Gobi Manchurian
Gobi Manchurian is a popular Indo-Chinese appetizer made with cauliflower, corn flour, soya sauce, vinegar, chili sauce, ginger, & garlic.
This delicious crisp fried appetizer is very popular in the Indian subcontinent. It makes its appearance everywhere, in street stalls, restaurants, and even at parties. Gobi manchurian is neither an authentic Chinese dish nor a manchu dish but is a fusion of both Indian & Chinese cuisine.
What is Gobi Manchurian?

Gobi Manchurian is crispy fried cauliflower coated in a sweet, tangy, spicy, and umami-rich Indo-Chinese sauce that is finger-lickin’ good.
It’s easily one of the best appetizers you’ll ever try and a must-make for your next party, game day, or any time you want to impress your family or friends.
Indo-Chinese cuisine is the product of a very familiar immigration story. Several hundreds of years ago, Chinese migrants moved to India seeking jobs. Many of them opened Chinese restaurants, but they soon realized they needed to adapt Cantonese cuisine to please the Indian palate, which has a predilection for spices and fried food.
Indo-Chinese cuisine fuses Chinese cooking techniques and certain Chinese ingredients with Indian aromatics, vegetables, and spices.
What to serve with gobi manchurian
Dry Gobi Manchurian is served as a starter or appetizer, so you don’t need anything else. It has the right balance of slightly spicy, sour, and sweet tastes, so it tastes amazingly delicious on its own.
However, if you are making it for a meal, serve it alongside hakka noodles or fried rice. Gobi manchurian gravy can be served as a side with any noodles, fried rice or even with plain fluffy long grain rice.
Ingredients
- 1 small head (500 grams) cauliflower/gobi (250 grams cleaned florets)
- Oil for deep frying as needed.
To make Batter
- 1/2 cup (65 grams) all-purpose flour (prefer organic or at least unbleached)
- 1/4 cup (32 grams) cornstarch (white corn flour or yellow corn flour)
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or paste (less spicy variety)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, crushed or ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 cup water (more if needed)
To make Gobi Manchurian Sauce
- 1 and a half tablespoons oil (for sauce)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon ginger, finely chopped
- 1 green chili chopped
- 1/3 cup onions or spring onions/scallions, finely chopped, green & white separated
- 1/4 cup bell pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 to 3 tablespoons Red chili sauce
- 1 to 2 tablespoon tomato ketchup
- 1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt as needed
- 3 to 4 tablespoons water
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon black pepper, crushed or ground
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons spring onion greens chopped for garnish
Instructions
- Cut gobi to medium-size separate florets and add them to 3 cups of slightly hot water (not boiling hot). Rest for 5 minutes, discard the water, and rinse with cold water. Drain them to a colander.
- Spread on a clean cloth or pat dry with paper tissues to remove excess moisture. You can do this ahead and set aside at room temperature. Any moisture in the gobi will cook it to soft and not crisp.
- Heat up the oil for deep-frying on medium heat.
- Meanwhile, make the batter by adding cornstarch, all-purpose flour, and red chili powder, black pepper, and salt to a mixing bowl.
- Mix and add water little by little as needed and make a free-flowing, lump-free batter. The consistency has to be medium and not too thick or very runny. Adjust salt as needed by tasting the batter.
- Add the gobi florets to the batter (in batches) and coat them well.
Fry Cauliflower
- When the oil turns hot enough, check by dropping a small amount of batter into the hot oil. The batter has to sizzle and rise to the surface without browning. This is the correct temperature.
- Pick up each cauliflower floret with a spoon or fingers & gently frop them one by one in the hot oil. The flame has to be medium initially and should be increased slightly as more gobi is added. Avoid disturbing or stirring them for 1 to 2 minutes, as the coating can easily turn messy.
- Reduce the flame to medium and fry until the florets turn golden and crisp. Keep stirring in between for even frying. Remove them with a spider, shaking gently to get rid of the excess oil.
- Transfer to a kitchen tissue/paper towel or a steel colander. Repeat the same steps of adding the rest of the cauliflower florets to the batter, coating them well, and then frying them in hot oil until crisp. Oil should be medium hot and not smoking hot before you fry the next batch.
- For extra crisp gobi manchurian, you can also refry the once-fried gobi again in oil. But frying them once is good enough to get very crisp manchurian with this recipe.
How to make Gobi Manchurian
- Optional: Mix together red chili powder with a little water to a paste and keep aside. This step is optional and is used mainly for the red color.
- Prepare the sauce: Add soy sauce, red chili sauce, tomato ketchup, red chili paste, sugar, and vinegar to a small bowl and keep this aside.
- Heat oil in a wide pan or wok. Add garlic, ginger, and green chilies. Saute for a minute or two.
- Then add spring onions, whites, & bell pepper. Saute them on a high flame for 2 minutes.
- Pour the sauce and water. Mix well and cook stirring until the sauce turns thick. Add black pepper and turn off the heat.
- Taste test and adjust the heat and salt levels to your taste. The sauce has to be slightly tangy, sweet, & hot. If you want, you may add more sauce to preference.
- Allow the sauce to cool for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the fried cauliflower and stir gently to coat well with the manchurian sauce.
- Garnish gobi manchurian with spring onion greens. Serve immediately as an appetizer or as a side with noodles or fried rice.