Although the weather is not the best, June is a great time for produce. Springtime vegetables such as shin-tamanegi (new-harvest onions), bamboo shoots and spring cabbage are still in season, while early summer vegetables like asparagus are starting to come into their own, too.

Deep frying fresh vegetables like these is not as popular when they're in season, but it’s still one of the easiest ways to bring out the sweetness and crunch of veggies. And kakiage (tempura fritters) are a tried-and-true way in Japan to prepare in-season vegetables easily and economically.

In this recipe, I have given instructions for cooking kakiage with an air fryer (called a "nonfuraiyā” in Japanese) as well as in the conventional way by deep frying it in oil. Kakiage works on a top of a bed of greens, but you can certainly serve them on their own. These fritters are also an ideal accompaniment to cold noodles such as sōmen, soba or udon. Adding chicken turns this into a main dish, and throwing in parboiled bamboo shoots provides a particularly crunchy and nutritional twist.