Chinese Veg Manchurian (Asian style vegetarian meatless Meatballs)

Restaurant style Indo chinese Manchurian recipe made at home in simple easy steps. These delicious vegetarian meatless meatballs are also VEGAN! & so full of different veggies like carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, beans, coated in a delicious spicy sticky asian style sauce, packed with lots of delicious flavour in one recipe.

More time at home, means more time in the kitchen for me, means for experimenting with recipes that have always had my heart. Asian cuisine will always be my favourite and if I am asked to pick between authentic Asian food or street side chinese or restaurant style Indo-Chinese food, I would probably ask you to change your question please...

The comfort of hot and spicy chinese food, be it asian style take-out or made at home, is priceless! Be it a big serving of chicken or mushroom gyozas or lots of sushi or a comforting bowl of Thai red curry and rice, I have always been inclined to simple, yet amazing flavours of asian cuisine, that make your heart feel so good.

While I have grown up eating Indo-chinese food at restaurants across my country (India), I have loved cooking chinese food at home, specially because so many awesome things in simple steps. A good asian night at home would mean lots of honey chilli potatoes, probably a serving or two of these unbelievable crispy orange chicken, a huge serving of hakka noodles and ginger garlic fried rice and chinese style Veg manchurian for the meatless peeps in the house.

What is manchurian?

Manchurian balls are vegetable balls made with veggies like carrots, beans, cauliflower and cabbage mixed together with garlic, soy sauce and simple salt and pepper. These balls are deep fried until golden brown and crispy, then coated in a delicious asian style Chinese sauce made of soy sauce, chilli sauce, garlic, onions, capsicum and lots of spring onions.

As much as I love to mention throughout, how they are asian and chinese and all that... but they are definitely not originated from China. Manchurian belongs to the Indo-chinese category of cuisine, which has also given birth to honey chilli potatoes, veg spring rolls, chilli paneer that are nowhere close to authentic Chinese dishes, but definitely copy cat versions of Indo-Chinese food that you get at chinese restaurants in India.

How to make Manchurian at home?

These asian style vegetarian meatless meatballs are so easy to make at home. Lets get started...

Ingredients for veg manchurian Balls:

Vegetables: We are adding carrots, cauliflower, cabbage that are finely grated. The water if fully squeezed out. We are also adding finely chopped green beans to the vegetable mix.

Flours: The sticky mixture needs to be stiff, therefore we are adding rice flour all purpose flour to bind the vegetable (manchurian) mixture.

Sauces: Soy sauce (dark) in the mixture to add extra umami flavour. If you are using light, then double the amount...

Garlic: A bit of garlic within the manchurian dough plus more later, in the sauce....

Ingredients for veg manchurian sticky asian sauce:

Onions, capsicum, garlic: I love adding onions, garlic and capsicums to the sauce base - they are finely chopped and add so much flavour. Plus, this means more veggies too 🙂

Soy Sauce: For that extra dark colour and umami flavour.

Sriracha: Or any kind of hot or red chilli sauce to make it spicy.

Corn Flour: Mixed with water to act as a thickening agent in the sticky sauce.

Steps for making restaurant style manchurian or vegetarian meatballs at home:

• Squeeze the cabbage, carrots, cauliflower separately with the pressure of the palm of your hands, to get rid of all water from the vegetables. Add them to a large mixing bowl.

• Add soy sauce, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, flour and rice flour and mix everything together.

• Prepare small balls of roughly 3 tbsp of the dough and transfer them to the refrigerator for about 15-20 minutes until you prepare the sticky asian sauce for these vegetarian meatballs. The rolled balls should be very stiff.

• Heat oil in a large wok for deep frying. Once the oil is hot, add the manchurian balls one by one and cook until golden brown in colour.

• Transfer the crispy golden brown manchurian balls to the sticky sauce and mix until well coated. Cook in the sauce for just 1 minute on medium flame.

Possible questions/ variations?

Can this manchurian (vegan and vegetarian meatballs) recipe be made ahead of time? Of course, just prepare the manchurian balls and store them in the fridge for upto 2-3 days and once you decide to prepare the manchurian with the sauce. These vegetarian meatballs can be easily frozen. Just thaw them timely at the kitchen counter before using and either fry them up again, or my favourite way: cook manchurian in air fryer for about 8-10 minutes.

Can I make them healthier? Yes, instead of deep frying, you can make manchurian in the air fryer. Simply brush some oil on the refrigerated still manchurian balls and cook them in the air fryer for about 15-20 minutes at 180 degree celsius. 

What to serve with manchurian? Serve these chinese vegetarian meatballs with ginger garlic fried rice, sesame rice noodles, hakka noodles or make similar Indo-Chinese recipes from the blog: veg spring rolls, honey chilli potatoes, chilli paneer, sesame toasts, crispy baby corn salt & pepper.

Can you make gravy manchurian with this recipe? Yes, this recipe makes semi dry manchurian, but you can add more water and corn flour ratio to make more gravy for this recipe for asian style vegetarian meatballs.

Here is the video for how to make Chinese Veg Manchurian (Asian style vegetarian meatless Meatballs)

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