Gobi Manchurian
Gobi Manchurian is a popular Indo-Chinese dish where crispy cauliflower florets are tossed in a manchurian sauce. Does well with rice or noodles or can also be served as an appetizer. Vegan!
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Popular Indo-Chinese Dish, Gobi Manchurian has crispy cauliflower florets tossed in a spicy, sweet and tangy manchurian sauce.
Tastes great with hakka noodles or fried rice! Vegan.
Indians love their take on Chinese. That’s the only Chinese food most people in India know actually.
It’s far from authentic Chinese food, I can tell you that. But it became popular in India many years ago and it’s popularity still remains high.
Some of the most popular Indo-Chinese dishes are hakka noodles, chilli paneer, fried rice and this Gobi Manchurian.
What is Gobi Manchurian
Gobi Manchurian is a Indo Chinese dish.
Gobi is cauliflower, so for this dish cauliflower florets are first fried by tossing them in a flour-cornstarch batter which makes them crispy.
And then they are tossed in a manchurian sauce which is made with soy sauce, vinegar and is slightly sweet and tangy. It can also be spicy if you add a lot of hot sauce which I don’t.
This dish is usually served in two ways- the dry version and the one with sauce (gravy version).
The dry version is usually served as an appetizer and the one with gravy as a main meal with noodles or rice.
My version is somewhere between the two, it doesn’t really have a lot of gravy but it’s not completely dry either.
So you can serve it both ways!
Tips to Make Gobi Manchurian
The process to make gobi manchurian is pretty basic. However there are few things which will help you to make it taste like restaurant style!
1- First, do all the prep work in advance. This goes for all Indo Chinese recipes mostly. There’s a lot of chopping involved and everything should be done beforehand.
Since we saute the veggies on high heat for a lesser amount of time, it’s good to have everything prepped and ready to go.
2- Use quality ingredients– a good soy sauce, a good vinegar will make a difference to the final outcome.
I have used dark soy sauce and regular soy sauce here. I like the darker shade and flavor of soy sauce in this recipe and hence used the dark soy sauce.
If you can’t find it, you can very well use just regular soy sauce.
3- Use the right ingredients– I highly recommend using sesame oil and celery in this gobi manchurian recipe, it will make a difference to the final result.
4- Have the sauce ready before you fry the cauliflower– and add the fried crispy cauliflower to the sauce just before serving.
If you let the sauce and cauliflower sit for long, it won’t remain crispy.
It would still be very good though. So if you don’t make about your gobi manchurian being crispy, then by all the means you can ignore this tip.
Serving Suggestions for Gobi Manchurian
You can serve this semi-dry gobi manchurian as such as an appetizer.
It also goes well with hakka noodles, that’s my favorite combination.
It’s also great with fried rice. Even this pineapple fried rice would be great!
Making Gobi Manchurian Gluten-free
It’s super easy to make this recipe of gobi manchurian gluten-free.
Replace all purpose flour with rice flour in the batter or use arrowroot flour.
Also use gluten-free soy sauce (tamari) in place of regular soy sauce.
Method
1- To make the sauce, heat the oil in a skillet on high heat. Once hot, add the grated garlic, ginger, green chili and chopped celery.
Saute for 1 minute until ginger-garlic start changing color.
2- Then add the chopped onion, green pepper and scallions.
3- Cook for high heat for around 3 minutes.
4- Then add the soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, hot sauce (like sriracha), sugar and white pepper powder. Taste test and add salt if needed. Set aside.
5- Meanwhile cut and clean cauliflower florets and drop them in hot salted water. Simmer on medium heat for around 4 minutes.
6- Drain water and place florets on a paper tissue. Pat dry each individually.
7- To a large bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper. Whisk and start adding water, little by little.
Form a smooth, free-flowing batter. It should not be too thick or thin.
8- Heat oil for frying on medium heat in a kadai or pan. Once oil is hot, dip the florets into the batter. Make sure they are well coated with the batter.
9- Drain off the excess batter and carefully drop florets into the hot oil.
10- Fry on medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes, until crispy and browned.
11- Transfer the fried cauliflower florets into the sauce (sauce should be warm when you do this).
12- Toss to combine until all the florets are well coated with the sauce.
Garnish with scallions and serve gobi manchurian with hakka noodles or enjoy as it is!
If you’ve tried this Gobi Manchurian Recipe then don’t forget to rate the recipe! You can also follow me on Facebook and Instagram to see what’s latest in my kitchen!
This post has been updated from the recipe archives, first published in January 2017.
Gobi Manchurian
Ingredients
For the sauce
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or any oil of choice
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon grated garlic
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 1-2 green chilies chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 1 medium green pepper chopped
- 2-3 stalks scallions chopped
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce I used 1 tablespoon regular and 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sriracha or any hot sauce adjust to taste
- 3/4 teaspoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper powder
- salt to taste, if needed
For the cauliflower florets
- 1 small head cauliflower cut into medium size florets, around 2.5 cups cut cauliflower florets
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 4 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper powder
- water to form a flowing batter, around 1/2 cup + 2-3 tablespoons
- oil for frying, I used avocado oil
Instructions
- To make the sauce, heat the oil in a skillet on high heat. Once hot, add the grated garlic, ginger, green chili and chopped celery.Saute for 1 minute until ginger-garlic start changing color.
- Then add the chopped onion, green pepper and scallions. Cook for high heat for around 3 minutes.
- Then add the soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, hot sauce (like sriracha), sugar and white pepper powder. Taste test and add salt if needed. Set aside.
- Meanwhile cut and clean cauliflower florets and drop them in hot salted water. Simmer on medium heat for around 4 minutes.Drain water and place florets on a paper tissue. Pat dry each individually.
- To a large bowl, add the flour, cornstarch, ginger-garlic paste, salt and pepper. Whisk and start adding water, little by little.Form a smooth, free-flowing batter. It should not be too thick or thin.
- Heat oil for frying on medium heat in a kadai or pan. Once oil is hot, dip the florets into the batter. Make sure they are well coated with the batter.
- Drain off the excess batter and carefully drop florets into the hot oil.Fry on medium heat for 6 to 7 minutes, until crispy and browned.
- Transfer the fried cauliflower florets into the sauce (sauce should be warm when you do this).Toss to combine until all the florets are well coated with the sauce.
- Garnish with scallions and serve gobi manchurian with hakka noodles or enjoy as it is!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Is there an alternative to sesame oil?
skip it, just replace with regular oil
Dear Manali,
Thank you for the lovely recipe!
I took out the toasted sesame oil but it remained untouched because nowhere in your recipe have you mentioned adding it.
Please advise.
Add it along with the oil, when I mention oil, I actually mean both the oils. Thanks for trying!
This was incredible, so amazingly crispy (although, as you note, that goes away quickly after mixing with the sauce!). I used Dove’s all purpose GF flour since I have celiac, and it worked perfectly. I doubled the batch and it took me about 2.5 hours but it was so good I’ll definitely have to try making it again.
glad you liked it Rachel!
Hi Manali, Thanks for the awesome recipe. Can I use rice vinegar instead of regular vinegar..
yes!
Wonderful!
One of the main things I missed after moving away from San Mateo, CA is the food from the Indo-Chinese restaurant.
Gobi Manchurian was my standby (ok, and the veggie fried rice).
Thank you!
Delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Hey Manali, if I cook for 6 people do I just need to double the ingredients? Anything I don’t need to double? Excited to try it!
yes double everything, probably not the hot sauce if you don’t like spicy
This is delicious!! Thank you for the recipe!
Absolutely delicious. Love the step by step recipe that helps in making this dish easier.
glad to hear
FANTASTIC!!! Thank you for this lovely recipe, my second trial after the first was a disaster following another recipe on the net. Liked the attention to details given and explaining even the most subtle steps which ultimately led to a dish which will easily give a run to restaurant styled dishes. Thank you for all the other recipes too.
I am glad to know! 🙂
We made this a family cooking meal with some hakka noodles. Took to the air-fryer for the cauliflower to keep it bit healthier and also added baby corn to the sauce! The Gobi could have been a bit more crisper but we were hungry as the sauce smell was amazing!
Definite a recipe to make again! Thank you for sharing
this looks so good…if i make it a day ahead and refrigerate, does it reheat well? if not…any way to adjust the recipe so the go i doesnt get soggy if eating the next day or 2 days after? Thank you!
it will get soggy next day, you can make sauce in advance and fry the cauliflower the day you want to eat it
Hi Manali, do we need to use corn starch? My son loves lahsuni gobi from local restaurant. is this similar to that? Thanks..
corn starch for crispiness, you can add rice flour in place. Sorry I don’t have an idea about the dish you are talking about so can’t say
It came out delicious! Perfect!
It was a hit in my home. Thanks for recipe
awesome!
Hi, I use your Gobi recipe frequently – definitely a favourite in our household.
Thank you,
Arohanui,
Alan Hobbs
welcome! 🙂
wow manali……this recipe is awesome..love your recipesss..thank you so much!!!!
Welcome Siya!
So, this is the second of your recipes that I have tried and the 2nd winner! I made this for dinner tonight, and it was absolutely delicious! I paired it with pineapple rice. The texture of the batter and the flavors were perfect. As much as I love Asian cuisines in general,I don’t know that I have ever experienced Indo-Chinese food specifically, but if this is what it is like, I’m a fan and will be seeking it out here in Chicago! Thanks for the great recipe!
glad you enjoyed it Sonia!
it looks so yummyyy… I can have those fried cauliflower too 🙂
yeah me too!
This looks so good, my kids always come back from India and say ”mom can you make indo chinise food”. So I’m going to try it for the first time, but how can i make this gluten free? Can i dip the cauliflower in cornflour instead?
you can..you can also use rice flour in place of regular flour
Great! Thank you so much I’ll try that.
this looks awesome ,i’m going to try it tonight!
drooling dish
ahhh.. I can understand that feeling of yours; that time when you have to return from India.. How I miss India..
Hope your mom is doing fine now.. 🙂
And manchurian is my husband’s all time favourite. He is behind me to make this for ages but somehow I feel its too much work so keep avoiding but this post has tempted me.. 🙂
yes needs a bit of prep work but once that is done, it comes together very quickly!
This as ABSOLUTELY DELISH!!!!Actually came out like the pic…if you don’t want it so spicy, leave out green pepper or put less…but VERY tasty..Thank you for sharing
Welcome! glad to know!