Tentsuyu is the traditional and essential Japanese dipping sauce for all kinds of tempura. Made with just four ingredients, this homemade recipe is a must to elevate your favorite vegetable or shrimp tempura. Ready in 5 minutes!
When you order tempura at a restaurant, you’re given a small dish of dipping sauce on the side to enjoy with it. Casually known as tempura dipping sauce, we also call the sauce tentsuyu (天つゆ).
The sauce is light and refreshing, so it can magically uplift the deliciousness of tempura in an instant. With just a handful of pantry ingredients, you can make my Tempura Dipping Sauce recipe in less than 5 minutes!
4 Ingredients You’ll Need for Tempura Dipping Sauce
While making tempura at home may be more fitting for weekend cooking, this tempura sauce recipe is unbelievably easy to whip up. Simply measure out the ingredients, whisk them together and you’re good to go. You’ll need:
1. Dashi
This is the foundation of Japanese flavor. Delicate yet complex, dashi (Japanese soup stock) is an absolute must for the dipping sauce.
You can choose to make dashi from scratch (I almost always keep a mason jar of previously cooked dashi in my refrigerator for all my Japanese recipes) or use the convenient dashi powder or dashi packet to make dashi instantly.
2. Soy sauce
The salty, savory, and umami-rich soy sauce does much of the heavy lifting of the overall flavor. Use gluten-free soy sauce for Gluten-Free Tempura.
3. Mirin
This Japanese sweet rice wine adds a mild sweetness and luster to the sauce.
4. Sugar
Just a touch of sugar balances out the saltiness, and round up the dipping sauce with the best result! Adjust the amount according to your taste.
With a little balancing act, you’ll get a dipping sauce that complements and elevates your crispy juicy tempura!
How To Make Homemade Tempura Dipping Sauce
- Add the ingredients to a small saucepan.
- Bring it to a simmer and let the sugar dissolve completely.
- Turn off the heat and let it cool before pouring the sauce into a mason jar.
When ready to eat, simply warm the sauce and serve in a small individual dipping bowl.
The Short-Cut Version
As a backup when I run out of dashi or want to save time, I use store-bought mentsuyu to prepare Tempura Dipping Sauce.
Made with sake, mirin, soy sauce, kombu, and dried bonito flakes, mentsuyu is the base sauce used in many Japanese noodle dishes and dipping sauces.
Mentsuyu is typically concentrated and you’ll need to add water to dilute it.
To prepare tempura dipping sauce (See the Japanese word 天つゆ), combine 1 part mentsuyu and 3 or 4 parts water. Taste it and adjust the flavor according to your taste. I often add a splash of mirin when I use mentsuyu.
You can find a bottle of mentsuyu at Japanese/Asian grocery stores or online on Amazon.
Looking for Delicious Tempura Recipes?
- Shrimp Tempura – One of the classic tempura recipes!
- Vegetable Tempura – Learn how to prepare different kinds of vegetable tempura!
- Gluten-Free Tempura – Whether you are gluten intolerant or not, everyone will enjoy this crispy tempura!
- Chicken Tempura – It’s a regional dish from Oita prefecture.
- Tenmusu (Rice Balls with Shrimp Tempura) – It’s one of the popular Nagoya specialties!
Itadakimasu!
Enjoy your freshly fried tempura platter with the dipping sauce and grated daikon on the side for a scrumptious tempura experience at home!
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Tempura Dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu)
Ingredients
- ¾ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock) (use standard Awase Dashi, dashi packet or powder, or Vegan Dashi)
- 3 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp mirin
- 2 tsp sugar
- 2 inches daikon radish (grated, lightly squeezed of liquid; optional)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Combine ¾ cup dashi (Japanese soup stock), 3 Tbsp soy sauce, 2 Tbsp mirin, and 2 tsp sugar in a small saucepan. Tip: For a quick dashi, use ¾ cup (180 ml) water plus 1 tsp dashi powder.
- Bring it to a simmer and let the sugar dissolve completely. Turn off the heat and let it cool before pouring the sauce into a mason jar.
To Serve
- Warm the Tempura Dipping Sauce and serve in a small individual bowl alongside your favorite tempura. If desired, grate 2 inches daikon radish (I use a ceramic grater) and gently squeeze out most of the liquid; serve a small portion to add to the sauce, as you like.
To Store
- You can store the sauce in the refrigerator for up to 1–2 weeks.
Hi. I have made this recipe for tempura sauce every few days since I first tried it. I just love tempura sauce over rice. However although I have daikon radishes available I have not included it in the recipe. I feel like an idiot asking but here goes: do I add the grated daikon to the sauce or just the juice or both?
Thank you for your site, I have enjoyed so many of the recipes and I share them with my daughter who lives in Singapore so we can “cook together”.
Hi Donna! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipes and for your kind feedback!
We are glad to hear you are sharing the joy of cooking with your daughter!☺️
When we add Daikon to the sauce, we usually squeeze grated Daikon and add the Daikon to the Tempura sauce. You can add the juice too, but it will dilute the sauce a little bit. We hope this helps!
Not quite like the Tempura sauce I am used to…but very good and I can’t say what I would change. 🙂 And, it is nearly identical (if not identical) to other recipes I found out there. Thanks!
Hi Ben! Thank you very much for trying Nami’s recipe and for your feedback!
Perfect and fast if you have the dashi made (I didn’t, but it doesn’t take that long either). I appreciate the recommendation for grated daikon radish–I always miss that in American restaurants. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Hi Natasha,
Thank you so much for trying this recipe and for your kind feedback.
We are so glad to hear you enjoyed this sauce with grated daikon!! 🙂