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15 Comments Crunchy with a soft inside. That is what you get when you make a tempura batter for sweet potato. It immediately solves the issue of not having crunchy sweet potato fries! Check how to make these delicious sweet potato tempura fries.
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Ok tell me; how many times have you tried making sweet potato into crispy fries? And how many times have you failed? With this easy recipe you get the best of both worlds. Delicious sweet potatoes with a crispy outside. You’ll never want anything else again!
Vegetable tempura of sweet potato and cauliflower
These sweet vegetables bites are an absolute hit with everyone. I can guarantee you. They are crunchy, delicious and almost good for you. I say almost as I’m pretty sure the frying and the batter are not the healthiest but boy is this good! Making the tempura of sweet potato is really straight forward. I have to say there are many different tempura recipes out there and not sure if this one is the most traditional (probably not)
What do you need for making the perfect sweet potato tempura bites
- Ice cold sparkling water
- paper towel to drain the fried veggies of any excess oil
- a few inches of oil (vegetable oil)
- all purpose flour
- A large bowl to mix everything in
- If necessary a rack to let any excess batter drip from the vegetables before dipping in the oil
Perfect snack
We came up with the tempura of sweet potato when we made tempura batter for something else. We had left overs and we also had some sweet potato and cauliflower lying around so the choice to make these was pretty straight forward.
The good thing about these sweet potato tempura bites is that you do not need to cook the sweet potato beforehand. You can just leave them raw. The frying is enough to cook them through. Provided you slice them within normal proportions (not too thick!) You can slice them in thick rounds or you can slice them in fries format, which we did here.
I love eating these tempura sweet potato bites with a spicy mayonaise but soy sauce of an another sauce of your liking will do.
Crunchy sweet potato fries
And if you’re like me you have been disappointed time and time again when trying to make crunchy sweet potato fries. It’s almost an impossibility as they get soft before they go crunchy. However, by using the tempura batter this issue is solved instantly. You have all the goods from sweet potato plus the crunchy outside!
More sweet potato recipes
Sweet Potato And Spinach Dahl With Red Lentils
FAQ Sweet Potato Tempura Fries
You can use still water for making the tempura batter, but it won’t give the same results. Most important is to use cold water and if you have any choice go for sparkling water. If your water is not cold enough drop in some ice cubes and wait until the water is ice cold.
In essence this is a vegetable tempura so you can use sweet potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, celeriac or most other kind of vegetable that would cook quickly in a short amount of time. Make sure to cut the vegetables in the right size so you can be sure they all cook at the same time.
If your tempura doesn’t crisp up you might have used the wrong kind of flour. In general you do not want the gluten to start forming here so you use a weak kind of flour like plain flour or cake flour. You can also add some cornstarch to the batter like I did here. Also make sure to keep your ingredients ice cold. All this is helping to create a perfectly crispy end result. Make the batter shortly before using. So don’t let it sit on the kitchen counter for too long. Make sure to use hot oil too. If your oil is not hot enough it will soak up the oil, which is definitely not what you want.
Make sure to not overmix your batter either to prevent gluten development. It’s better to have some lumps than to overmix.
Also remove the tempura once golden brown from the oil with a slotted spoon and leave to drain on a paper towel which is optionally placed on a cooling rack.
Obviously you can use any kind of dipping sauce you like. My favorite is a very simple dip of mayonnaise mixed with sriracha, so I have a spicy and super simple dip to serve. I love varying it with flavors like with gochujang or piri piri sauce.
Once you place them in the hot oil it will take around 4-5 minutes to crisp up and become golden brown. You can make them by deep frying or shallow fry will also work. It depends on the size of your vegetables. The sweet potato fries are easily done with shallow fry but larger pieces need to be in a deeper pan. You can use a heavy saucepan for this if you want.
I am assuming you can make this in an air fryer as well. Having said that; I haven’t actually tried that myself but it is on my agenda to try next. I wonder if they would still be too soft in the air fryer, but like I said I will try that next and update this post if I do.
Or try these perfect french fries, halloumi fries, kohlrabi fries or broccoli fries from the air fryer ! Or these delicious tempura fried prawns.
Did you try the recipe? I would love it if you let me know through a rating or review on the recipe card below. And if you never want to miss another new recipe, make sure to sign up for the newsletter here and I will keep you up to date!
Sweet Potato Tempura Fries
Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour plus extra for dusting
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 cup sparkling water ice cold
- 1 egg
- salt
- pepper
- 2 large sweet potato cut into strips
- 1/2 head cauliflower broken into small florets
- vegetable oil for frying
How to make sweet potato tempura fries
- Place the oil in a frying pan or a wok and heat it to about 180˚C/350˚F.
- Cut your sweet potatoes into small strips and cut your cauliflower into small florets
- Make the batter by combining the flour, corn starch, water, egg and salt and pepper
- It's easiest to have some extra all purpose flour on a plate so you can roll the sweet potato through the flour first. Then add to the batter. Let any excess batter drip off
- Add the potatoes covered with batter into the hot oil and wait for them to crisp up and become golden brown.
Nutrition Information per portion:
Disclaimer:
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
One of my favorite ways to make sweet potato! Simple, crunchy and very delicious!
Looks and sounds wonderful, Simone. Crunchy with a soft inside… words that are music to my ears.
Thanks Frank! Yes sounds good right?
I would add some sugar to the recipe to give the tempura dough some sweetness. works wonders for my shimp tempura (hawaii style0.
Ah thanks for the tip! Will try that next time!
180˚C. Is medium heat? I still dont get it
It’s 350˚ F. Does that make sense?
A little difficult to have faith in a recipe that spells “flour” flower.
Although I may be missing something here. Step four says to “dip the potato in some flour” – Off to the grocers for some flower……….
O hahahaha.. You’re so right Ted. I don’t know how that happened but I changed the flower to flour now… Thanks for catching that!
Sweet potatoes are so good for us and who doesn’t love anything tempura?
I’m really looking forward to your announcement! I don’t know how long I can hold my breath.
Oh you tease! I have some sweet potato in the cupboard, I think I know what I’m making tonight!
Lol.. I do hope you try them Stephanie… Let me know if you do!
Very excited to hear what your news is, Simone! Not planning on moving to Stockholm by any chance (and in need of a graphic designer) are you? 😉 hehe
Love the look of this tempura recipe… anything tempura and veggie has my vote… especially if it looks as good as this! Yum! x
Lol… Well you never know, but for now no plans to move to Stockholm.. 😉
Now we’re all dying of curiosity! Can’t wait to hear the news. I guess in the meantime we’ll have to satisfy ourselves with this great looking tempura. Oh, and dude food? Well anything that pairs with beer always works. 😉 And usually something that can be eaten with the hands or is really messy to eat. Although I guess you have to be selective. You can eat oysters on the half shell with your hands, but they’re not dude food. Buffalo chicken wings? Dude food.