Veg Manchurian Recipe

Veg Manchurian is a popular Indianized Chinese dish, in which vegetable meatballs are simmered in an asian flavored sweet, spicy and tangy sauce. Here's an Instant Pot recipe that gets ready in 30-minute!

Easy 30-Minute Dinner

Traditionally, it is a time-consuming dish where I make the vegetable meatballs from scratch, deep-fry them, and then simmer them in sauce on low-heat. 

In my 30-minute hack for this recipe, I use store-bought soy-based meatless meatballs and pressure cook them in a flavored broth, in my electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot. After pressure cooking, I thicken the sauce with a cornstarch slurry.

I serve it over fried rice, or, brown Jasmine rice and just like that a delicious dinner comes together in under 30 minutes.

What is Indo-Chinese Food?

Indo-Chinese cuisine was extremely popular, when I was growing up in India.  It is a street-food style adaptation of popular Chinese dishes, catered to the Indian palette.

Some of my favorite Indo-Chinese dishes include Chicken Sweet Corn Soup, Chicken Manchurian, Hakka Noodles, American chopsuey, which is very different from the American chopsuey you get here, and then there is the super popular Vegetable Manchurian.

Original Vegetable Manchurian Recipe

If I am making Vegetable Manchurian from scratch, I start by finely chopping assorted vegetables like carrots, cabbage, bell pepper, onions, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

Then, I add seasoning and bind these chopped vegetables with flour, cornstarch and water, and shaped into round balls, about half the size of a golf-ball.

I deep fry these veggie balls and keep aside.  Simultaneously, I prepare a quick sauce or glaze by sautéing aromatics like fresh ginger, garlic, onions and red chilies.  I add water, soy sauce, vinegar, chili garlic sauce and thicken it with a cornstarch slurry.  I add the manchurian balls and simmer them in the sauce for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Dry Vegetable Manchurian

This dish is pretty versatile as it can served as an appetizer as well as a main course.  If you are serving this as an appetizer, simply reduce the quantity of water to one cup in this recipe, and follow the rest of the instructions.

That will result in just enough sauce to coat the Manchurian.  To serve them as an

Stovetop Veg Manchurian Recipe

It is very easy to adapt this recipe for the stove-top.

Heat a wok, or a deep skillet on medium-high heat.  Saute onions, ginger and garlic.  Add water, tamari, vinegar, sambal, agave, ketchup and seasoning.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium, and simmer for 10 minutes.

Check for seasoning, add the store-bought vegetable meatballs and cook for a few minutes, till they become tender and absorb some of the flavored broth.

To thicken the Manchurian gravy, make a cornstarch slurry and add while stirring.  Add till you reach the desired consistency.  Garnish with sliced spring onions and serve with White or Brown Jasmine Rice and enjoy!

Instant Pot Chicken Manchurian Recipe

Using this recipe, you can make Chicken Manchurian in your Instant Pot too.  Simply replace the meatless meatballs with chicken or turkey meatballs and follow the instructions.  That simple!

📖 Recipe