt on the outsides.

Tell your visitors what equipment you use and how to adjust the recipe if they use something different, and link to your affiliate link to purchase the equipment.

Storage

Store the wet ingredients (lettuce, tomato, onion) separately from the dry ingredients (buns) in the fridge, and recombine when ready. Good for 2-3 days.

These ingredients do/don't stand up well to freezing for X days/weeks/months.

FAQ

Related

Looking for other tasty noodle recipes? Try these:

Vegan Tempura Soba

Enjoy this warming, crunchy vegan tempura soba with light, crispy textures and delicious flavor. Perfect for slurping!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Japanese, vegan, vegetarian

Servings 2

Instructions

 

• Make the broth: Add water to a medium sized saucepan, with kombu and shiitake and bring to a light simmer for at least 10 minutes. Then add your soy sauce, mirin, sugar, wakame and optional dashi powder. Set to one side.
• Boil up a large saucepan of water and throw in your soba noodles. Stir so they don’t stick together. Read the packet instructions and undercook them by a minute so they have plenty of bite left in them.
• Drain in a colander and wash under cold water to wash the excess starch off and prevent them from cooking any further. Set to one side.
• Thinly slice your spring onions and set aside.
• Make the tofu seasoning by whisking together, soy sauce, mirin, onion and ginger powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
• Now drain and chop up your block of tofu into little steaks, roughly 1cm x 4cm (it honestly doesn’t matter as long as they’re fairly equal).
• Time to fry your tofu! Get your frying pan over a medium heat, pour in sunflower and sesame oil then add your little steaks. They should sizzle and spit. Get them lightly golden on one side then flip over and add your seasoning. Shake your pan to prevent stickage and fry on each side for a minute or two. They should look slightly charred, like they’ve been barbecued. Set aside on a plate, ready for topping your soba.
• Prepare your tempura veg. Slice your carrot into thin cross sections, approximately ¼ cm thick, then slice your onion into slim discs (similar width). Your tenderstem broccoli will be fine as is (just choose the slimmer, less chunky ones, same with your asparagus. Remove any grubby looking ends. With some scissors, cut your nori into wide strips (approximately 5x10cm).
• Batter time! Sieve your flour into a mixing bowl, add a pinch of salt and mix in with your fingers. Then add cold sparkling water. With a fork, combine roughly but do not over mix! Just draw a figure of 8 through the mixture, six or seven times and that’s it. Lumps are good. We should see a batter that looks half done, if that.
• Now heat up some oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. You’ll need about 2 cm in depth to fry your tempura. Once the oil is hot enough (around 180℃ or 365℉) place your veggies, one at a time, into the batter and then into your oil (carefully), turning them a few times until crisp and bubbly. Drain on a cooling rack or a plate covered in kitchen towel.
• Heat up your broth and as soon as it starts to simmer add your pre-cooked soba. Crank up to high heat and, once piping hot, decant your noodles and soup broth into your favorite noodle bowl.
• Heat up your broth and as soon as it starts to simmer add your pre-cooked soba. Crank up to high heat and, once piping hot, decant your noodles and soup broth into your favorite noodle bowl.
• Add the tofu topping and arrange your tempura over the top.
• Sprinkle over springs onions and shichimi powder and have a lovely crispy and slurpy time devouring your tempura soba!

Keyword broth, fried tofu, noodle soup, soba, tempura, vegetable tempura

Food safety

Something about the tempura here

• Cook to a minimum temperature of 165 °F (74 °C)
• Do not use the same utensils on cooked food, that previously touched raw meat
• Wash hands after touching raw meat
• Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods
• Never leave cooking food unattended
• Use oils with high smoking point to avoid harmful compounds
• Always have good ventilation when using a gas stove