A Girl in the states!
With Jan 01, 2019, marking the completion of year here in states, a lot has happened indeed.
It's a year of staying away from family and friends. It's a year of being an alien or officially a resident alien. It's a year of befriending new people and hosting parties. And it's a year of self-cooking.
It's not like, I never know the ABC of cooking. I did know some basics all along. But I have never cooked a complete meal all by myself. I have assisted mom at times. I have some ready-made noodles and stuff. It is in 2018, I have learned to cook literally anything. Yea, Practice makes a man perfect. Am still practicing :)
So until a year ago, I used to eat out a lot and every-time I go out, without even looking at the menu, I will order Manchurian... cauliflower(gobi) Manchurian, paneer Manchurian, mix veg Manchurian and the list goes.
For the new year lunch, I decided to make vegetable balls in Manchurian sauce. But what's so special about it, I tried making the veg balls without frying in oil, not even pan-frying. The vegetable balls are made without oil. It was perfectly cooked, tasted good, and HEALTHY. Read on to know the recipe
Ingredients :
For vegetable balls :
- Grated Vegetable mix - 2 cups (I have used carrots, cabbage, and some spinach/kale )
- corn flour - 1 tbsp
- All-purpose flour/maida - 3 tbsp or as needed
- Water - 1/2 a tsp
- salt - 1/2 tsp
For the Manchurian sauce :
- sesame/olive oil - 2 tbsp
- soya sauce - 2 tbsp
- tomato sauce (ketchup) - 2 tsp
- chili sauce - 2 tbsp
- water -1 1/2cup
- garlic - 5 -7 pods
- ginger - a small piece
- spring onions - a bunch
- corn flour - 3 tbsp mixed in little water without lumps
- salt - a tsp or as needed
Instructions :
- Fine grate the vegetables(carrot, beans, cabbage, peas, spinach, paneer(Indian cottage cheese), cauliflower, bell pepper(capsicum), the onion will suit this recipe)
- Add 1/2 tsp or a pinch of salt and give it a mix.
- Add the maida/cornflour and 1/2 a tsp of water. The mixture should look dry. The flour is added for binding purposes.
- Make small balls out of it.
- You can either steam cook it for 20 minutes (or until cooked) or microwave for 7 minutes(cook closed)
- Now for the Manchurian sauce, finely cut the garlic and ginger or grate them; cut the spring onions.
- Heat a pan or a Kadai with oil
- Add the ginger and garlic once oil is hot enough.
- Once the garlic/ginger started turning its color, keep the flame to low, add the chili sauce, tomato sauce(ketchup) and saute it for a couple of seconds.
- Add the soy sauce and the cornflour mix and give it a quick stir.
- Add the water, salt and let it boil briefly
- If you feel spice is less, you can add chili powder/more chili sauce/ red pepper flakes.
- Corn flour is a thickening agent, so switch off and move it to some other bowl and let it cool.
- If you leave it in the same vessel used for cooking, it will thicken up more in the retained heat.
- Add the spring leaves and the veg balls and enjoy while it is hot. Add water and heat briefly if it thickens up.
Vegetable balls cooked in microwave
Served with rice noodles(with asparagus, tomatoes, and beans), veg fried rice(peas and corns), and some boiled pepper eggs.
Oh and some green soup too :)