Kombu broth with tempura recipe
Fancy a super simple and delicious soup? Try this Kombu broth with tempura from one of our fave books, the Vegan Pantry, £11.89, by Dunja Gulin.(Photographer, William Reavell, published by Ryland peters & Small.)
We Heart Living – Kombu broth with tempura, Vegan Pantry full
Kombu broth with tempura
Serves 3–4
A Japanese-style breakfast or lunch that will leave you feeling warm, relaxed and satisfied, and ready to continue with whatever you’re doing. Serve in big bowls, sip the soup and use chopsticks to eat the noodles and veggies!
For the soup
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
12cm strip of kombu seaweed
1.3 litres water
2 small leeks
2 small carrots
2cm piece of fresh ginger, crushed
3 garlic cloves
4 tablespoons dark sesame oil
Tamari, to taste
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
100g dried soba or udon noodles
For the tempura
110 ml ice-cold water
70 unbleached plain flour, refrigerated, plus extra for coating
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
220 ml sunflower oil, for frying
A selection of vegetables (courgette, pumpkin, celeriac, sweet potato, onion, etc.), peeled and thinly sliced
Sea salt
Place the shiitake and kombu in a saucepan and add water. Cover and let boil, then lower to a medium heat and let cook for 10 minutes. Remove the kombu and shiitake (slice the tops and discard stems), and keep the broth.
In a large saucepan, sauté the vegetables, ginger and garlic in the dark sesame oil for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced shiitake and the broth and let boil for 5–10 minutes. Season with plenty of tamari.
Cook the noodles separately until al dente, just before serving. If you cook them in the broth, they will soak up a lot of water and you’ll end up with less soup than planned!
To make the batter, in a bowl, quickly mix the ice-cold water and flour with a whisk and add salt to taste and the turmeric. Do not over-mix – some lumps are alright. To make the tempura crispy, it’s very important to use cold ingredients, not mix too much and use the batter for frying immediately.
Pat each vegetable slice dry with paper towels and roll into flour before dipping into the tempura so that he batter doesn’t slide off. Heat the sunflower oil in a frying pan and when hot, dip a couple of vegetable pieces in the batter and fry until slightly golden. You will need about 4 pieces of veggies per person. If you feel the batter is too thin and doesn’t stick properly to the floured vegetables, add a little more flour.
Drain the tempura vegetables on paper towels and serve immediately. Serve the cooked, drained noodles in the kombu broth sprinkled with the sesame seeds, with the tempura veggies on the side.
Why not try some other delicious recipes from the Vegan Pantry? Try Pearled spelt salad with button mushrooms & watercress, Chia Pudding and Vegan Sushi.
We Heart Living – Vegan Pantry