This week on Hive Top Chef we have the topic of Gravy. I have made a traditional version of Veg Manchurian Gravy which is a crisp mixed vegetable ball in delicious rich gravy.
Veg Manchurian or Veggie balls in the Manchurian gravy are probably found on every Indian restaurant's menu. I tasted vegetable Manchurian gravy for a starter first time at the Indian restaurant in Malmo during my travel trip to Sweden a long time ago. Because I liked it so much so I immediately search the recipe online and tried to cook them at home.
They are the vegetable balls that are crunchy and packed with flavor and simmered in an intense, spicy, sour, tangy, rich, aromatic gravy until they soak up all that flavor and become even better taste and more delicious!
At first, this dish was made with chicken and then adapted to suit the Indian cuisine that has so many vegetarian options instead of meat so this vegetarian Manchurian was born and a very popular dish for Indian street food. I love to serve these with warm cooked steam rice and it truly makes for such a satisfying meal for everyone in my family.
The vegetable Manchurian recipe involves a two-step process. First, make the veggie Manchurian balls and dunked the balls into the dark soy sauce gravy.
- These veg Manchurian balls are made with finely chopped vegetables. I generally use cabbage, carrots, Chinese baby kale, shallots, spring onion, garlic, and ginger. It's very possible to use any vegetables that I have. This makes this dish very flexible and a great recipe to finish off the leftover vegetables in my freeze too.
I twist the instruction a bit by making these Manchurian balls in the air fryer instead of deep-fried which makes them even healthier.
Another important process is to mix the veggies with Maida, a kind of pain flour, and corn flour along with the semolina flour which will create a dough-like smooth rounded small balls.
Once the vegetable Manchurian balls are made then I simmered them in a thick Manchurian gravy. The Manchurian gravy is typically a combination of garlic, shallots, seedless red chili, and chop tomatoes, add the flavored with tomato paste, chili paste, tomato puree, then seasoned with soy sauce, dark soy sauce, Schezwan sauce, cane sugar, and balsamic vinegar. Lastly, turn that delicious combination into savory thick gravy by adding the mixture of corn flour and water.
And garnish them with spring onion and sliced red chili on top before serving them with warm rice because the flavors in the gravy are deep and rich which will just soak them all up beautifully.
Ingredients - For Making Manchurian Balls
- 1 Big Carrot
- 1/2 Medium Cabbage
- 2 Medium Shallots
- 1 Cup Chinese Baby Kale
- 5 Spring Onion
- 5 Cloves Garlic
- 5 Dried Seedless Chili Flake
- 3 Tablespoon Maida (All-Purposed Flour)
- 3 Tablespoon Corn Flour
- 3 Tablespoon Semolina Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Black Pepper
- 1/2 Teaspoon Vegetable Oil
Ingredients - For Making Manchurian Gravy
- 10 Cloves Garlic
- 5 Seedless Red Chili
- 2 Shallot Shell
- 5 Spring Onion
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Schezwan sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
- 1 Teaspoon Tomato Puree
- 1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon Cane Sugar
- Himalayan Salt and Pepper to Taste
- 3.5 Cup Water
- 2 Tablespoon Corn Flour
HOW TO MAKE VEG MANCHURIAN BALLS
STEP 1 - PREPARE THE VEGGIE
Peel off the shallot's skin and save the first layer of the shallots to make the gravy. And dice the shallots fresh into the finely minced.
Then start to chop the spring onion, garlic, dried chili, and Chinese baby kale into small fine pieces.
Grate the carrot using the hand grater and discard the carrot piece into the small shred and repeat the process with the cabbage until all of the cabbage are shredded.
Cut off the pepper chili in a half and scoop out the seed away and cut the chili into the small cubes.
STEP 2 - MIXED THE VEGGIE
Take the finely chopped or grated veggies in a bowl, which is the finely chopped cabbage, carrot, Chinese baby kale, shallots, garlic, dried chili, and spring onion. Then gently combine all the veggies with my hand.
During the process of mixing the vegetable, which the grated carrots will release their juice and this juice will be an important component to absorb all the flour and form the mixed veggie into the round balls.
Then add the dry ingredients – corn flour, maida, semolina flour, salt, and black pepper as required over the mixture of veggies.
Mix and gather the whole ingredients together. Then knead the mixture together till the veggies leave the juice and start to create a dough form. But do not knead like to knead the bread dough because the gluten can form and will give a dense chewy texture to the veggie Manchurian balls.
Don't knead or overmix or the balls can become too dense. There is no need to add any water as the vegetables will release enough water
STEP 3 - SHAPE THE DOUGH
Then take a small portion of the mixture into my hands. Then press and roll it in my palm and make a round veggie ball. Make all veggie balls this way and keep them aside.
STEP 4 - Fried the Manchurian Balls
Air fry for 10 minutes and turn once and air fry more for 5 minutes at 200 C and dazzle with some vegetable oils for making the ball crisp outside.
Once the balls are cooked, then remove the Manchurian balls from the air fry and set them aside. it's time to make the Manchurian sauce and finish the gravy.
HOW TO MAKE THE MANCHURIAN GRAVY
STEP 1 - SAUTE THE GARLIC AND SHALLOT SHELL
Heat the olive oil in the saucepan over medium heat and add garlic, then stir until the smallest pieces of garlic start to turn light golden yellow. Then follow with shallots shell to the saucepan. Sauté them and keep stirring for about 2 minutes.
Once garlic and onion are cooked and translucent, then add the tomato, seedless red chili, and spring onion into the saucepan.
Stir them all together and let all the ingredients sit without stirring for about 2 minutes.
STEP 2 - SEASON THE FLAVOR
Add the Chili Sauce, Schezwan sauce, Tomato Sauce, Tomato Puree, Soy Sauce, Dark Soy Sauce, Cane Sugar, Himalayan Salt, and Black Pepper.
Stir and mix very well and continue to whisk to combine all the seasoning sauce in the veggies. Then pour the water and bring it to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low heat and simmer for about 5 minutes to give the flavors well combine.
Next pour in the balsamic vinegar and let them simmer for about a couple of minutes to get rid of the acid taste of balsamic vinegar.
STEP 3 - ADD THE SLURRY
Once the sauce starts bubbling, add corn flour slurry (the mixture of water and corn flour) to a saucepan.
As soon as when add the corn flour slurry and mix very well so that there are no lumps.
Continue to stir and mix when the Manchurian gravy is cooking. Simmer till the Manchurian sauce thickens and start to see a glaze in it. There should be no raw taste of the corn flour in the sauce. Then continue cooking the gravy for about 3 to 4 minutes on low heat and drop the Manchurian balls.
Once add the crisp Manchurian balls and gently stir and coat the Manchurian balls in the gravy for about 5 minutes or until the Manchurian balls soak in all the gravy and turn to double size.
FINAL STEP - PLATTER
Serve Veg Manchurian Gravy immediately while they're still hot. Then garnished with some spring onion and slices of red chili on top. It goes very well with warm rice or can also be served as a starter on its own.
It is spicy, tangy, very tasty with quite crunchy. I hope you enjoy my recipe and give them a try. Many thanks to stop by and reading my blog.
Hope you guys have a happy week! ✨💛🙇
