Manchurian, is an Indo-chinese dish. Gobi manchurian, is a manchurian dish made out of cauliflower (gobi) florets. Gobi manchurian can be dry or or with gravy. Dry gobi manchurian is more popular, as it acts as great appetiser as well as side dish in main course. This dry gobi manchurian recipe contains two basic parts. First, getting the gobi florets ready and second, preparing the sauce ready.
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This gobi manhcurian is no-way authentic chinese food. It came to india with chinese workers in east of India many years ago. These chinese people adapted to Indian taste and introduced gobi manchurian.
What is gobi manchurian
Gobi is cauliflower in hindi. It is also written as gobhi. Manchurian refers to a style of food dish. Likely, manchurian cuisine was invented by manchurian people.
Firstly deep fry the cauliflower florets by wrapping the florets in the corn flour batter to make them crispy. Subsequently toss these florets in a manchurian sauce.
Make manchurian sauce from soy sauce and white vinegar. It is somewhat tangy and sweet in taste. Make the sauce hot by adding hot sauce. I normally make it hot if I am eating, but with kids I do not add hot sauce.
Pro tips to make best gobi manchurian
Best gobi manchurian involves some basic steps.
- This dish is all about crispy gobi. Do not keep fried gobi florets for long, else they will get soggy.
- Fry gobi florets in small batches, else gobi may not fry evenly.
- Do all the preparation in advance. Most of Indo-chinese dishes involve chopping. Get your raw material ready in advance.
- Serve this immediately to get the crispy taste.
- Don’t over-boil the florets in boiling water. Boil only for 5-7 minutes. Over boiling can result in mashing of florets.
- Be careful while tossing the gobi florets in sauce. Do not break or mash the florets.
- Always use a fresh cauliflower, spring onion and other ingredients for best taste.
- Make sure that the batter used for wrapping florets does not have lumps.
- Properly wrap the florets in batter.
Method
- Boil water in a big and wide pan and blanch the cauliflower florets for 5-7 minutes in boiling water.
- Drain out the water in a colander and spread them on a tray so that extra moisture evaporated.
- In a mixing bowl, add cornflour, all purpose flour, salt and teaspoon pepper powder. Mix them well with a spoon. Now with the help of water, make a runny batter of it. Beat it nicely so that there are no lumps.
- Add the cauliflower florets in the batter and coat them well with the batter.
- Heat oil in a pan and drop these florets in hot oil one by one and few at a time. Deep fry them till they are light golden in colour. Take them out. Then fry them again (double-fry). This double-frying is optional.
- In a separate pan, get the sauce ready by heating 2 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add chopped garlic and grated ginger and sauté. Now add chopped chillies and onions to it and sauté again for 3-4 minutes. Add 3 tablespoon of spring onion greens and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Add soy sauce, vinegar, chilli sauces, ketchup, sugar and rest of salt and pepper powder. Mix them well. Add 1/2 cup of water and let it boil. Meanwhile, mix one tablespoon of cornflour to the 1/3 cup of water. Add this to the cooking sauces and sauté till all gets boiled for few minutes.
- Lastly, add cauliflower florets now and mix everything well.
This gobi manchurian
- Is vegan
- Can be made gluten-free by using arrowroot flour or rice flour. Replace soy sauce with gluten-free soy sauce.
- Is a great appetiser in the menu.
Serving suggestion
Serve dry gobi manchurian with on its own, ideally with a drink.
It can also be paired with hakka noodles or fried rice.
Guilt free version
You can use baked or air-fried gobi for less calorie version of gobi manchurian. Taste will vary slightly compared to this gobi manchurian recipe.
You may like to try my veg manchurian as well.
Recipe Card
Gobi Manchurian Recipe
Equipment
- Wide Mouth Pan or Wok
Ingredients
- 3 Cup Cauliflower Florets
- 7 Tablespoon Corn Flour
- 6 Tablespoon All Purpose Flour/ Maida
- 2 Green chillies Chopped
- 1 Onion Small size, Finelyy chopped
- 4 Tablespoon Spring Onion Chopped (Green part)
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon Black pepper powder
- 1 Tablespoon Ginger Grated
- 4 Garlic Cloves Finely chopped
- 2 Tablespoon Soy Souce
- 1 Tablespoon Red Chilli Sauce
- 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Tomato Ketchup
- 2 Teaspoon Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoon Oil
- 250 Ml Oil For Deep Frying, not all oil will get used in deep frying.
Instructions
- Boil water in a big and wide pan and blanch the cauliflower florets for 5-7 minutes in boiling water.
- After that, drain out the water in a colander and spread them on a tray so that extra moisture evaporated.
- In a mixing bowl, add 4 tablespoon cornflour, 4 tablespoon all purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper powder. Mix them well with a spoon. Now with the help of water, make a runny batter of it. Beat it nicely so that there are no lumps.
- Add the cauliflower florets in the batter and coat them well with the batter. Now add rest 2 tablespoon cornflour and all purpose flour and mix well. This will help in florets getting a good coating.
- Heat oil in a pan and drop these florets in hot oil one by one and few at a time. Deep fry them till they are light golden in colour. Take them out and keep on a kitchen towel.
- Once all the florets are fried, add them again to the hot oil and fry again for few minutes till they are nice brown in colour. Take them out.
- In a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add chopped garlic and grated ginger and sauté. Add chopped chillies and onions to it and sauté again for 3-4 minutes. Add 3 tablespoon of spring onion greens and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Add soy sauce, vinegar, chilli sauces, ketchup, sugar and rest of salt and pepper powder. Mix them well. Add 1/2 cup of water and let it boil. Meanwhile, mix one tablespoon of cornflour to the 1/3 cup of water. Add this to the cooking sauces and sauté till all gets boiled for few minutes.
- Add cauliflower florets now and mix everything well so that florets are nicely coated. Switch off the heat.
- Transfer to a serving bowl and spread the rest of spring onions on top and serve hot.
Notes
- Don’t over-boil the florets in boiling water. Boil only for 5-7 minutes as they will be properly cooked while frying. Over boiling can result in mashing of florets.
- For healthier version of this, you can use air-fried cauliflower.
For 30 people how much ingredients have to use
Hello Raymond, my given recipe is for 5 portions, you would need to almost take the ingredients 6 times as mentioned here. However with such bigger portions, you need to be careful on step 9. You will likely need much bigger pan, probably a professional one. I will recommend making it in 3 batches, unless you a pro level in cooking.
Your Gobi Manchurian recipe looks delicious! You mention chili sauces but they are not mentioned in the ingredients list. Which chili sauces do you use?
Thank you
Hi Divya,
Firstly thanks for finding the recipe worthy. Sauce is Red Chilli Sauce. While moving the recipe from notepad to the portal it was missed out. I have fixed it now. I will love to hear your first hand feedback once you have tried it.
Kind regards,
Meenu
wow, the way you explain is great.
Great to know that you liked it.