Vegetable Agebitashi Recipe

Vegetable Agebitashi is deep-fried vegetables marinated in a Soy Sauce-based sauce.  It can be eaten at room temperature or chilled.  In summer, cold Agebitashi is very nice.  Cook while it is still cool in the morning, and chill in the fridge in the afternoon until serving for dinner.

Vegetables for Agebitashi could be anything you like, but, as a summer dish, seasonal summer vegetables like eggplant, Kabocha squash, and okra are often good choices.  It doesn’t use any batter when fried, and then the vegetables are marinated, so even though it is deep-fried there is not a greasy feel to the vegetables.  While the vegetables are marinating in the refrigerator, the flavor of the sauce is absorbed into the vegetables.  The marinade here is the Mentsuyu multipurpose sauce of our own, but you can use a store-bought bottled noodle dipping sauce.  If it is a concentrated one, dilute with water, usually one to one.  A little stronger taste of the sauce works well to give vegetables good flavor.

Vegetables cook very quick in hot oil, only a minute or so.  Kabocha is harder than others in this recipe, and takes 2-3 minutes to cook.  Try to fry one kind of vegetable together so that the frying vegetables will be done at the same time.

Because Mentsuyu, a noodle dipping sauce, is used in the dish, naturally, cold noodles like Soba and Somen are perfect accompaniments.  You can recycle the marinade sauce as the dipping sauce for your noodles – there is not any waste at all.  In the hot days of summer, try this cold dish for a refreshing dinner!

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Vegetable Agebitashi Recipe

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: mentsuyu, vegetable

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Ingredients

• 1/4 small Kabocha squash
• 1 large eggplant Japanese or Chinese eggplant
• 1/2 red pepper
• 10 green beans
• 5 okra pieces
• 3/4 cup Mentsuyu
• 3/4 cup water
• oil for deep-frying

Instructions

• Slice Kabocha into 1/4″ (6 mm) thick pieces. Cut eggplant into halves vertically. Make shallow diagonal cuts on the eggplant skin, then cut into 2″ long pieces. Cut red pepper into 1/2″ (1.2 cm) wide strips. Cut the ends off of the green beans. Cut okura vertically into halves. Remove any moisture from vegetables.
• Mix Mentsuyu and water in a large container at least 2″ deep.
• Heat oil to 350F (175C). Deep-fry vegetables. Cook Kabocha for 2 minutes, eggplant for a minute, and others for 30 seconds or so. Place vegetables in the sauce mixture directly after removing from the oil.
• Refrigerate for a couple of hours to marinate the vegetables and chill.

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