Vegetable Manchurian

Vegetable Manchurian is a very popular Indo-Chinese dish generally served with fried rice as a great side dish. Vegetable Manchurians are deep fried vegetable balls served in a soya sauce based gravy. With ingredients list it looks like a tough job to do but believe me it's super easy. For vegetable balls cabbage, carrots and onions are the key ingredients other than these add veggies of your choice to make vegetable balls. Just dig into these deep fried delights and enjoy.

Cuisine: Indo-Chinese | Recipe Category: Lunch & Dinner
Prep Time: 40 Minutes | Cook Time: 20 Minutes | Serving: 6

Ingredients

For the Vegetable Balls:

1.	Carrot, grated	½ cup
2.	Cabbage, grated	½ cup
3.	Cauliflower, grated	½ cup
4.	Capsicum, chopped	½ cup
5.	Spring onion/Scallions, chopped	¼  cup
6.	Green beans, chopped	½ cup
7.	Noodles, boiled and cut (optional)	½ cup
8.	Garlic, minced	1 Tbsp.
9.	Ginger, grated	1 Tbsp.
10.	Green chilies	3-4
11.	Chili sauce	1 Tbsp. (Adjust to taste)
12.	Soy sauce	1 Tbsp. (Adjust to taste)
13	All-purpose flour	6 Tbsp. (As needed)
14.	Corn flour	4 Tbsp.
15.	Baking powder	½ Tsp.
16.	Salt	To taste
17.	Oil	3 Tbsp.

For the Gravy:

1.	Garlic, finely chopped	1 Tbsp.
2.	Ginger, finely  chopped	1 Tbsp.
3.	onion	1 cup
4.	Spring onions/scallion(white part /green part separated), finely chopped	3-4 sprigs
5.	Capsicum, finely  chopped (optional)	¼ cup
6.	Soy sauce	2 Tbsp. (Adjust to taste)
7.	Red chili sauce OR Crushed black pepper- ½ Tsp	1 Tbsp. (Adjust to taste)
8.	Tomato sauce (optional)	¼ cup   (Adjust to taste)
9.	Vinegar	1 Tbsp. (Adjust to taste)
10.	Corn flour, dissolved in 3 Tbsp. water	2-3 Tbsp. (or as required)
11.	Sugar (No required if using Tomato sauce)	To taste
12.	Salt	To taste
13.	Oil	2 Tbsp.
14.	Water/Vegetable broth	As required

Other Ingredients:

1.	Oil	For Frying
2.	Spring onions greens	For Garnishing

Step by Step Instructions:

For the Vegetable Balls:

1. Mix all the ingredients listed under vegetable balls except baking powder and salt.
2. Mix well with hands adding more all purpose flour and water as required and keep aside for 15-20 minutes. 
3. The consistency of the mixture should not be too dry or too runny. Everything should come together to form a ball like shape.
4. Add salt and baking soda just before you make and mix, otherwise it will leave water. 
5. Wet your hands and shape into small lemon size round balls and deep fry till dark golden brown on medium heat. Cook in medium flame to ensure even cooking.
6. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.
   

For the Gravy:

1. Heat oil in deep bottom pan. Add chopped: ginger, garlic, onions, capsicum, spring onions whites and stir fry over a high flame for a few seconds.
2. Add 2-3 cup of water or veg stock and mix well let the gravy simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add cornflour paste to thicken the gravy and mix well.
4. Finally add soy sauce, red chili sauce, Tomato sauce, and vinegar, salt; mix well and simmer until the sauce thickens to your desired consistency.
5. Once the gravy is thick and shiny add the fried vegetable and spring onion greens, mix well 
6. Vegetable Manchurian garnished with spring onion greens is ready to serve. Serve hot with Noodles or Fried Rice.

Quick Tips

1. Adding noodle in the vegetable ball is optional. I like adding them.
2. Add vegetable as per availability and adjust the proportion as per your choice.
3. Frying: Always fry the vegetable balls on medium heat. As if fried on a high heat, they will get cooked from outside and but uncooked from inside resulting in doughy taste in the mouth and if fried on a low heat, they will absorb more oil  making them oily and  soggy.
4. Consistency: You can change the consistency as per your liking: for a thin consistency, add some veg broth or water and for a thick consistency, add a few teaspoons of cornflour paste. 
5. Taste: For this dish feel free to use ingredients with (Adjust to taste) tags as per your taste: hot, spicy, tangy or sweet. 
6. The gravy of this dish thickens once it cools down. So when reheating you may need to add some water.