This soya manchurian is a vegetarian but truly delicious cousin of popular Indian Chinese main course chicken manchurian.
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What is ‘Manchurian’?
Manchurian is a widely popular main course dish of Indian Chinese fusion cuisine. A key ingredient like vegetable balls, chicken, cauliflower, soya chunks, paneer, or mushroom is crispy fried and later dunked in a sweet and spicy Chinese-style gravy sauce. Manchuria is the name of a place in China. The invention credit of this dish goes to the Chinese migrant workers in India, who started their restaurants to cater to the local food lovers in East India.
Today we have approximately 97 lakh search results of Manchurian Recipe on Google. It is one of the staple takeaway orders in the Indian sub-continent.
Soya Manchurian is a vegan chilli chicken – also known as soya chilli.
What is Soya Chunks?
Soya Chunks or the soya wadi, also known as meal maker, is a vegan, high-protein plant-based ingredient with a chewy, fibrous, mock meat-like texture. Across India, the packets of soya chunks are easily available at grocery stores or in the supermarket. It is mainly used for making a variety of Indian dishes like vegetarian curry, cutlet, or vegetarain chilli chicken.
Other Ingredients
- Crispy Soya Chunks: All-purpose flour, cornflour (starch), ginger-garlic paste, salt, and black pepper. Vegetable Oil for shallow-frying.
- Vegetables: I love the combination of capsicum, onion, and colourful bell peppers, along with soya chunks. You can add zucchini, carrot, baby corn, mushroom, or any other vegetables of your choice.
- Sauces: Light Soy Sauce, Red Chilli Sauce, Tomato Sauce, White Vinegar
- Seasoning & Herbs: Garlic, Ginger, Spring Onion, Salt
How To Cook Soya Chunks
Step 1) Soak soya chunks in warm water to soften. Later, squeeze out all the water from the soaked chunks. They become soft, moist, and ready to use.
Step 2) For a chilli chicken-like texture, the soya chunks are coated with flour and fried till crisp. The fried soya chunks are a pretty tasty snack in itself. I keep on munching them while making the gravy for Manchurian.
Substitute soya chunks in this Manchurian recipe with firm tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, or mock meat.
Watch Manchurian Video
Hina’s Tried & True Tips
- Soya Chunks: Soak them in warm water till each soya piece is soft. Or boil them in salted hot water. Make sure to squeeze all the excess water from the soya chunks.
- Crispy Texture: The USP of this Manchurian gravy is the crispy bits of fried soya chunks. Deep or shallow frying the flour-coated soya chunks is the right way to get the perfect crunchy texture. But if you are not too keen on eating fried food, air fry the flour-coated soya chunks till they are crispy.
- The Sauce: If you like it thick and saucy, do not add too much water. But if you want a little extra gravy to accompany the rice, add 2 cups water along with a thickening cornstarch slurry and simmer over low heat until the sauce thickens.
Serving Suggestion
Soya Manchurian is an Indian Chinese main course dish. Hence, it is served with various sides such as fried rice, chili garlic noodles, mushroom fried rice, plain white rice, or Jasmine rice.
If you are not keen on eating too many carbohydrates or noodles, you can serve Soya Manchurian Gravy with brown rice, Shirataki Noodles, plain quinoa or the quinoa fried rice.
Transfer the leftover Manchurian gravy to an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. You can store it for 3 – 5 days. Next, reheat the Manchurian in the microwave or on the stovetop in a saucepan. Add ¼ Cup of water while reheating the Manchurian if it seems too thick.
Love Indo – Chinese flavours? Try this authentic Chilli Paneer recipe, restaurant style Chinese Chopsuey, or the comforting Vegetables in Hot Garlic Sauce.
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Soya Manchurian Recipe
- Deep Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 2 Cup soya chunks (meal maker)
- 4 Cup water
- ¼ Cup all-purpose flour (maida)
- 2 tablespoon corn flour (starch)
- 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste (see recipe)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 ½ Cup refined oil
Ingredients For Manchurian Gravy
- 4 tablespoon refined oil
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon green chili, finely chopped
- ½ Cup shallots (sambar onion)
- ½ Cup capsicum, diced
- 1 Cup bell pepper, diced
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon red chili sauce
- 2 tablespoon tomato sauce or ketchup (see recipe)
- Salt to taste
- 1 Cup water
- 1 tablespoon green onion, chopped
Instructions
- Boil water in a saucepan with salt. Add soya chunks and boil till soft. Transfer to a colander. Drain all the water.
- Squeeze out all the water from boiled soya chunks. Allow them to cool down. If the size of the soya chunks is too large, cut them into two equal halves.
- In a mixing bowl, combine flour, starch, salt, pepper, ginger garlic paste, and soya chunks. Mix nicely to coat the soya chunks evenly with the flour mixture.
- Heat oil in a frying pan, shallow fry the soya chunks till they turn crisp in texture. Drain them onto a plate.
- To prepare the Manchurian gravy, heat oil in a wok. Add garlic, ginger, and green chili. Stir fry over high heat for 1 minute. Make sure not to burn garlic or chili.
- Add shallots and saute till they become translucent. Add capsicum, bell pepper, vinegar, soya sauce, chili sauce, tomato sauce, and stir fry for 1 – 2 minutes. Do not overcook the vegetables.
- Add 1 cup water and salt. Simmer for 1 – 2 minutes. Taste and if required add more seasoning.
- Once the gravy thickens, add the fried soya chunks, mix nicely, and simmer for 2 minutes.
- Garnish Soya Manchurian with spring onion greens.
- Serve Soya Manchurian with chilli garlic noodles.
Recipe Notes:
- You can substitute soya chunks in this Manchurian recipe with firm tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, or mock meat.
- If the size of soya chunks is too big cut them into two halves after boiling.
- If red chili sauce is not available, use red chili paste or my sweet chili garlic sauce.
- For extra saucy Manchurian, add 2 cups of water along with a cornstarch slurry for a thick, sticky Chinese-style gravy.
Tara Nair says
That’s so yummy. But I guess, only my hubby will like it, cuz I don’t like soya chunk much. Thanks for sharing the recipe Hina… at least I can make a day for my husband soon 🙂
Sheetal says
I tried this out along with your fried rice recipe … turned out yum !
Moira says
Really delicious. Thanks for this recipe.
Hina Gujral says
Glad you liked it. Thanks for sharing your feedback!