Gobi Manchurian

Gobi Manchurian

Cauliflower florets are deep fried and tossed in a spicy, sweet, sour, Indian Chinese sauce to make yummy Gobi Manchurian. Gobi refers to cauliflower in Hindi. Gobi manchurian is a very popular Indo-Chinese dish and a very much loved fast food and street food. 

This Indian Chinese dish is a adaptation of Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques to suite our Indian palate. Here's goes the recipe to make yummy Gobi Manchurian, a favourite Indo-chinese dish that's very popular throughout India:

Ingredients to serve 2-3:

  • 1 medium sized cauliflower
  • 1/2 cup corn flour
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
  • 1/2 cup water
  • Oil for deep frying

For the manchurian sauce:

  • 3-4 tablespoons of oil for frying
  • 6-7 garlic cloves peeled, finely chopped
  • 2-3 green chillies peeled, finely chopped
  • 1 inch ginger peeled, finely chopped
  • 2 medium sized peeled, onions finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
  • 2 tablespoon tomato sauce
  • 1 teaspoon red chilli sauce
  • 1 teaspoon green chilli sauce
  • Salt to taste
  • 1/2 cup chopped spring onion greens

Preparation Time: 1 hour.

Serves: 2-3

Method of preparation:

Prepping the cauliflower:

1. Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Cut the stem of the florets.

2. Add cauliflower florets into hot water with salt and turmeric so that any worms, etc., present goes off. Allow it to stay for 15-20 minutes.

3. Drain the water and give the florets a second wash.

Cauliflower and cabbage are sprayed with highest amount of insectides so you need to wash them carefully.

4. Add the washed cauliflower onto a sieve and let it stay for 5-10 minutes so that any excess water present in the florets drains off. Or else the masala used to coat the cauliflower while deep frying becomes watery once the florets with water are added to it.

5. Heat oil for deep frying in a wok.

Preparing the batter to coat the cauliflowers:

6. Add corn flour, all purpose four, salt, pepper powder into a bowl and mix well.

7. Add water little by little and dissolve the flours to get a smooth, relatively thick paste. Be careful as to not have any clumps of flour. 

8. Add just enough water to get a relatively thick batter and mix well, we want the batter to stick to the cauliflower. If it gets too watery, it'll drip off the cauliflowers. Too thick and you'll have a very thick coating of flour around cauliflowers on deep frying them. 

9. Check and adjust salt. Keep the batter aside. This batter is used to coat the cauliflowers which are then deep fried. 

Deep frying the cauliflowers:

10. Add the cauliflower florets (that were kept aside so that the excess water drains off) to the batter and mix well until the florets get coated with the flour mixture uniformly.

11. Check if the oil's hot enough by dropping one floret coated with batter. If it emerges on top of the oil, then the oil's hot enough for deep frying. If not wait for few minutes.

12. Lower the flame to medium and add the batter coated cauliflowers one by one into hot oil. Add about 6-7 florets or the amount your wok can hold, at a time into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.

13. If the flames high, the cauliflowers will be crispy on the outside, raw in the center. Medium heat ensures uniform cooking. Low heat makes cauliflower absorb lot of oil.

14. Remove them out of oil and drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

15. Similarly fry all the cauliflower florets.

Putting together all the ingredients and making Gobi Manchurian:

16. Heat oil in a deep bottomed wok on a high flame, add finely chopped garlic, ginger and green chillies and fry for a minute.

17. Add in onions and saute until they are translucent. Add salt and mix well, salt also helps fasten the frying of onions.

18. Once the onions are fried, lower the heat, add in soya sauce, red chilli sauce, green chilli sauce, tomato sauce and mix well. 

19. Add in the fried cauliflower florets and toss them with the Manchurian sauce for a few minutes until they heat up.

20. Remove off heat, garnish with spring onion leaves and serve hot!

21. Serve the Gobi Manchurian as an appetizer for your parties, pricked with toothpicks on top of each floret.

P.S: Adjust the amount of red chilli, green chilli sauce you add depending on how spicy you like your Gobi Manchurian to be. You can even skip them. The green chillies give out enough heat. :-)

To make Gobi Manchurian healthy:

1. I prefer not to use the all purpose flour, as it's refined flour. Hence, prepare the deep fried cauliflower like this.

2. And use coconut oil for deep frying instead of refined oil. Please skip anything that's refined. You'll help take care of your body. 

3. Use organic cauliflower as much as possible if you can find them. 

Find more tea time snack recipes here.

Tags: Gobi, Gobi manchurian, cauliflower, vegetarian, fast food, snacks, street food, Indian Chinese food, Indo-chinese dish. 

Privacy Policy