Soy Manchurian

I remember going to an indian resturant called Lanterns. It is in Bahrain, and my mom took me there for the first time (at least the first time since I was a little girl.) When looking at their menu they had a dish, it was something along the lines of Gobi Manchurian. This meant it was a cauliflower manchurian. I never tried it before, but when I ordered it, you can bet it became one of my new favourite dishes.

You know what was weird though, after that day I was never able to find it anywhere, unless it was non-vegan. I was even very confused online, as there was a chinease and indian manchurian recipe, and both were never the right taste I was looking for. That was until 2 years later, I found a few recipes which tasted exactly like the manchurian I loved. From then on, I made my own delicous manchurian recipe which you can find below ..

Ingredients : 

For the soy chunks : 

• around 80 g of soya chuncks/soya wadi
• 1 heaped tsp ginger paste
• 1 heaped tsp garlic paste
• 1/3 tsp salt
• pinch of black pepper
• 1 heaped tbsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp red chili powder (more or less to taste)
• 1-2 tablespoons coconut oil (or other oil of choice like seasme oil)

For manchurian sauce : 

• 5 cloves garlic chopped finely
• 1 heaped tsp ginger paste
• 2 stalks spring onions (both the white and green part)
• 2 tbsp oil of choice (I like seasme/coconut/olive oil)
• 1/3 tsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp coconut aminos/tamari
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 1-2 tbsp maple syrup/agave (depending on how sweet you like it - you can sub for coconut sugar)
• 2-3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp corn startch + 3 tablespoons water

Steps : 

1. Soak the soy chunks in boiling hot water for 15-20 mins.
2. Once done, take the soy chunks out of the water and squeeze all the excess water out of each chunk out using your hands.
3. In a separate bowl mix all the ‘soy chunk’ ingredients; corn starch , salt , red chili, ginger paste, garlic paste, black pepper, and oil. You should get a thick and smooth paste. Add more oil if needed to make the paste smooth .
4. Add the soy chucks to the paste mixture. Mix to evenly coat.
5. Place the soy chunks in the air frier at 200 Degrees C for 10-15 mins.
6. While the soy chunks are in the air frier, prepare the sauce.
7. Add oil to a non stick pan. Once hot add the garlic, spring onion, and ginger paste. Sautée it for a few mins.
8. In a small bowl, mix the corn slurry, tomato paste, coconut aminos/tamari, salt, chili powder, vinegar, and maple syrup. Once sauce is mixed, add it to the sauce pan and stir.
9. Continue mixing sauce until it thickens up a little bit, taste test and add more salt/maple/aminos as needed.
10. Soy chunks should be ready at this point. Before sauce thickens too much, add soy chunks immediately and mix until all evenly coated.
11. Continue to keep soy chunks and the sauce on the heat, the sauce will thicken up and caramelize the longer you keep it.
12. Then once the Manchurian is caramelized and cooked at the perfect level, take it off the heat and serve immediately.

 

How to serve ?

• serve it with some rice, barley, or even alone as an appetizer !