This is a dish unique to Indo-Chinese cuisine. Veg Manchurian was created by Chinese communities living in Calcutta. This amalgamation of Chinese cooking techniques and local Indian ingredients is one of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes out there.
This manchurian recipe has two components. The crispy fried vegetable balls and the sweet-sour and spicy sauce.
In our recipe video, we make the gravy version of this dish but this same recipe can be followed to make the dry variant as well, which is a popular starter dish. To make the dry version just skip the water, additional salt in the sauce and the cornstarch slurry, and there you have it, the dry/starter or snack variation of this recipe.
- 1 cup or 100g cabbage
- 1/2 cup or 50g carrot
- 1/2 cup or 3-4 spring onions
- 1/2 cup or 50g green beans
- 50g AP flour
- 20g corn starch
- 1 tbsp or 6g minced ginger
- 1/2 tsp or 2g baking powder
- 1/2 tsp or 3g salt
- 50g capsicum or green bell pepper
- 65g red onion
- 10g or 3 cloves garlic
- 15g ginger
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp red or green chilli sauce
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tsp neutral table vinegar or rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (optional for colour)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/8th tsp* msg (optional)
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 3/4 cup + 1 tbsp water
- 1/2 tbsp neutral oil for cooking
Manchurian
- Grate the cabbage, and peeled carrot on the large end of a box grater. Finely grate the ginger. Finely chop the spring onions and green beans.
- Add all the vegetables to a bowl and rub in with 1 tsp of salt till the vegetables start to release their moisture content, 2-3 minutes.
- Then add the cornstarch, AP flour and baking powder. Mix together and knead lightly to form a soft dough.
- Portion the dough into 12-14 manchurian balls. Deep fry the balls in medium-low heat till golden brown on the outside and cooked through in the centre.
- Set aside while you prepare the sauce.
Sauce
- In a small bowl, mix together the ketchup, soy sauce, red and green chilli paste, vinegar, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar, black pepper and msg till well combined. This is the stir-fry sauce.
- Dice the capsicum (green bell pepper) and red onion in 2-3 cm cubes.
- Finely chop the aromatics - ginger and garlic.
- In a pan, wok or kadhai add some neutral oil. Fry the aromatics on high heat till fragrant - 1 min.
- Then add the stir-fry sauce mixed earlier and fry for another 15-13 seconds.
- Then add in 3/4 cup of water followed by the chopped capsicum and onion cubes.
- Once the sauce comes to a boil, thicken by adding a cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp cold water).
- Stir well to combine and once the sauce is thick and glossy turn off the heat and add in the manchurian balls.
- Garnish with thinly sliced spring onions and serve with fried rice or street food style chowmein.
* MSG: MSG (when consumed in moderation), isn't actually bad for you. There have been many scientific studies de-bunking the modern myth that MSG is harmful to people's health. If you're curious to learn more about glutamate here's a great video about it.