Continuing my air fryer experimentation. Tempura is a favorite treat of mine, but I rarely deep fry at home because it requires a lot of oil and effort. The beauty of the air fryer is there’s no vat of oil and you set it and forget it. The only thing with tempura is it’s a wet batter, which I wasn’t sure would work in the air fryer. Turns out it does, but to get the batter to crisp up properly you do have to dredge in a little oil first (still way less than if you were deep frying though!).
Guessipe
- 1 butternut squash (seeded, peeled, and thinly sliced)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup very cold water
- 1 cup flour
- peanut oil
Whisk the egg vigorously into the cold water.
Mix gently with chopsticks as you slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour. Leave some lumps.
Place the batter bowl in a larger bowl containing ice water to keep the batter very cold.
Dredge the butternut squash slices in peanut oil, then batter. Place in the air fryer in a single layer and cook at 370 degrees F for 14 minutes.
You’ll have to do multiple batches, but you can just set the air fryer and let it work instead of having to monitor a pot of hot oil. Serve hot with tempura dipping sauce.
