Veg Manchurian is one of the most popular Indian-Chinese gravy recipes. Light, spongy, deep-fried vegetable meatballs dunked in a sweet and spicy luscious sauce is how you define Manchurian. This is a tried and tested veg Manchurian gravy recipe.
In the last few decades, the Indo-Chinese food fare has become extremely popular among the food lovers across India.
The reason being its simplicity, bursting flavors, and a hint of spicy savor, making it quintessential part of Indian food culture.
These vegan meatballs dipped in a thick and luscious Chinese style gravy is one of the most popular Indo-Chinese main-course dishes.
Veg Manchurian is served with a variety of fried rice or garlic noodles.
Perfectly Spongy Veg Manchurian Balls
These little steps do make a hell lot of difference in the texture of the vegetable meatballs.
Firstly, make sure all your vegetables are dry before grating. The last thing you need in the dough mixture is a water-clogged vegetable. Pat dry vegetables nicely before processing.
Secondly, it is always best to chop the vegetables in a food processor for the manchurian balls. It makes a lot of difference to the texture of the balls. And make them easy to bind. Often I pulse them all (carrot, cabbage, onion) together in a food processor.
Thirdly, if the dough for vegetable balls seems sticky, add a tablespoon of cornstarch or breadcrumbs. This way manchurian balls are easy to handle and shape.
That finger-licking good Manchurian Gravy
This is one of my most popular Indo-Chinese basic sauce. And I can’t get over it. There is something, so finger-licking good about it that makes you crave for more and more.
It is a pretty simple gravy that requires only 20 minutes. From vegetable balls, boneless chicken pieces to sliced paneer (cottage cheese) you can add anything in this magical sauce to make a delicious Indian-Chinese main-course dish.
The key flavor in the manchurian gravy comes from the finely chopped ginger and garlic. And I am not talking about roughly chopped ginger/garlic but really fine chopped one. This simple technique transforms the sauce into a true restaurant-style one.
Last but not the least, do not try to add all the sauces available in your pantry into the veg manchurian gravy. Every sauce plays a particular role to build up the flavor of the Manchurian.
At times, less is more. So try stick to the three basic sauce we have used in the veg Manchurian recipe – soy sauce, red chili sauce, and green chili sauce.
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Veg Manchurian Gravy Recipe
Ingredients
For Vegetarian Manchurian Balls:
- ¼ Cup cabbage, grated
- ¼ Cup carrot, grated
- ¼ Cup finely chopped onion
- 2 tablespoon breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour (maida)
- Salt to taste
- Oil for deep frying
For Manchurian sauce
- 1 tablespoon fine chopped garlic
- 1 tablespoon fine chopped ginger
- ½ Cup finely chopped spring onion
- ½ Cup diced capsicum
- 1 tablespoon corn flour (corn starch) dissolved in 4 tablespoon water
- 1 tablespoon soya sauce
- 1 tablespoon red chilli sauce
- 1 tablespoon green chili sauce
- 2 Cup water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoon cooking oil
Instructions
How To Make Veg Manchurian Balls:
- Mix all the ingredients for vegetable balls except oil in a large bowl. Combine with your fingers to get a soft, pliable dough-like mixture. Keep aside for 10 minutes.
- Pinch small portion out of the mixture and shape into the small round balls. Once all the balls are ready, keep them in the fridge till oil is heated.
- Heat oil in a deep frying pan over medium heat to fry the Manchurian balls.
- Deep fry balls over medium heat in small batches, do not overcrowd the frying pan at one time else balls will not get adequately fried.
- Once balls are deep brown from outside transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Turn off the heat and set balls aside until required.
How To Make Manchurian Sauce:
- To prepare the sauce, heat oil in a saucepan add ginger, garlic and saute for a minute. Next, add the chopped onion and fry over high heat for 2 – 3 minutes. No need to wait for the onion to get brown.
- Now add chopped capsicum, soya sauce, chili sauce, red chili sauce, salt, black pepper and fry for 5 minutes over medium to high heat.
- Add water. Stir to combine and let the Manchurian simmer for 5 minutes.
- Add the cornflour paste to thicken the sauce and again simmer the sauce over medium heat. Once sauce is thickened as per desired consistency add the balls to the sauce and simmer for 5 – 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat garnish veg manchurian with chopped spring onion greens.
- Serve Veg Manchurian with fried rice or chilli garlic noodles.
Recipe Notes:
- Keeping Manchurian balls in the fridge for 10 – 5 minutes make them firm and there is less chance of balls falling part while deep frying.
- Before deep-frying the balls you can coat them in corn-flour and water mixture for a crisp exterior.
- I have not added any green chilies in the gravy but for a spicier gravy go ahead and add green chilies.
रजनीश के झा (Rajneesh K Jha) says
प्रभावी !!!
शुभकामना
आर्यावर्त
Shiju Sugunan says
Nice post. I will try it this weekend. I am not too sure if I should use MSG.
Rajender Mohata says
This is awesome!!
hina , i tried tbis yesterday …came out excellent ..pulkit liked it verymuch ..he z saying thanks to u
FunFoodandfrolic says
Awww…dats really sweet..
MANA says
THANKING U
mohangai says
Finally started experimenting Chinese at home, thanks to your appetizing recipe and step by step approach. Everyone at home loved it. Thanks for the same. – Gayatri
FunFoodand Frolic says
I am glad your family is loving the dishes. Keep following our website more exciting recipes coming your way.
juliaroberts says
I like this dish. Thanks for sharing about Vegetable manchurian with fried rice.
Arty says
Hmm… I wonder what the “green chili sauce” is. So many different ones around the world. Is it just pure green Tabasco, or is it a green Mexican style sauce with onion, garlic, green chili and vinegar, or is it some kind of an Indian or East Asian style green chili sauce?
Hina Gujral says
Hello Arty, I have used pure Green Chili Sauce available in most of the supermarkets in India. Not the Tobasco or Mexican Green Sauce. This one used in the recipe is brand Ching’s. Hope this helps. Thanks, Hina
Shruthi Reddy says
This is too good and drooling. I will make this during the weekend 🙂
Hina Gujral says
Yay! Glad you like it!
Charu says
Ma’m very nice recipe. Trying it very soon.
Hina Gujral says
thank you so much!
Enok says
Great taste, but personally I’d say that in terms of ratios the recipe requires a lot more balls or a lot less sauce. The ingredients for the balls total pretty exactly one cup, which decreases once one starts squeezing the ingredients into a dough. The sauce, on the other hand, measures at least three cups.
As soon as I looked at the recipe I knew I’d make more balls. I doubled the amount of ingredients for them – totalling 12 balls in the end – but kept the amount of sauce as it was. Despite that a lot of room was still left in the sauce for more balls. It’s purely my personal taste, but I prefer not to have my plate filled with sauce so that I have to mash my rice in it to soak it up once I’m done eating the balls. Since the sauce was good, and a lot of it was left over, I froze it and am saving it for some future meal.