Veg Manchurianવેજ મંચૂરિયન
Fried cabbage-and-carrot balls tossed in a garlicky soy sauce. This Indo-Chinese street dish owes more to Gujarat than to China, and it comes out just as well at home.
Ingredients
Tap an ingredient to tick it off while you shop or measure.
- 2 cups finely chopped cabbage, 1 grated carrot
- 4 tbsp plain flour, 3 tbsp cornflour
- 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste, salt, pepper
- Sauce: 6-8 garlic cloves, 1 onion, 1 capsicum
- 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp chilli sauce, 1 tsp tomato ketchup, 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp cornflour dissolved in 1 cup water
- Oil and spring onion
Method
- Salt the cabbage and carrot, rest 10 minutes, then squeeze out the water.
- Mix in both flours, ginger-garlic and pepper and roll firm balls. Add no water.
- Fry in medium-hot oil until golden and drain.
- In a wok on high heat, fry the garlic, onion and capsicum for 2 minutes.
- Add all the sauces, pour in the cornflour water and boil until it thickens.
- Add the balls only as you serve, and scatter spring onion over.
Tips
- Add the balls late or they go soft in the sauce.
- High heat is what gives it the street-stall taste.
Storing and reheating
Fried balls keep two days in the fridge and a month in the freezer; refry them for half a minute in hot oil, or give them five minutes in an air fryer at 180C. The sauce keeps three days on its own, but the cornflour makes it gluey once cold, so loosen it with hot water and boil it again. Assembled manchurian does not keep.
What you can swap
- To avoid plain flour, use three tablespoons of gram flour with two of cornflour. The balls are a little heavier but good.
- No capsicum? Use the white part of spring onions and the thick cabbage stalk, finely chopped.
- Lemon juice can stand in for vinegar, but add it off the heat. Boiled into the sauce it goes flat.
- Out of chilli sauce, use a tablespoon of schezwan chutney, or half a teaspoon of chilli powder with a little extra ketchup.
What to serve with it
An evening snack at home, and standard birthday-party food. At Gujarati functions the dry version is served as a starter, while the gravy version goes with fried rice or hakka noodles. Street stalls finish it with schezwan sauce and spring onion.
Mistakes to avoid
- Add no water to bind the balls. If they will not hold, add more cornflour. Wet balls drink oil and break up as they fry.
- Do not make the balls too big. Large ones darken outside while the centre stays raw; keep them lemon-sized.
- Do not boil the sauce long after the cornflour slurry goes in. Take it off as soon as it thickens, or it turns gluey and dull.
- Taste before you salt. Soy sauce is salty already, so keep the salt low in both the balls and the sauce.
Questions people ask
Why do my manchurian balls fall apart while frying?
Either the cabbage was not squeezed dry or there is not enough cornflour to bind. Press the salted cabbage hard in your fist to get the water out, roll the mixture tight, and always test-fry one ball first.
What is the difference between dry and gravy manchurian?
Same components, different amount of sauce. For dry, use less of the cornflour water so the sauce only coats the balls. For gravy, use more water with the same cornflour, so there is enough to eat with rice or noodles.
Can I make the balls without deep frying?
An air fryer does them in about fifteen minutes at 180C, brushed with oil and shaken once. You can also brown them in an appam pan with a little oil. The crust is not as crisp as fried, but once the sauce goes on you notice it less.
