Vegetarian Manchurian
Fried vegetarian balls cooked in sweet and spicy sauce with bell peppers, onions and scallions with tons of flavor and texture.
Servings: 4 servings
Ingredients
Vegetarian balls
- 1 cup carrots, shredded
- 1 1/2 cups cabbage, shredded
- 1/2 green bell pepper, shredded
- 1/4 cup green beans
- 1-2 green chilies
- 1 small piece of Ginger ( about 1 tsp)
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1/2 cup boiled rice
- ΒΌ cup bread crumbs
- 3 tablespoons corn starch
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp black pepper
- Oil for frying
Sauce
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper (combination of red & green) chopped into cubes
- 1/2 cup onion chopped into cubes
- 1 teaspoon green chilies finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ginger finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoon garlic finely chopped
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp chili sauce/paste, like sriracha
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp sugar or honey
- 1/2 cup water more if you plan to keep more sauce
- 1/4 cup scallions for garnish
- Garnish - Chili oil
Instructions
Vegetarian Balls
- Shred the vegetables using a food processor or using a grater. Make sure you do not blend it and make a paste. Because it can easily go that route. Squeeze out water from the shredded vegetables, please do it before you add the other ingredients. reserve that water.In a separate bowl add corn starch, bread crumbs, boiled rice, vegetables, salt pepper, ginger chili paste, soy sauce and mix well. There will be a lot of water that would get released from the vegetables that helps bind everything together. .
- Heat oil in pot for frying. The oil should be at 350 F for frying. Divide the mixture in equal portions and make round shaped balls out of the mix and deep fry them until golden and crisp. remove them on absorbent paper. Keep them aside till we are ready to serve them.
Sauce
- Take oil in pan, add ginger, garlic and chilies. Saute it for few seconds and add the onions and bell peppers. Mix well. Let it cook for couple of minutes. In another bowl add soy sauce, chili paste, vinegar, cornstarch, sugar, salt, black pepper
- Add in the extra water if needed. Mix everything well. Let it cook for sometime.
- Once the sauce thickens, add the fried manchurian balls to the sauce. Let it cook for two minutes and soak in the sauce. Garnish it with the scallions.
Notes
You can make a big batch and once they cool down, line them on tray and freeze them, once frozen, transfer them in ziploc bags to freeze them for future use. It saves so much time and the sauce hardly takes 10 mins to prepare. Specially if you are having a party and want to prep ahead.
If I am making this dish for a party or so, I would only add the vegetarian balls just few hours before serving to avoid them becoming soggy.
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