02 July 2009

Vegetable tempura without the guilt

I've been on an Asian food kick lately. I think it was all because my friend M and I took a trip to wander with wonder and awe through our new Wegman's. We got sushi to go and ever since I devoured those avocado rolls (yum!) I've been making stir fries and putting soy sauce and teriyaki on everything. Last night it was a tofu, eggplant, and celery stir fry with whole wheat noodles. The night before a faux vegetable tempura made with two types of summer squash (a yellow stripey one and a green spotty one - don't know the technical names).

Vegetable tempura is definitely a guilty pleasure, and the only time I tend to indulge is when visiting my parents and going to The Orchard in Frederick, MD - they make the best veggie tempura. But the recipe I used involved dredging the vegetable sticks in cornstarch tinged with salt and cayenne pepper and then baking them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. The key is spraying them with cooking spray to get a crispy coating. Success? I think so. Guilt? Not a chance.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yum. Is that a regular soy sauce or a tempura sauce?

Gretchen said...

Just regular soy sauce this time around.