Manchurian Recipe | Veg Manchurian Gravy
User Reviews
4.9
-
Prep Time
40 mins
-
Cook Time
20 mins
-
Total Time
1 hr
-
Servings
3
-
Calories
224 kcal
-
Course
Main Course
-
Cuisine
Indian-Chinese Fusion
Manchurian Recipe | Veg Manchurian Gravy
Description
Manchurian Recipe | Veg Manchurian Gravy brings together fried vegetable balls made from chopped carrots, cabbage, capsicum, and spring onion with a light batter of all-purpose flour and cornstarch. The balls achieve a slightly crisp texture after frying on medium heat, ensuring they are cooked thoroughly without becoming greasy or dense. The accompanying sauce is a stir-fried blend of aromatics including ginger, garlic, and green chili, mixed with soy sauce, tomato ketchup, and red chili sauce to create a tangy and spicy Indo-Chinese flavor profile.
The sauce is thickened with a cornstarch paste and seasoned with vinegar, black pepper, raw sugar, and salt to balance the heat and sweetness, enhancing the depth of flavor. Chopped vegetables like capsicum and celery can be added to the gravy to add texture, although they are optional. The dish is finished with a garnish of spring onion greens to provide a fresh note.
Veg Manchurian with its hearty vegetable balls and flavorful gravy works well served hot with steamed rice or fried noodles. The recipe allows customization in vegetable choice for the balls and sauce consistency, letting cooks adjust for personal preference. Proper frying technique and correct sauce thickness are important for the ideal balance of textures and flavors in this Indo-Chinese preparation.
Alternatives to frying the vegetable balls include cooking them in an appe-appam or æbleskiver pan or air-frying to reduce oil content. The sauce will thicken further upon cooling and may require thinning with water when reheated. Avoid watery vegetables in the balls to prevent sogginess, and adjust sweetness with raw sugar or substitutes according to taste. The recipe excludes MSG but it can be added for a more restaurant-style seasoning if desired.
Ingredients
For vegetable balls
- ½ cup carrot - grated
- ½ cup cabbage - finely chopped (red or green)
- ¼ cup green bell pepper - finely chopped (capsicum)
- ¼ cup spring onions - finely chopped (scallions)
- ½ teaspoon black peppercorns - freshly crushed or black pepper powder or white pepper powder
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour)
- ½ teaspoon salt or add as per taste
- neutral cooking oil as required, for shallow or deep frying - sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil, generic cooking oil
For corn starch or cornflour paste
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (known as cornflour outside india)
- 2 tablespoons water
For gravy or sauce
- 1 to 1.5 tablespoons neutral cooking oil toasted sesame oil or sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil, generic cooking oil
- ¼ cup spring onion chopped (scallion whites) or ¼ cup finely chopped onions, whites
- 1 tablespoon ginger - finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic - finely chopped
- 2 green chili finely chopped
- ¼ cup capsicum - finely chopped (green bell pepper), optional
- 1 tablespoon celery - finely chopped, optional
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 2 to 3 teaspoons red chilli sauce (spicy and not sweet)
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 to 1.25 cups water or vegetable stock
- ½ teaspoon black pepper or freshly crushed black pepper or ground white pepper powder, powder
- salt to taste
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon raw sugar or white sugar, add as required
- 1 tablespoon spring onion greens (scallion greens), for garnishing
Instructions
Making vegetable balls
- Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl.
- Next add the dry ingredients - cornstarch, all-purpose flour, black pepper and salt.
- Mix and gather the whole mixture together. Then kind of mix and knead so that the veggies leave water and you get a dough-like mixture. But do not knead like that a bread or roti dough. Gluten strands can form that will give a dense chewy texture in the fried veggie balls. So just mix very well and press so that the veggies release their juices.
- Then take a small portion of the mixture in your hands.
- Press and roll it in your palm and make a round veggie ball. You can spread some oil on your palms while making the vegetable balls.
- Make all veggie balls this way and set aside.
Frying veggie balls
- Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan. Add a small piece of a ball to the hot oil. If the balls does not stick or settle down at the bottom of the pan, but comes up steadily the oil is ready for frying these veg manchurian balls. If the ball breaks, then some more binding agent is required. So you can add 2 to 3 teaspoons of some more all-purpose flour.
- Gently place the balls in the hot oil. The oil has to be medium hot. Too much heat and the manchurian balls will be browned from top and uncooked from inside. Less hot oil will make the balls absorb too much of oil.
- When cooked from one side and light golden or golden, turn the balls with a slotted spoon.
- Fry the balls till crisp and golden turning over as needed for even cooking.
- Remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and drain as much as oil as possible.
- Place the fried veg manchurian balls on kitchen paper towels.
- Fry the veg manchurian balls this way in batches and keep aside.
Making sauce or gravy
- In a small bowl take the following three sauces - soy sauce, tomato ketchup and red chilli sauce.
- Mix the sauces very well and set aside.
- In another small bowl take 1 tablespoon cornflour and 2 tablespoons water. Mix very well and set aside.
- Heat 1 to 1.5 tablespoons oil in a pan or wok.
- Add the chopped spring onions, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped green chilies and finely chopped capsicum.
- Stir fry on medium flame till the onions turn translucent.
- Now add the mixed sauces. Stir and mix very well.
- Add 1 to 1.25 cups water. Let the mixture come to a boil.
- Mix the cornflour paste again in the bowl (as the cornflour settles at the bottom) and then add in the pan.
- As soon as you add cornflour paste, mix very well so that there are no lumps.
- Continue to stir and mix when the veg manchurian gravy is cooking. Simmer till the sauce thickens and you see a glaze in it.
- There should be no raw taste of the cornflour in the sauce. Cooking sauce or gravy takes about 3 to 4 minutes on a medium heat. If the sauce is too thick, then you add some water. If it is too thin, then you can add some cornflour.
- When the veg manchurian sauce thickens, add ½ teaspoon black pepper powder.
- Season with a bit of salt. Do keep in mind that the soy sauce, chilli sauce and tomato ketchup already has salt in it. So add less salt and as per your taste preferences.
- Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon sugar. Mix very well.
- Then add the fried veg manchurian balls. Also add 1 teaspoon of rice vinegar or regular vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
- Gently stir and coat the veg manchurian balls in the gravy.
- Turn off the heat add chopped spring onion greens.
- Serve Veg Manchurian Gravy hot garnished with some spring onion greens. This Manchurian Gravy pairs well with veg fried rice, plain steamed rice and even bread or the chapati or roti.
Notes
- Vegetable balls can be prepared in a low-fat way by cooking in an appe-appam or æbleskiver pan, or by air-frying instead of deep frying.
- Add vegetables of choice to the balls but avoid watery types like zucchini to maintain texture.
- Sauce consistency can be adjusted by adding more broth for thinness or cornstarch paste for thickness; the sauce thickens further when cooled.
- Fry vegetable balls over medium heat to ensure even cooking without greasiness or raw interior.
- Use naturally fermented soy sauce without added sugars for authentic flavor.
Nutrition Information
Show DetailsNutrition Facts
Serving: 3Serving
Amount Per Serving
Calories 224 kcal
% Daily Value*
| Calories | 224kcal | 11% |
| Carbohydrates | 23g | 8% |
| Protein | 2g | 4% |
| Fat | 14g | 22% |
| Saturated Fat | 1g | 5% |
| Polyunsaturated Fat | 1g | 6% |
| Monounsaturated Fat | 12g | 60% |
| Sodium | 1162mg | 48% |
| Potassium | 268mg | 6% |
| Fiber | 4g | 16% |
| Sugar | 6g | 12% |
| Vitamin A | 4263IU | 85% |
| Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) | 0.1mg | |
| Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) | 0.1mg | |
| Vitamin B3 (Niacin) | 1mg | |
| Vitamin B6 | 0.2mg | |
| Vitamin C | 40mg | 44% |
| Vitamin E | 6mg | |
| Vitamin K | 56µg | |
| Calcium | 44mg | 4% |
| Vitamin B9 (Folate) | 40µg | |
| Iron | 1mg | 6% |
| Magnesium | 19mg | 5% |
| Phosphorus | 44mg | |
| Zinc | 0.3mg |
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
You'll Also Love
