Veg Manchurian | Veg Balls | Vegetable Manchurian
Veg Manchurian is a popular Indian-Chinese dish. The word Manchurian came from Manchuria, a region in Northern Asia (today’s northeastern China). It was originally a chicken dish and is well known by the name Chicken Manchurian. It became famous by a small community who lived in Kolkata during the British rule over India. Vegetable Manchurian is been adapted from the Chicken Manchurian dish to suit the vegetarian diet followed by many Indians.
This dish is made of deep-fried vegetable balls seasoned with Manchurian Sauce. In this recipe, I have used grated cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, and onions but you’re free to use other vegetables like grated capsicum, beetroot, and radish too. I mixed these vegetables with all-purpose flour (maida), cornflour, rice flour, and some spices. Then, I deep fried them and seasoned them with slit green chillies, chopped onion and garlic, mint leaves, and Manchurian Sauce.
Manchurian Sauce is sour, sweet and spicy flavored, it is used for other Manchurian and Indo-Chinese dishes too. You can check out the recipe for my Manchurian Sauce. I wrote a separate recipe for this sauce because it is used in most of the Manchurian dishes. The other Manchurian dishes such as Babycorn Manchurian, Gobi Manchurian, Paneer Manchurian, etc, are pretty much prepared the same way as this recipe with slight changes. Veg Manchurian is a great appetizer to serve at family dinners, get-togethers or any gathering. I hope you enjoy cooking this flavourful dish for your family and friends.
Recipe card for Veg Manchurian
Veg Manchurian | Veg Balls | Vegetable Manchurian
Course: Starters, Appetizers, Evening SnacksCuisine: Indian, Chinese, Indo-ChineseServings
6
servingsPrep time
45
minutesCooking time
30
minutesTotal time
1
hour15
minutesIngredients
- Veg Balls
2 cups of grated cabbage
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup grated cauliflower
1 medium grated onion
1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour (maida)
2 tablespoons of cornflour
1 tablespoon of rice flour
Oil for frying
Salt to taste
- Veg Manchurian
1 medium thickly chopped onion
3-4 slit and cut green chillies
5-6 chopped garlic cloves
1 cup of mint leaves (optional)
1 cup Manchurian sauce
1 cup of coriander leaves
Vegetable balls
Directions
- Vegetable balls
- In a bowl, add all the grated vegetables – cabbage, carrot, cauliflower, and onion.
- Add ginger-garlic paste, salt, red chillies powder, and turmeric.
- Add all the flours – all-purpose flour (maida), cornflour and rice flour.
- Heat 4 cups of oil for frying in a pan (kadia)
- Add one tablespoon of hot oil to the mixture and mix it well.
- Make balls of the mixture and place it in the heated oil.
- Fry the vegetable balls from all sides until it’s golden brown.
- Drain the oil completely and place it on a tissue paper.
- Vegetable Manchurian
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan (kadai).
- Add chopped onion, green chillies, garlic, and mint leaves.
- Add the vegetable balls.
- Add the Manchurian sauce.
- Add coriander leaves and mix all the ingredients well. Serve it while it’s hot.
Notes
- Apart from the above-given vegetables you can add other vegetables like grated capsicum, potato, beetroot, and radish but make sure you adjust the number of vegetables and the flours and of course other ingredients.
- Tomato sauce balances the taste of this dish because it is sweet, spicy and tangy.
- If you feel it’s very spicy, you can add some jaggery and salt to balance the taste.
- Mint leaves are optional, you can skip it. It just gives a nice flavor to the dish. Instead of mint leaves, the mint powder also can be used. Although I would prefer fresh mint leaves.
- Grating vegetables takes plenty of time, you can grate 1/2 cup of each if you are using other vegetables too. If you want to save some for later, you can grate these vegetables and store them in the refrigerator for 3 days.
- You need not add water to the mixture as the vegetables will leave out water and you’ll be adding hot oil. If required add more oil. Make sure you don’t add too much flour.
- You can add breadcrumbs as well to the mixture to make it more crispy.
How to make Veg Manchurian step-by-step?
Vegetable balls
Step 1: In a bowl, take 2 cups of grated cabbage, 1 cup of grated carrot, 1 cup of grated cauliflower, and 1 medium-sized grated onion.
Step 2: Add 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste, Salt to taste, 1 teaspoon red chilli powder, and ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder.
Step 3: Add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour (maida), 2 tablespoons of cornflour, and 1 tablespoon of rice flour.
Step 4: Heat oil for frying in a pot (kadai).
Step 5: Add 2 tablespoons of hot oil to the mixture and mix all the ingredients well. Make balls of the mixture.
Step 6: Deep fry these vegetable balls from all sides until they turn golden brown.
Veg Manchurian
Step 1: Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pot (kadai).
Step 2: Add 1 medium-sized chopped onion, 2 slit green chillies, 7-8 small-sized chopped garlic cloves, and 1 cup of mint leaves (pudina).
Step 3: Mix all these ingredients well. Add vegetable balls and Manchurian Sauce. Mix it well, let the vegetable balls blend well with the sauce. Veg Manchurian is ready. Garnish it with coriander leaves.
