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.
- Veg Manchurian Gravy (With Sauce) – Makes for a tasty Chinese Main Course. Goes best with fried rice, schezwan fried rice or steamed rice.
- Veg Manchurian Dry – An excellent starter snack or as a side dish with hakka noodles or chow mein.
Both the recipes taste good and are shared with step by step photos. You can make either of them as per your choice. Example: you can make veg manchurian dry as a starter snack or veg manchurian gravy for a Chinese main course.
Table of Contents
- About Veg Manchurian Recipe
- How to make Manchurian Sauce or Gravy
- Dry Vegetable Manchurian
- Expert Tips
- Recipe Card for Manchurian Recipe | Chinese Veg Manchurian
- Recipe Card for Veg Manchurian – Dry
About Veg Manchurian 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.
The manchurian recipe presented here is a tried and tested recipe, like all my recipes. the result was a yummy veg manchurian that was excellent with plain steamed rice.
Step-by-Step Guide
How to make Manchurian Sauce or 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 ½cup finely chopped red cabbage, ½cup grated carrot, ¼cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper), ¼cup finely chopped frenchbeans and ¼cup 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), ½teaspoon black pepper and ½ teaspoon salt oradd 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.
Step 2 – Frying 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.
12. 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 keepaside.
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. Add1 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 ¼to 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.
Step-by-Step Guide
Dry Vegetable Manchurian
Veg Manchurian Dry is a crispy starter snack of fried veg balls tossed in the spicy, sweet, tangy manchurian sauce.
It is one of the dishes that we order when we have dinner in an Indian-Chinese restaurant. It is one of my favorite dish from childhood. I have been making veg manchurian from from my teens. I make both gravy and the dry versions.
On occasions I make this dry manchurian version as a side dish with veg noodles.
The only time taking part in making dry vegetable manchurian is the grating or chopping the veggies. So the recipe does take time to prepare with frying the vegetable balls and then preparing the sauce.
For less work you can make the veg balls a day before and use them the next day. You can even use a food processor of a food chopper to ease your work.
Serve Veg Manchurian Dry as a starter snack or as a side dish with Hakka Noodles or Veg Chow Mein.
Step By Step
For ease of understanding, I have divided this post in 3 main parts:
- Step 1 –Preparing the veggie balls
- Step 2 – Fryingveggie balls
- Step 3 – Making veg manchurian dry
Lets start with step 1 – Preparing the Veggie Balls
1. Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl. Here I added ½ cup finely chopped red cabbage, ½ cup grated carrot, ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper), ¼ cup finely chopped french beans, ¼ cup finely chopped spring onions (scallions).
2. Add the dry ingredients – 2 tablespoons corn starch, 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, ½ teaspoon black pepper and ½ teaspoon salt or add as required.
3. Gather the whole mixture and kind of mix and knead so that the veggies leave the water and you get a dough like mixture.
4. Take a small portion of the mixture in your hands.
5. Press and roll it in your palm.
6. And make a round veggie ball.
7. Make all veggie balls this way and keep aside.
Step 2 – Frying Veggie Balls
8. Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan. Add a small piece of ball to the hot oil. If the balls does not stick orsettle down at the bottom of the pan, but comes up steadily the oil is ready for frying these veg manchurian balls.
9. Gently place the balls in the hot oil. The oil has to be medium hot. Too much heat and the manchurian ballswill be browned from top and uncooked from inside. Less hot oil will make the balls absorb too much of oil.
10. When cooked from one side, turn the balls with a slotted spoon.
11. Fry the balls till crisp and golden.
12. Remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and drain as much as oil as possible.
13. Place the fried veg manchurian balls on kitchen paper towels. For a low-fat version, you can cook the veggie balls in an appe or appam pan or æbleskiver pan.
14. Fry the veg balls this way in batches and keep aside.
Step 3 – Making Veg Manchurian Dry
15. Once the veggie balls are fried, then it is time to make the sauce. In another pan, heat about ½ tbsp of the same oil in which we fried the balls or toasted sesame oil. Add ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic, ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger & 1 or 2 green chilies, finely chopped.
16. Stir and sauté for a minute on a low flame.
17. Add ¼ cup chopped spring onions (scallions) or onions.
18. Stir and sauté till the onions soften.
19. Now add the sauces – ½ tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup and 1 teaspoon red chili sauce or green chili sauce. Note that the green chilli sauce or red chilli sauce should be spicy and not sweet.
20. Mix and stir very well.
21. Keep the flame on the lower side and sprinkle ¼ teaspoon corn starch (corn flour). Adding corn starch is optional. Adding corn starch gives a good glaze to the manchurian sauce.
22. Mix and stir very well.
23. Quickly add ¼ teaspoon black pepper and salt as required. Stir again. After adding corn starch the sauce will begin to thicken, so one has to be quick. Keep a check on the salt as the soy sauce, tomato ketchup and chilli sauce already have salt in them. So add less salt.
24. Then add the fried veg manchurian balls.
25. Toss and mix so that the sauce coats the veggie balls evenly.
26. Switch off the flame and add ½ teaspoon rice vinegar or regular white vinegar.
27. Toss and stir again. Serve Veg Manchurian Dry hot as a starter snack garnished with some spring onion greens (scallion greens).
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.
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Manchurian Recipe | Chinese Veg Manchurian
By Dassana Amit
Veg Manchurian recipe is a tasty Indo Chinese dish of fried veg manchurian balls in a spicy, sweet and tangy sauce. This delicious veg manchurian recipe is with a sauce or gravy.A vegan recipe.
4.84 from 114 votes
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Prep Time 40 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
Cuisine Indo Chinese
Course Main Course
Diet Vegan
Difficulty Level Moderate
Servings 3
Units
Ingredients
For vegetable balls
- ½ cup grated carrot
- ½ cup finely chopped cabbage (purple or green)
- ¼ cup finely chopped green bell pepper (capsicum)
- ¼ cup finely chopped spring onions (scallions)
- ½ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper or black pepper powder or white pepper powder
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons cornflour (corn starch)
- ½ teaspoon salt or add as per taste
- oil as required, for shallow or deep frying – sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil
For corn starch or cornflour paste
- 1 tablespoon cornflour (known as corn starch outside india)
- 2 tablespoons water
For gravy or sauce
- 1 to 1.5 tablespoons oil – toasted sesame oil or sunflower oil or any neutral tasting oil
- 4 tablespoons finely chopped onions or chopped spring onion whites (scallion whites)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
- 2 green chillies – finely chopped
- ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper) – optional
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped celery (optional)
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 2 to 3 teaspoons red chilli sauce (spicy and not sweet)
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar or regular white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- 1 to 1.25 cups water or vegetable stock
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder or freshly crushed black pepper or white pepper powder
- salt to taste
- ¼ to ½ teaspoon raw sugar to taste or white sugar – add as required
- 1 tablespoon spring onion greens (scallion greens) for garnishing
Instructions
Making vegetable balls
Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl.
Then add the dry ingredients – corn starch, all-purpose flour (maida), black pepper and salt.
Mix and gather the whole mixture together. Then kind of mix and knead so that the veggies leave 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.
Then take a small portion of the mixture in your hands.
Press and roll it in your palm and make a round veggie ball. You can spread some oil on your palms while making the vegetable balls.
Make all veggie balls this way and keep aside.
Frying veggie balls
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 veg manchurian 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).
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 of oil.
When cooked from one side, turn the balls with a slotted spoon.
Fry the balls till crisp and golden.
Remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and drain as much as oil as possible.
Place the fried veg 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 manchurian balls this way in batches and keep aside.
Making sauce or gravy
In a small bowl take the following three sauces – soy sauce, tomato ketchup and red chilli sauce.
Mix the sauces very well and keep aside.
In another small bowl take 1 tablespoon cornflour and 2 tablespoons water. Mix very well and keep aside.
Heat 1 to 1.5 tablespoons oil in a pan or wok. Add the chopped spring onions, finely chopped ginger, finely chopped garlic, finely chopped green chilies and finely chopped capsicum. Adding capsicum is optional.
Stir fry on medium flame till the onions turn translucent.
Now add the mixed sauces. Stir and mix very well.
Add 1 to 1.25 cups water. Let the mixture come to a boil.
Mix the cornflour paste again in the bowl (as the cornflour settles at the bottom) and then add in the pan.
As soon as you add cornflour paste, mix very well so that there are no lumps.
Continue to stir and mix when the veg manchurian gravy is cooking. Simmer till the 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.
When the veg manchurian sauce thickens, add ½ teaspoon black pepper powder.
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.
Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon sugar. Mix very well.
Then add the fried veg manchurian balls. Also add 1 teaspoon ofRice vinegar or regular vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
Gently stir and coat the veg manchurian balls in the gravy.
Switch off the flame add chopped spring onion greens.
Serve veg manchurian hot garnished with some spring onion greens. This manchurian gravy goes well with veg fried rice, plain rice and even bread or the chapati or rotis.
Video
Notes
- Consistency: The best part of most Indian-Chinese recipes is you can change the consistency as per your liking. If you want a thin consistency, add some veg broth or water. If you want a thick consistency, add a few teaspoons of cornflour paste. This dish thickens after it cools down. So when reheating you may have to add some water.
- Ajinomoto (MSG): I have not added any msg to the recipe. If you want a more restaurant style effect, you can do so. But a word of caution – msg or mono sodium glutamate is not good for the health.
- Frying: Remember to fry the veg manchurian balls on medium heat. If they are fried on a high heat, then the outside will get cooked and the inside will be not cooked leaving a doughy taste in the mouth. If they are fried on a low heat, they will absorb oil and this will make them oily and soggy.
- Sugar: I like the sweet sour taste of Indo Chinese food and hence I have added raw sugar to the recipe. You can use any other sweetener like palm sugar or coconut sugar instead of sugar.
- Soy Sauce: Use naturally fermented soy sauce. The soy sauce I use does not have any sugar added to it. You may avoid this or check the ingredients list in your soy sauce if sugar is there in it or not.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
Nutrition Facts
Manchurian Recipe | Chinese Veg Manchurian
Amount Per Serving
Calories 218Calories from Fat 126
% Daily Value*
Fat 14g22%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Sodium 799mg35%
Potassium 171mg5%
Carbohydrates 21g7%
Fiber 3g13%
Sugar 5g6%
Protein 2g4%
Vitamin A 3818IU76%
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) 1mg67%
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 1mg59%
Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 1mg5%
Vitamin B6 1mg50%
Vitamin C 25mg30%
Vitamin E 6mg40%
Vitamin K 53µg50%
Calcium 28mg3%
Vitamin B9 (Folate) 29µg7%
Iron 1mg6%
Magnesium 7mg2%
Phosphorus 21mg2%
Zinc 1mg7%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Veg Manchurian – Dry
By Dassana Amit
Veg Manchurian Dry is a tasty Indo Chinese starter dish of fried veg balls in a spicy, sweet and tangy sauce.
4.84 from 55 votes
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Prep Time 50 minutes mins
Cook Time 10 minutes mins
Total Time 1 hour hr
Cuisine Indo Chinese
Course Starters
Diet Vegan
Difficulty Level Moderate
Servings 2
Units
Ingredients
For fried veg manchurian balls
- ½ cup grated or finely chopped cabbage (green or red cabbage)
- ½ cup grated carrot
- ¼ cup finely chopped capsicum (green bell pepper)
- ¼ cup finely chopped french beans
- ¼ cup finely chopped spring onions (scallions) or onions
- 2 tablespoon corn starch (also called as corn flour in india)
- 2 tablespoon all purpose flour (maida)
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder
- ½ teaspoon salt or add as required
- oil for shallow frying or deep frying
For veg manchurian sauce
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped garlic
- ½ tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 or 2 green chilies – finely chopped
- ¼ cup chopped spring onions (scallions) or onions
- ½ tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 1 teaspoon red chili sauce
- ¼ teaspoon corn starch optional
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder
- ½ teaspoon rice vinegar or regular vinegar or apple cider vinegar
- ½ to 1 tablespoon chopped spring onions greens for garnish
- ½ tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- salt as required
Instructions
Making veggie balls
Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl.
Add all the dry ingredients.
Gather the whole mixture and kind of knead so that the veggies leave water and you get a dough like mixture.
Take a small portion of the mixture in your hands. Press and roll it in your palm and make a round veggie ball. Make all veggie balls this way and keep aside.
Frying veggie balls
Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or pan.
Add a small piece of 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.
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 manchurian balls absorb too much of oil.
With a slotted spoon turn over the balls when cooked from one side. Fry the veg manchurian balls till crisp and golden.
Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain as much as oil as possible.
Place the fried veg manchurian balls on kitchen paper towels. Fry the veg manchurian balls this way in batches and keep aside.
Making veg manchurian dry
Once the balls are fried, then it is time to make the sauce. In another pan, heat about ½ tbsp of the same oil in which we fried the balls or ½ tbsp of sesame oil.
Add finely chopped garlic, finely chopped ginger & 1 or 2 green chilies, finely chopped.
Stir and saute for a minute on a low flame.
Add ¼ cup chopped spring onions or onions.
Stir and saute till the onions soften.
Now add soy sauce, tomato ketchup and red chili sauce or green chili sauce. Stir very well.
Keep the flame on the lower side and sprinkle corn starch. Adding corn starch is optional. Stir very well.
Quickly add salt and black pepper as required. Stir again.
After adding corn starch the sauce will begin to thicken, so one has to be quick.
Then add the fried veg manchurian balls. Stir so that the sauce coats the veg balls evenly.
Switch off the flame and add the rice vinegar or regular white vinegar.
Toss and stir again. Serve dry veg manchurian hot as a starter snack garnished with some spring onion greens.
Notes
- I have not added sugar in the sauce as the tomato ketchup and red chilli sauce already has sugar. If you want you can add a bit of sugar.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
Nutrition Facts
Veg Manchurian – Dry
Amount Per Serving
Calories 226Calories from Fat 99
% Daily Value*
Fat 11g17%
Saturated Fat 1g6%
Sodium 1776mg77%
Potassium 311mg9%
Carbohydrates 30g10%
Fiber 5g21%
Sugar 8g9%
Protein 3g6%
Vitamin A 6046IU121%
Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) 1mg67%
Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 1mg59%
Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 1mg5%
Vitamin B6 1mg50%
Vitamin C 45mg55%
Vitamin E 3mg20%
Vitamin K 72µg69%
Calcium 44mg4%
Vitamin B9 (Folate) 44µg11%
Iron 1mg6%
Magnesium 16mg4%
Phosphorus 37mg4%
Zinc 1mg7%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
This Veg Manchurian Recipe from the archives was first published in May 2012. It has been updated and republished on May 2020.
