Cauliflower Manchurian is a popular Indo-chinese recipe, delicious & crisp fried appetizer, made by tossing golden fried cauliflower florets in a sweet, spicy and tangy sauces.
Tastes great on it own as an appetizer or pairs well with hakka noodles or simple a veggie fried rice.
This recipe is far from the authentic chinese manchurian and is an amalgamation of Indian spices and chinese cooking style.
One of the most popular street style food available in India, this would be the only one chinese recipe known to many in India.
Manchurian is served in two variations dry and wet(gravy) based. While the dry version is served as a starter, the later as a main course recipe.
WHY SHOULD YOU MAKE CAULIFLOWER MANCHURIAN?
- Very easy and quick to make than other manchurian recipes.
- Can be baked, pan fried, air fried.
- Has a lot of variations from dry to semi-dry to gravy.
- Can be made as vegan, gluten-free, low-carb, keto friendly recepie with slight alterations.
- Tastes like restuarant style version and a good starter/main course for any party or gathering.
INGREDIENTS & POSSIBLE SUBSTITUES FOR THIS RECIPE
- Cauliflower : Use fresh cauliflower florets, frozen florets obsorb much oil while frying. Mushrooms, baby corn, cabbage, paneer are other alternates to make manchurian.
- Self raising flour : This helps for a puffier crust and a bit makes extra crisper.Substitute with equal parts of cornstarch and all purpose flour. For gluten-free version skip all purpose flour to cornflour.
- Spices : Coriander powder, ginger garlic paste, red chili powder or papirika
- Coloured Peppers : can be replaced to green peppers or skip completely if desired.
- Soy Sauce : For gluten-free version substitute with tamari sauce.
- Vinegar : If you desire not to use vinegar substitute with lemon juice.
- Green chiles : added for additional spice/heat.
- Spring Onions : Spring onions adds extra flavor to the recipe, white portion is diced and added while frying, green portion is finally garnished at the end.
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT METHODS TO COOK CAULIFLOWER?
- Deep Frying: This method does not need any prior cooking , clean the cauliflower florets by immensing in hot water with little salt for 10 mins and pat dry.
- Pan Fry : To pan fry first boil florets in hot water for 2 minutes. Drain and when moist caot with a tsp of cornflour and dip in batter and fry.
- Steam : This method is prefered for pan frying. Florets can be steamed instead of boiling in water. absobs less water and oil while pan frying
- Bake : To bake florets in a oven toss moist florets in a dry flour and spices mixture and bake them in a prehated oven at 400 F 25 – 30 mins till brown tossing halfway if needed.
- Air Fryer : Dip the florets in the batter and line them in a single layer on the tray. Spray oil as needed and air fry in preheated air fryer at 400 F/200 C for 12 mins. Turn them over and fry till brown usually 7 – 8 minutes.
HOW TO MAKE THIS CAULIFLOWER MANCHURIAN?
Cut the cauliflower into small florets of equal size. Immense them in hot water for 5 minutes and dry them completly. This step is optional if you are frying them.
Prepare the batter by adding salt, chili powder, corinader powder and ginger garlic paste to self-raising flour. Mix well by adding little water at a time. Batter shouldn’t be too thick or too thin.
Self raising flour makes this recipe so crispy on outside and soft inside.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Dip the cauliflower florets in batter and drop them in the oil to fry.
Fry till golden and set them aside.
Do not add all the florets at a time in the batter, dip them in batches.
Prepare the sauce ahead of making manchurian as you would have very little time to add them one after the other.
Mix vinegar, soy sauce, hot chili sauce in a bowl and set aside.
Heat a wok or a large pan and add oil. Fry minced garlic and onions. Add green and red peppers and saute for a minute.
Season with salt and pepper. Add the prepared sauce and then the fried cauliflower. Mix well to coat the cauliflower florets evenly.
Do this as quickly as possible as the veggies and cauliflowers florets will become soggy if cooked longer.
TOP TIPS TO MAKE THIS RECIPE
- Self raising flour is the secret ingredients to make this recipe. Using corn flour makes them so crisper.
- Do not skip to prepare your sauce ahead as this saves you from over cooking or burnt mancurian.
- Be more cautious with salt, as the soysauce and other suaces had slat added.
- Instead of mixing with a spatulla flip the pan to let the florets coat the sauce. this avoids from breaking them.
WATCH CAULIFLOWER MANCHURIAN VIDEO HERE
Cauliflower/Gobi Manchuria
Ingredients
- 500 gms cauliflower florets or 1 small cauliflower
- oil for deep fry
For batter
- ½ cup self raising flour or equal parts of cornstarch and all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- 1 tbsp crushed ginger and garlic or paste
- 1 tbsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp roasted cumin powder
- 1 tbsp papirika adjust less or more to spicy levels
- ¼ tsp turmeric
For sauce
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp green/red chili sauce
- 1 tsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp sri racha sauce for extra heat.
To assemble dish
- 2 tsp oil
- 2 tbsp chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp chopped/grated ginger
- ½ cup spring onions
- 100 gms green bell peppers can be skipped
- 50 gms yellow bell peppers optional
- 50 gms red bell peppers optional
- ½ tsp pepper powder
- salt to taste
Instructions
Clean/Cook Cauliflower florets
- Clean by soaking cauliflower florets in hot water with little salt for 10 - 15 mins and drain (or)Blanch cauliflower florets in boiling water for 2 mins and drain.
- Pat Dry and set aside.
Prepare Batter to fry
- Combine flours, salt, paparika, turmeric, crushed ginger and garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder.
- Add enough water to form a meduim consistency batter and set aside.
Prepare the Manchuria Sauce
- In a bowl add vinegar,soy sauce, ketchup, chili sauce,hot sauce(sri racha) and mix till combined.
DeepFry/Pan fryBake/ Air fry the florets
- Deep fry : Heat oil in a pan and dip the cauliflower florets in the batter and fry till golden.
- Bake : Toss moist florets in a dry flour and spices mixture and bake them in a preheated oven at 400°F/200°C 25 – 30 mins till brown tossing halfway if needed.
- Air Fry : Dip the florets in the batter and line them in a single layer on the tray. Spray oil as needed and air fry in preheated air fryer at 400 F/200 C for 12 mins. Turn them over and fry till brown usually 7 – 8 minutes.
- Pan Fry : Add 2 tsps oil in a pan and fry batter dipped florets till brown.
Make Manchuria
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a skillet and add chopped garlic, chopped ginger and fry for a minute.
- Add chopped spring onions (white) and saute.
- Add bell peppers , salt, pepper and saute for 2-3 minutes till slightly tender.
- Add prepared manchuria sauce and stir to combine.
- Add fried cauliflower florets and toss to combine the sauces together for a minute.
- Garnish with green spring onions and serve as is or with noodles , fried rice.
To Make Gravy
- Add 2 Tbsp Cornflour and ½ cup water to the manchuria sauce. add additional water while cooking.
- Taste and add salt , pepper, papirika, sauces as needed and when the gravy starts to thicken add the fried cauliflower florets.
- Garnish as needed.
TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK !!!
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I’m going to try this in my airfryer!
Sure, let me know how it turned out..
This looks amazing and so nutritious! I can’t wait to try it.