gobi manchurian
day 4 of 10 naturally vegan dishes from around the world
Welcome to day 4 of 10 naturally vegan series. Yesterday, I shared Arroz de Grelos, a Portuguese rice dish. Click here to check it out! On day four we travel to India, for Gobi Manchurian.
Indian cuisine is very vegan-friendly, the majority of their dishes are vegetarian and can be made vegan, but this recipe is naturally vegan and tasty! I’ve had plenty of Indian dishes before, but I chose this one because it's Indo-Chinese.
I’m a pretty big cauliflower fan, so when I saw a recipe for cauliflower drowned in a sweet-spicy sticky sauce, I knew I had to try it.
Gobi Manchurian is an Indian-Chinese dish that originated in Kolkata, India (according to Wikipedia). To deconstruct the name, Gobi is cauliflower in Hindi and Manchurian, referring to a region in northeast China where the people are called Manchus or Manchurians. It features battered, and deep-fried cauliflower tossed in a flavorful sauce made with soy sauce, chili sauce, and a generous amount of aromatics.
There are two different variants of Manchurian, dry and with gravy. But they all begin with batter-fried cauliflower. The sauce for Gobi Manchurian is super flavorful and has four essential ingredients: ketchup (or tomato sauce), soy sauce, chili sauce, and corn starch. To that base sauce, you can add a variety of aromatics like garlic, ginger, green chiles, bell peppers, and scallions. You can add more water to the sauce to make it gravy style.
It's usually served as an appetizer, but I did it as the main dish with a side of white rice for dinner. The version I chose to make excluded green chiles, but every other ingredient was included and gravy style. It was so satisfying and delicious. The sauce was sweet yet tangy and had a perfect kick. The cauliflower was crispy and delicious. It was prepared in under 30 minutes and made a perfect quick weeknight dinner meal. I want to eat this every day.
Recipe from Indian Healthy Recipes
Have you tried Gobi Manchurian?
See you tomorrow for day 5!
I'm always looking for new Indian dishes to try!! Will definitely be giving this one a go.