Low Fat Soya Manchurian

Soya Manchurian


I am a big fan of Manchurian. Few years back, when my brother and I were still single and with our parents, we used to eat out almost every weekends and one of my favourites at a hotel called Palmgrove was Gobi Manchurian (gobi is cauliflower). I am pretty sure Manchurian is not an Indian dish and is probably a hybrid, an Indo-Chinese dish. The main problem with this dish is that it is deep fried and I do not like to deep fry. As always, my oven comes in handy. I tried this one afternoon when I knew my husband will come back very hungry. I was keeping my fingers crossed because normally, he does not like Manchurian and that too because it is not deep fried it may well be a bit wiered and I have to disguise it quite well. But in the end, I think I presented it quite well and also did not tell him what it was until he started enjoying it. Needless, to say that is a superhit. I used soya chunks mainly because I have had them for a while and wanted to finish them and also because it is a good source of protein. Here is how I did it

2 handful soya chunks
2 tablespoons all purpose flour (maida)
1 tablespoon corn flour
Few pinches chilly powder
2-3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
2-3 tablespoons soya sauce
1 inch piece ginger, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (optional)
1 green pepper, diced
1 small red onion, diced
Salt to taste

Rinse the soya chunks and soak in hot water for about 15 minutes. Squeeze out the water and leave on tea towel to dry a little bit.

Combine cornflour, all purpose flour, chilly powder and salt and make a paste which is not too thick or runny. It needs to be able to coat the soya chunks well.

Dunk the soya chunks in this paste and coat it uniformly

Place this in a greased baking dish and bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 180degC and keep moving the chunks every 10 minutes to ensure uniform cooking.

You could roast the pepper and onion along with the soya chunks for about 15 minutes. Alternately, sauté the onions in pepper with little oil in a saucepan.

In a saucepan, combine the cooked soya chunks, roasted vegetables, ginger and cook for couple of minutes. Now add tomato ketchup and soya sauce and do not keep long on the stove.

 Serve hot!

It is very nice if the ginger is not overcooked as the fresh flavours from ginger augment the taste. You could add the garlics along with the vegetables or fry it separately. It helps to keep the pepper and onions crunchy and not overcooked either. I do not like to use food colour so I used pinches of chilly powder in the Manchurian coating. You could use food colour if you like.