Gobi Manchurian Recipe

Introduction to Gobi Manchurian:

Gobi manchurian is one of the first recipes that started my entire food blogging journey. In the midst of quarantine, one of the places I could seek comfort from was digging into my favorite meals! Going to a restaurant wasn’t an option though, and I was trying to avoid take out too. So I just started making my favorite restaurant dishes at home.

Gobi manchurian is a popular Indo-Chinese street food that consists of crispy fried cauliflower coated in a spicy and tangy sauce. (The version I make here is air-fried though!) It’s such a rich and flavorful dish that has now become a staple in my household.

Breakdown of the Ingredients:

Gobi

“Gobi” means cauliflower in hindi so of course, we’re gonna need that to be the star of the show in this recipe. I like to break mine up into large florets and then coat it with a simple flour batter. All purpose flour works best for this and all you really need for seasoning is a little salt, pepper, and red chili powder. The sauce we’re going to cover the florets in super flavorful and spicy so no need to over-season the batter!

The corn starch is also an important ingredient here because it gives the cauliflower coating the perfect crisp texture. Especially if you’re planning on using an air-fryer instead of deep frying it. The consistency of the batter should be nice and thick so it creates an even and heavy coating over the cauliflower.

• Cauliflower
• All purpose flour
• Water
• Corn starch
• Red chili powder
• Black pepper
• Salt

Sauce

The sauce here is fairly simple. The base consists of onions, scallions, and garlic. And the rest of the ingredients are simply sauces or spices. For the onions, I have tried this recipe with both yellow and red onions and either works well in this dish. Red onions are just a little milder and sweeter and so just go with whichever you prefer.

For heat, we’re using several elements here: sriracha, dried red chillies, kashmiri mirch, and smoked paprika. This might seem a little excessive but trust me, you’ll need all of these spices to really get the right depth of flavor in this sauce. But, feel free to adjust as necessary based on your spice tolerance. Also, smoked paprika isn’t really a typical ingredient in manchurian sauce but I love the subtly smokey flavor it adds.

• Onions (red or yellow)
• Scallions
• Garlic
• Ketchup
• Soy sauce
• Sriracha
• Rice vinegar
• Dried red chillies
• Kashmiri mirch
• Smoked paprika
• Black pepper
• Corn starch
• Oil
• Water 

Process + Keys to Success:

Gobi

• Mix flour, water, corn starch, and spices into a batter to coat your cauliflower in. Make sure to adjust water quantity to get the consistency you need.
• Cut your head of cauliflower into florets and coat each one in the batter and knock off the access batter on the side of your bowl.
• Pop your cauliflower into the airfryer at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. You may need to split into two batches so they cook evenly and turn out crispy!
• If you don’t have an airfryer, feel free to use an oven instead or deep fry.

Sauce

• Heat up your oil in a skillet and and sauté your dried red chilies for 30 seconds or so. Then add in your onions and cook until translucent. Then add in green onions and garlic and sauté for another minute or so.
• Add in green onions and garlic and sauté for another minute or so.
• Add in all of your sauces and spices. For the corn starch, mix it in with some water until it dissolves before adding it in – this will prevent the corn starch from clumping.
• Cook for about a minute and then add in the rest of your water and cook until the sauce has thickened to your desired consistency.
• Serve with basmati rice and top with more green onions before serving.

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