
Preeth C.Vijay
Vegetable Manchurian Gravy
Vegetable balls fried and dumped in manchurian gravy with flavors of soya sauce seeped in is go to dish when we visit restaurants. Its a simple dish that can be made in home provided we follow the right techniques from shaping the balls to adding the right amount of sauce and spice in gravy. This recipe would never fail you if you are a manchurian lover. You can also replace vegetable balls with fried chicken to make some yummy chicken manchurian gravy.

Ingredients
For vegetable balls
Carrot 1/2 cup (grated)
Capsicum 1/4 cup( very finely chopped)
Beans 1/4 (very finely chopped)
Cabbage 1/2 cup (finely chopped or grated)
Pepper powder 1 teaspoon
Cornflour 2 tablespoon
Maida 2 tablespoon
Salt as needed
Oil for frying
For the Manchurian gravy
Onion 1 finely chopped
Spring onion 2 tablespoons finely chopped
Garlic 2 tablespoon finely chopped
Ginger 2 tablespoon finely chopped
Soya sauce 1/2 tablespoon
Tomato ketchup 2 tablespoon
Red chilli paste 2 teaspoon
Pepper powder 1/2 teaspoon
Sugar 1 teaspoon
Vinegar 1 teaspoon
Water 1 1/2 cups
Oil 3 tablespoon
Salt as needed
Spring onions for garnish
To thicken the gravy
Cornflour 1 tablespoon
Water 2 tablespoon
How to start?
Mix everything together given under "vegetable balls" except oil. Do not knead it too hard and do not add water. The moisture in the vegetables is enough to hold the balls. Just mix gently into a soft dough. Kneading them too hard will make the vegetable balls very hard. Shape them into small balls. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry them in medium low flame. Set aside.
Now heat a kadai with 3 tablespoons oil. Add onion, garlic, ginger and spring onion. Fry them in high heat for 2 minutes. Now add soya sauce, tomato ketchup and red chilli paste. Saute well in high heat. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water. Allow it to boil.
Mix 1 tablespoon corn flour with 2 tablespoons of water without any lumps. Add this to the gravy and let the gravy thicken to your desired consistency. Once it gets thickened well, and sauce gets coated well on the ladle, add sugar, vinegar and pepper powder. Add salt, be careful while adding salt because the soya sauce has some salt on it.

Add the vegetable balls now and let it simmer for a minute. Garnish with spring onions and switch off the flame.
Serve vegetable manchurian gravy with fried rice or chapthi.
Note:
For red chilli paste: Soak 5 read chillies in hot water and grind it to a smooth paste.
Kneading the vegetable mixture too hard will make the balls chewy and hard.