Manchurian Recipe | Veg Manchurian

Veg Manchurian is a tasty Indo Chinese dish of fried veggie balls in a spicy, sweet and tangy sauce. There are 2 popular variations of making veg manchurian.

About this recipe

Veg manchurian gravy recipe has a sauce or gravy in which the fried veggies balls are tossed and dunked.

The sauce has a mix of eclectic flavors and tastes like sweet, savory, spicy, sour and umami. The recipe is also vegan.

Manchurian in the Indian lingo is a term for fried veggies or fried meat (fish or prawns or chicken) in this spicy-umami sauce.

You can also call the sauce as manchurian sauce. Manchurian and many other Indian Chinese recipes were an invention of the Chinese community living in Kolkata.

This Chinese style of cooking was largely adapted to suit the Indian palate and also to have more vegetarian options in the cuisine.

I love Indo Chinese food. So much was my love for making Chinese food at home that in my teens I would make three of my favorite Indo Chinese recipes often – Chilli Paneer, Corn Soup and Vegetable Manchurian.

How to make veg manchurian gravy

For ease of reading, I have divided this post into 3 main parts.

Step 1 – making veg manchurian balls

Step 2 – frying veg manchurian balls

Step 3 – making manchurian gravy or sauce

Lets start with step 1 – Making vegetable balls

1. Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl. you will need ½ cup finely chopped red cabbage, ½ cup grated carrot, ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper), ¼ cup finely chopped french beans and ¼ cup finely chopped spring onions. You can also add regular green cabbage instead of red or purple cabbage.

2. Then add the dry ingredients – 2 tablespoons corn starch, 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (maida), ½ teaspoon black pepper and ½ teaspoon salt or add as required.

3. Mix and gather the whole mixture together. Then kind of mix and knead so that the veggies leave the 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.

4. Then take a small portion of the mixture in your hands.

5. Press and roll it in your palm and make a round veggie ball.

6. Make all veggie balls this way and keep aside. You can spread some oil on your palms while making the vegetable balls

7. 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 veggie balls. If the balls break, then some more binding agent is required. So you can add 2 to 3 teaspoons of some more all-purpose flour (maida).

8. 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.

9. When cooked from one side, turn the balls with a slotted spoon.

10. Fry the balls till crisp and golden turning them over a couple of times. Remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and drain as much as oil as possible.

11. Place the fried manchurian balls on kitchen paper towels. For a low-fat version, you can cook the veggie balls in an appe-appam pan or æbleskiver pan. Fry the veg balls this way in batches and keep aside.

Step 3: Making the sauce

14. In a small bowl take the following three sauces – ½ tablespoon soy sauce (or 1.5 teaspoons soy sauce), 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup, 2 to 3 teaspoons of red chilli sauce. The red chilli sauce is spicy and not sweet.

15. Mix the sauces very well and keep aside.

16. In another small bowl take 1 tablespoon cornflour (corn starch) and 2 tablespoons water. Mix very well and keep aside

17. Heat 1 to 1.5 tablespoons oil in a pan or wok. Add 4 tablespoons chopped spring onions (scallions), 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger, 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic, 2 green chilies (finely chopped) and ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper).

Adding capsicum is optional. You can use toasted sesame oil or sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil.

18. Stir fry on medium flame till the onions turn translucent.

19. Now add the mixed sauces.

20. Stir and mix very well.

21. Add 1 to 1.25 cups water.

22. Let the mixture come to a boil.

23. Mix the corn flour paste again in the bowl (as the corn flour settles at the bottom) and then add in the pan.

24. As soon as you add corn flour paste, mix very well so that there are no lumps.

25. Continue to stir and mix when the manchurian gravy is cooking. Simmer till the manchurian 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 flame. If the sauce is too thick, then you add some water. If it is too thin, then you can add some cornflour.

26. When the manchurian gravy thickens, add ½ teaspoon black pepper powder.

27. 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.

28. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon sugar or more if required. Mix very well.

29. Then add the fried vegetable balls. Also add 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or regular vinegar or apple cider vinegar.

30. Gently stir and coat the fried vegetable balls in the gravy.

31. Switch off the flame and add chopped spring onion greens.

32. Serve Veg Manchurian Gravy hot garnished with some spring onion greens (scallion greens). It goes well with veg fried rice or schezwan fried rice or plain steamed rice or noodles and even bread or roti.

Expert Tips

Grated or minced veggies: To make veg manchurian you need grated or minced veggies like – cabbage, carrots, capsicum, beans & spring onions (scallions). So you can chop the vegetables in a food processor or chop it with a knife. But using a food processor will save your time.

Soy Sauce: It is best to use naturally fermented soy sauce. You can even use bragg liquid aminos or tamari. While making any recipe with soy sauce in it, I would suggest to use naturally fermented soy sauce or bragg liquid aminos or tamari.

Tomato Ketchup – Do use a good quality or homemade tomato ketchup.

Red Chilli Sauce – To add some heat and pungency red chilli sauce is added. Note that you can use sriracha sauce in place of red chilli sauce.

Gluten free options – To bind the flour, use potato starch or tapioca starch in place of corn starch (corn flour). Use rice flour or chickpea flour (besan or gram flour) in place of all-purpose flour (maida).

No MSG (Ajinomoto) –  I do not add msg or ajinomoto in any of the recipes I make. If you want you can add a pinch of it in this recipe.

Serving Suggestions – Veg Manchurian Gravy goes well with Fried Rice, Schezwan Fried Rice or steamed rice or noodles or vegetable noodles. You can also serve it bread or soft dinner rolls or naan or roti.