Gobhi manchurian is one of my favorite Indo-Chinese dishes. It features fried battered cauliflower with a spicy tomato sauce that bridges Indian cuisine and Chinese cuisine. It’s such a delicious way to eat more plants!
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What you may not know about fusion food is that a lot of it is part of a long-established cuisine developed by immigrants living in another country. It’s often critiqued as inauthentic but it’s such a beautiful thing and we can use more of it as our world globalizes. I was reading Eat a Peach by David Chang the other day and he brought up an interesting idea: imagine a generation of Koreans arrived in Mexico 500 years ago. What would Korean food look like with different tools and ingredients?
Personally I grew up loving Indo-Chinese food and I realized we can think of it in a similar way–it began centuries ago when Chinese immigrants in Kolkata started restaurants, but wanted to cater to the palates of their Indian customers. So hakka noodles, chili paneer, and gobhi manchurian came to life. Gobhi manchurian is one of my favorites. It features fried breaded cauliflower in a spicy sauce made with ingredients accessible in India like soy sauce, vinegar, chilis, ginger, and garlic.
How to Make Gobhi Manchurian
Make the batter for the cauliflower.
You’ll need all-purpose flour, cornstarch (we like it crispy!), red chili powder (+ some kashmiri lal for a more intense color), salt, pepper, and water. Add water until it’s smooth and silky, but still a thick texture that will adhere to the cauliflower. Coat the cauliflower in the batter.
Fry the cauliflower.
Alternatively, you could air fry for 10-12 minutes at 400 F until crispy, but the air fried cauliflower seemed to lose the crispy texture more quickly when coated in the sauce. For frying, you’ll want to set up a pot that can hold a couple inches of oil and carefully drop the cauliflower in.
Make the spicy sauce.
For this you’ll just need some simple ingredients. Start with aromatics like garlic, ginger, green chilis, onions, and scallion whites. It’s common to use ketchup in Indo-Chinese cuisine, but I can’t remember the last time I owned ketchup and I wasn’t about to go buy it lol. So instead I quickly processed 1 tomato to form 1/4 cup of tomato sauce. Alternatively, I’m sure 2 tablespoons of ketchup would work well if you’re steadfast about using ketchup in your Indo-Chinese food.
You’ll also need some kind of hot sauce and soy sauce. My favorite hot sauce is chili garlic sauce! You could also use sambal oelek or sriracha.
You can make this as saucy as you want. Just add more cornstarch slurry to make sure the sauce is thick and not watery.
I didn’t have any bell peppers on hand, but if I did, I probably would have added thinly sliced green bell peppers too!
Gobhi Manchurian
Ingredients
Battered Cauliflower
- 1 medium cauliflower, cut into bite-sized florets
- avocado oil or another neutral oil for frying
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ tsp red chili powder *optional: add ½ tsp kashmiri lal for extra vibrancy
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ½ cup water, added as needed
- ½ tsp black pepper
For the Sauce
- 1 tbsp avocado oil or another neutral oil
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 green chilis, minced *add 3 if you like things very spicy
- 1 inch ginger, minced
- ½ red onion, finely chopped *sub with scallion whites
- ¼ cup scallion whites
- ¼ cup tomato paste (from 1 tomato) **sub with 2 tbsp ketchup
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce + more if needed
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- ½ cup water + more if you want a greater volume of sauce
- salt to taste
- scallion greens for garnishing
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients for the cauliflower batter in a bowl: all-purpose flour, cornstarch, red chili powder, kashmiri lal (optional), black pepper, and sea salt. Add water and stir to form a thick batter. Coat the cauliflower florets in the batter.
- To fry the cauliflower, heat a pot over medium heat with enough oil for the florets to fry. Fry the cauliflower in batches. I fried 2 batches of cauliflower and air-fried 1 batch. Turn the florets so all sides get crisp and brown. Take the fried cauliflower out and place on a plate lined with a napkin or paper towel.If air frying, place the battered florets onto parchment paper and air fry for 10-12 minutes at 400 F. I haven't tried baking in the oven, but it should take about twice as long.
- Heat a pan or wok over medium heat. Add 1 tbsp avocado oil. When the oil is hot, add garlic, green chiiis, and ginger. Stir frequently for 2 minutes. Add red onions and scallion whites. Stir for about 4 minutes. (If you want to add a green bell pepper, you would add it now and proceed with the next step when the bell peppers are mostly cooked.)
- Add tomato paste and let the tomato juices evaporate before adding ground coriander and black pepper. Stir the spices into the tomato mixture. Add chili garlic sauce and soy sauce.
- Make the cornstarch slurry by mixing 1 tbsp cornstarch and ½ cup water in a small bowl. Add the cornstarch slurry and stir frequently until you have a thick sauce. Taste and add more soy sauce or salt if needed.
- Toss the fried cauliflower in. Stir until the sauce adheres to the cauliflower. Garnish with scallions and serve immediately with rice or noodles.
Notes
For more Indo-Chinese recipes to enjoy this gobhi manchurian with, check out…
