Tempura dipping sauce, or tentsuyu, is a traditional Japanese dipping sauce made from dashi (stock), mirin, soy sauce, and grated daikon radish. It’s slightly salty with a hit of savory, and sweet flavor. If you’re deep frying your vegetables and shrimp in homemade tempura batter, this sauce is the perfect pairing.
This authentic tempura dipping sauce only uses five ingredients and can be made in under 10 minutes. Since it is so simple, the key to making this sauce is selecting the best ingredients that will highlight your tempura.
Ingredients in tempura dipping sauce
Tempura dipping sauce only needs five ingredients, but it’s important to pay attention to the brands because they can change the flavor of your sauce.
- Dashi is a Japanese stock that can be made from dried kelp (kombu), fermented fish shavings (katsuobushi), and/or dried mushrooms. You can make homemade dashi stock if you have more time and the ingredients. But we prefer using shiro dashi concentrate from the brand Yamaki Kappo with water to make the recipe easier. You can also use the more popular dashi powder brand Ajinomoto, but we prefer Yamaki’s flavor.
- Mirin is essential to this sauce because it adds acidity and sweetness. Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine that comes in four different styles (from most to least authentic in flavor): hon-mirin, mirin, mirin-like condiments, and mirin-fu condiments. Try to use the mirin variety because it’s still fermented but is more affordable than hon mirin. For this recipe, we use Takara Mirin from Mitsuwa.
- Regular (not light) Japanese soy sauce adds salt to the seasoning, and we use the Kikkoman organic variety.
- Grated daikon radish adds a mildly sweet and peppery flavor to the sauce. It’s refreshing when dipping in fried, crunchy tempura. Make sure to squeeze the juice out to prevent adding too much daikon flavor to the dip.
My preferred ratio of ingredients
Traditional tempura dipping sauce calls for roughly this ratio of ingredients:
- 3 parts dashi
- 1 part soy sauce
- 1 part mirin
- grated daikon radish
But you may need to adjust it based on your taste, and the potency or flavor of the brands you use too. In this recipe, we use:
- 3 parts dashi
- 1 part soy sauce
- ½ part mirin
- ½ part grated daikon radish
This ratio provides a nice balance of savory, sweetness, and acidity that pairs well with fried tempura.
Store-bought sauce options
You can buy pre-made tentsuyu from Japanese grocery stores, like Kikkoman tempura sauce, or make your own because it’s super easy, and you can adjust the levels of saltiness and sweetness.
Refrigeration for later
If you make a batch of tempura dipping sauce, you can keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to three days if you are adding fresh daikon. When serving, we use individual dipping cups and set aside unused leftovers in a clean container. The idea is that the reserve jar doesn’t contain any contaminants that need to be reheated to be safe for eating later on.
Tempura Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Option 1: dashi from liquid concentrate
- 2 tsp dashi stock liquid concentrate Yamaki Kappo brand
- 6 tbsp water
Option 2: dashi from stock powder
- ¼ tsp dashi stock powder Ajinomoto brand
- 6 tbsp water
Seasoning
- 4 tsp regular soy sauce
- 2 tsp mirin
- 2 tsp grated daikon radish juice squeezed out
Equipment Used
- measuring cups and spoons
- grater
- small sauce pot
- spatula or spoon
Instructions
- In a small sauce pot over low heat, combine the 2 tsp dashi stock liquid concentrate (OR ¼ tsp dashi stock powder) and 6 tbsp water. Stir to combine.
- Add the 4 tsp regular soy sauce and 2 tsp mirin and stir again. Cook on the stove for up to three minutes. You only need to warm up the dipping sauce. DO NOT bring to a boil because it may turn bitter.
- Transfer the sauce to small dipping bowls.
- Add 2 tsp grated daikon radish and mix.
- Serve with fresh tempura.
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Perfect level of saltiness and flavour, it went so well with your tempura recipe
I didn’t have any radish and used Shimaya brand dashi granules, plus Obento brand mirin
Oo, thanks for sharing your substitutions Thuy!