An extremely popular and very loved Indo-Chinese dish made from mixed vegetables and tossed in spicy Chinese sauces! Served with fried rice or noodles.
Indo-Chinese food has a long history in India, it’s a distinct cuisine style adapting Chinese cooking techniques and spices to the Indian palette. This cuisine also includes several vegetarian options to suit a large majority of Indians.
The Indo-Chinese cuisine style was developed by the ethnic Chinese community of Kolkata. Today it is an integral part of the Indian culinary world and manchurian is a firm favourite! This can be made as a dry version usually had as a starter with the dumpling just coated in sauce or as a main course with lots of gravy like the one you are seeing in this pic.
In both the dry and gravy version, the sauce is what holds this dish together – and the combination of salty, sweet, spicy and tangy flavours do a happy dance on your tongue which keep you craving for more!
Traditionally the manchurian balls are fried before dunking them in the sauce, however if you prefer you can bake them or shallow fry them. I haven’t tried the fried version. The baked version didn’t work very well for me, however I was quite happy with the shallow fried one.
Get all your ingredients prepped and ready before you start. Feel free to add other veggies to your manchurian mix – I’ve used cabbage and carrots, you could add peppers, cauliflower, green beans etc. However, avoid veggies that release too much water as this would cause your manchurian balls to go soggy!
Overview
- Serves – 4
- Prep time – 30 minutes
- Resting time – 20 minutes
- Cooking time – 20 minutes
Ingredients – Manchurian Balls
- 2 cup finely grated cabbage
- 1 cup finely grated carrots
- 1 cup cooked rice
- 2 chillies minced
- 3 tbsp corn flour
- 5 tbsp plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp chilli sauce
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- Oil for frying
Ingredients – Manchurian Sauce
- 2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
- 8-10 spring onions chopped
- 2 chillis chopped
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 1 tsp chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 1/4 cup water
Method – Manchurian Balls
- Grate all the veggies using a fine grater or chop them finely in a food processor
- Squeeze out the extra moisture (you can reserve the liquid as stock to use in another dish later if you like)
- Add the squeezed veggies in a large bowl and add the rest of the manchurian ingredients
- Mix it all up and form a large dough like ball
- Make smaller balls (about 3/4 inch diameter). If you are shallow frying the balls flatten them slightly
- Refrigerate the balls for about 20 minutes so they firm up and are easier to fry
- Deep fry or shallow fry the balls (or bake if you prefer in a hot oven for about 20-25 minutes)
- Keep aside while you make the sauce
Method – Manchurian Sauce
- Add oil to a hot wok
- Add garlic and sauté for a few seconds
- Add chilli and onion and sauté for a minute
- Add pepper and spring onion whites and continue to sauté
- Add the sauces and stir them all in
- Add 3 cups of water and let it come to a boil
- Mix the corn flour with 1/4 cup of water and slowly spoon into the mix and keep stirring till the sauce thickens and gets glossy
- Add the fried manchurian dumplings to the sauce and mix well so the dumplings are nicely coated. Be careful while mixing to ensure the dumplings don’t break
- Let it cook for a couple of minutes
- Garnish with spring onion greens
- Serve with fried rice or noodles
