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Veg Manchurian or vegetable manchurian is the result of the adaptation of Chinese cooking and seasoning techniques to suit Indian tastes. It is believed to have been originally developed by a small Chinese community which lived in Kolkata for a century.

In its two-stage preparation, the first stage requires preparing a spiced corn flour batter, dipping vegetable balls (grated mix vegetables formed into balls) in it and deep frying them. In the second stage, the deep fried vegetable balls are sautéed with chopped onion, garlic, etc, in soy sauce, tomato ketchup and chilli sauce.

There are many types of manchurians for example - Gobi Manchurian, Vegetable Manchurian, the Baby-Corn Manchurian, Chicken Manchurian etc.

There are two different variants of Veg Manchurian - dry and with gravy. Both variants are prepared by using common ingredients like grated mixed vegetables (for example cabbage, capsicum, carrots etc), corn flour, maida flour (all-purpose flour), spring onions, soy sauce, chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, garlic etc. and has typical garnish of spring onion.

Veg manchurian dry

It has vegetable fritters in comparatively dry sauce like texture and is typically served and enjoyed as a snack or starter with tomato ketchup as dipping sauce.

Veg manchurian gravy

It has vegetable fritters in a thick soup like spicy gravy curry made of corn flour. It is generally served with varieties of rice dishes like steamed rice, Chinese fried rice, Szechuan fried rice, etc. in main course.

The most trickiest part in this dish is to make the vegetable balls. Sometime the vegetable balls split apart while frying. So the consistency of the batter should be perfect to make perfect vegetable balls.

I learned veg manchurian from my mother and this is one of my favourite dishes.

This dish is also ideal for a party at home.

Cooked plain rice refers to rice that has been cooked either by steaming or boiling. You may cook plain rice with or without salt, depends on your taste.

The terms steamed rice or boiled rice are also commonly used for plain rice. Any variant of Asian rice (both Indica and Japonica varieties), African rice or wild rice, glutinous or non-glutinous, long-, medium-, or short-grain, of any colour, can be used. Rice for cooking can be whole grain or milled.

Plain rice is very simple to cook and takes not too much time. You don't need to have a rice cooker to make plain rice. You can use a saucepan or a pressure cooker.

In India rice is cooked daily in main meals in many families. Plain rice goes well with any gravy dish.

Ingredients

Preparation

For Veg Manchurian

• Take grated vegetables (cabbage, carrots, spring onions[finely chopped]) in a large mixing bowl.

• Add corn flour, all purpose flour, ginger garlic paste, pepper and salt to it.

• Mix all the ingredients well. If the mixture looks too wet, you can add some more All Purpose Flour to absorb the excess water.

• Make  small balls from the mixture. Do not let the vegetables sit for too long after mixing the ingredients otherwise they will start to leave water and you will not be able to make manchurian balls. The best is to keep making the balls and frying them simultaneously.

• Heat oil in a pan or a kadai on a medium flame to deep fry the manchurian balls.

• Once the oil gets hot, add manchurian balls into it. Do not keep the flame on high, else they will turn dark from the outside, but will not be properly cooked from the inside.

• But also make sure that the oil is sufficiently hot before adding the manchurian balls into it otherwise they may break.

• Fry them till they turns golden brown from all the sides. Flip them gently when one side turns golden brown.

• Take them out on an absorbent paper to drain out the excess oil.

• Repeat this process with the remaining manchurian balls.

For Manchurian Gravy

• Heat oil in a pan or a kadai. Add finely chopped garlic and green chillies into it and sauté them for a minute.

• Add finely chopped onions or spring onions and fry them on high heat till they turns golden brown.

• Now add soy sauce, red chilli sauce, tomato ketchup and salt into it. Keep in mind that soy sauce also contains salt so add salt accordingly. Mix well.

• Make corn flour paste by adding 1 tbsp of corn flour to 2 tbsp of water. Mix well to make a smooth paste. Keep it aside for later use.

• Next add water as per the gravy you want to have and let it boil.

• Add this corn flour paste in manchurian gravy to thicken the gravy. As soon as you add the corn flour paste mix well so that there will be no lumps in the gravy.

• Stir and cook it for 3-4 minutes on a medium flame. If the gravy is too thick you may add more water into it and if it's too thin you may add more corn flour paste to thicken the gravy.

• Now add already fried manchurian balls to the gravy and stir gently so that the manchurian balls gets coated with all the sauces.

• Switch off the flame and garnish it by adding finely chopped spring onions.

• Veg manchurian is ready to serve.

For Plain Rice

• Wash rice properly until the water runs clear. Soak them for at least 15 minutes.

• Take a large saucepan, add water to it. Bring it to a boil. For every cup of rice, use approximately 1¾ cups of water.

• Now add 1 tsp of salt and you may add oil or butter into the water. Oil/Butter is optional.

• Add rice to the boiling water.

• Stir once to separate any clumps.

• Cover the pan with a lid and let the rice cook on low flame for about 18 minutes.

• Then remove them from the heat and allow the rice to steam in the pot for another 5 minutes.

• Remove the lid and fluff with a fork to separate the grains.

• Hot plain rice is ready to serve with veg manchurian.