Veg Manchurian gravy is a popular Indo Chinese dish made with fried veggie balls in sweet, spicy and tangy sauce/gravy. It is served is served as party starter or as a side dish with noodles or fried rice.
Veg Manchurian is the result of the adaptation of Chinese cooking where we have added Indian spices to suit Indian tastes and this has become a staple of Indian Chinese cuisine.
There are many variations of Manchurian like cabbage Manchurian, aloo Manchurian etc. It turns out so delicious and is impossible to resist this homemade street food. You must try it today.
About Manchurian
Veg Manchurian is an Indian Chinese appetizer where crisp fried vegetable balls are dunked in slightly sweet, sour and spicy sauce. These balls are super crisp and delicious and the sauce is finger licking.
Manchurian can be made as dry with just a coat of sauce, semi-dry with less sauce or as a gravy dish. The dry and semi-dry Manchurian are usually served as starters while the gravy Manchurian is served as a side dish with fried rice or Hakka noodles.
It is also a good option for kids who avoid vegetables. You can add any number of vegetables into it and it is good to go. Follow the recipe of Veg Gravy Manchurian and experience a taste of street style Indo-Chinese Platter at home.
If you try this recipe, just click a picture and tag me @culinarychaser or #culinarychaser on Instagram.
Ingredients
- For Manchurian balls
- Cabbage (chopped/grated) – 1 cup
- Onion (chopped) – 1/2 cup
- Carrot (chopped) – 1/2 cup
- Capsicum/Green bell pepper (chopped) – 1/4 cup
- Spring onion greens – 1/2 cup
- Ginger (chopped) – 1 inch
- Garlic (chopped) – 7-8 cloves
- All purpose flour – 2 tbsp
- Corn flour – 4 tbsp
- Salt as per taste
- Black pepper powder – 1/4 tsp
- Chili flakes – 1/4 tsp
- Oil for frying
- For Gravy
- Oil – 1 tbsp
- Ginger (chopped) – 1/4 tsp
- Garlic (chopped) – 1/4 tsp
- Green chili – 1 no
- Cabbage (chopped/grated) – 1 tbsp
- Carrot (chopped) – 1 tbsp
- Capsicum/Green bell pepper (chopped) – 1 tbsp
- Spring onion greens – 2 tbsp
- Salt as per taste
- Soy sauce- 1 tsp
- Green chilli sauce – 1 tsp
- Red chilli sauce – 1 tsp
- Water – 2 cups
- Sugar – 1/4 tsp
- Corn flour – 1 tbsp
How to prepare?
Making vegetable balls
- Start by finely chopping or grating all the vegetables.
- Take the veggies in a bowl.
- Add in the dry ingredients – Corn flour, all purpose flour (maida), salt, black pepper powder and chili flakes.
- Mix and gather the whole mixture together. Add more corn flour and all purpose flour if the mix has more water content in it. Now it is well combined and you will get a dough-like mixture.
- Now you need to grease your palms with some oil and take a small portion of the mixture in your hands. Roll it in your palms and make a round veggie ball. If the mixture sticks to your hands just clean them and repeat same process.
- Make all the veggie balls this way and keep aside.
Frying veggie balls
- Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan.
- 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 oil.
- Now fry these balls till they are crisp and golden brown.
- Now remove them with a slotted spoon and drain as much oil as possible.
- Place the fried veg Manchurian balls on kitchen paper towel.
- For a low fat version, you can cook the veggie balls in an appe-appam pan too.
- Fry the veg Manchurian balls this way in batches and keep aside.
Make sauce or Gravy
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan. Add chopped ginger, garlic and slit green chilies. Sauté for a minute.
- Add in chopped carrots, cabbage, capsicum followed by spring onion greens. Stir fry on high flame for a minute.
- Now add salt, soy sauce, green chili sauce and red chili sauce.
- Add 2 cups water. Let the mixture come to a boil and add sugar.
- In a small bowl take 1 tbsp cornflour along with 4 tbsp water. Mix them well and then add it to the gravy.
- Continue to stir while the gravy is cooking. Also simmer the flame till the sauce thickens and you see a glaze in it. Cook the sauce or gravy for about 3 to 4 minutes on a medium flame.
- If the consistency of sauce is too thick, add some water. If it is too thin, then you can add some cornflour.
- Now add the fried veg Manchurian balls.
- Gently stir and coat the veg Manchurian balls in the gravy.
- Serve veg Manchurian hot garnished with some spring onion greens. This Veg Manchurian gravy goes well with veg fried rice, plain rice or noodles.