Chilli Gobi (Cauliflower Chilli)

Chilli gobi recipe with step by step pictures. Absolutely delicious is this restaurant style chilli gobi recipe from the Indo Chinese cuisine. You just cannot stop eating these crispy and spicy cauliflower florets. This cauliflower chilli makes an awesome starter or snack at family dinners or get-togethers.

You see Indo Chinese food is one of our favorite fusion food and yes I have shared many Indo Chinese Recipes as well. This chilli gobi is also our favorite and is a restaurant style version. It is crispy, saucy, umami, spicy and oh so good. Serve chilli gobi to your family or your friends and they will love it and keep you asking for more.

What is Chilli Gobi

Chilli gobi is a popular starter or snack recipe from the Indo Chinese cuisine and fusion recipe. It has a crispy texture with a spicy, sweet and sour taste. The cauliflower florets are batter-coated, deep fried and then mixed with stir-fried spring onions, capsicum (green bell pepper), soy sauce, sweet red chilli sauce, salt and pepper.

Basically, chilli gobi is another addition to the group of chilli recipes from the Indo Chinese cuisine like Chilli paneer, Chilli Mushroom, Chilli potato.

The recipe that I have shared is a crispy dry version and not the gravy (sauce based) version. Do keep in mind that making chilli gobi takes time, so please be patient. But the end result is worth the time and energy spent in preparing this dish.

You have to serve cauliflower chilli hot or else the crispiness will reduce. While serving you can garnish with some spring onion greens.

How to make Chilli Gobi

Blanching cauliflower

1. Rinse and then break or chop 1 small to medium cauliflower (350 grams cauliflower) in small florets. You will need about 3 to 3.25 cups of chopped cauliflower florets. Chop cauliflower into small pieces as then they become more crispy.

2. In pan or saucepan take 2.5 cups water and add ¼ teaspoon salt.

3. Bring the water to a rolling boil.

4. Switch off the heat and keep the pan on the kitchen countertop. Add the cauliflower florets. Blanch for 5 minutes.

5. Drain all the water and keep the blanched cauliflower aside. Do make sure to drain all the water very well.

6. Meanwhile thinly slice 1 small capsicum (green bell pepper) and 2 medium sized spring onion whites (scallions). Finely chop 1.5 inches ginger, 5 to 6 medium to large garlic cloves and slit 2 to 3 green chillies. Keep aside.

You will need ½ cup sliced spring onion whites and ⅓ cup thinly sliced capsicum.

Making batter for chilli gobi

7. Take 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida) and 4 tablespoons corn flour (corn starch) in a mixing bowl.

8. Add 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder and ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder. Also, add salt as required. I added 1 teaspoon rock salt. If using iodized salt, then add ⅓ to ½ teaspoon salt depending on taste.

9. Add 1 teaspoon soy sauce.

10. Next add ½ teaspoon sweet red chilli sauce or sweet chilli garlic sauce or sriracha sauce.

11. Add 1 cup of water in parts.

12. Begin to mix.

13. Add the remaining water and make a smooth batter without lumps. Depending on the quality and texture of flours, you can add ¾ to 1 cup water.

14. The batter should have a medium consistency and should not be thick or thin. If the batter looks thin, then add some more all-purpose flour (maida). If the batter looks thick then add some more water. Heat oil for deep frying on medium heat.

Frying gobi

15. When the oil becomes hot then place some cauliflower florets in the batter.

16. Coat the florets evenly with the batter.

17. Slid off the extra coating from the florets on the sides of the bowl and place the batter coated cauliflower florets in medium hot oil.

Add less portion of the florets and do not overcrowd the pan or kadai or wok. Fry cauliflower florets in medium hot oil.

18. When one side becomes golden and crisp, turn over each floret. The cauliflower fritters will stick to each other. Thus add less amounts and as soon as you add them stir with a spoon so that they do not stick.

In case they stick, then fry them together as one whole. Once you place them on paper towels then break them when they become less hot.

19. Flip for a couple of times more, so that the florets are evenly fried, golden and crisp.

20. Remove the fried gobi florets with a slotted spoon or spider spoon.

21. Place the fried gobi florets on a kitchen paper towel for extra oil to be absorbed. Similarly, fry the gobi florets in 3 to 5 batches depending on the size of the kadai or wok.

You can stop here too and have these crisp cauliflower fritters as a snack.

Making the sauce base for chilli gobi

22. Heat 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil in a pan or wok or kadai. Use peanut oil or sunflower oil if you do not have toasted sesame oil. Gingelly oil made from raw sesame seeds can also be used.

Add 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger and 2 to 3 slit green chillies.

24. Sauté them for some seconds till the raw aroma of both ginger and garlic goes away.

25. Add ½ cup sliced spring onion whites and ⅓ cup thinly sliced capsicum.

26. Mix and then increase the flame to medium or medium-high after adding the onions and capsicum.

27. Stir non-stop and stir fry onions till they become translucent. If the base starts looking browned then reduce the flame.

28. Lower the heat and then add 1 teaspoon soy sauce and 1 teaspoon sweet red chilli sauce. You can use sweet chilli garlic sauce or sriracha sauce instead of sweet red chilli sauce.

29. Mix very well.

Making chilli gobi

30. Add the fried cauliflower florets.

31. Add ½ teaspoon sugar, ¼ teaspoon black pepper and salt as per taste. Add a few pinches of salt as the sauces and fried cauliflower florets already have salt in them.

32. Increase the heat to medium or medium-high. Mix and toss well. Switch off the heat. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon mirin or ½ teaspoon rice wine or rice vinegar or white vinegar. Mix again. Check the taste and add more sauces, pepper, salt and sugar if required.

33. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of spring onion greens.

34. Serve chilli gobi hot or else the crispiness reduces. Garnish gobi chilli with some spring onion greens while serving.

More tasty snacks recipes for you!

• Gobi 65
• Tandoori gobi
• French fries
• Potato wedges

Below I have mentioned some tips so that you can make a great restaurant style and best chilli gobi.

Tips to make the best chilli gobi

• Size of the cauliflower florets matters – Chop or break the cauliflower in small florets to get a crispy texture. Large cauliflower florets won’t give you that crispiness. Do not chop the cauliflower too small as you don’t want to spend too much time frying them.
• Deep frying – Yes deep fry to get that crispy texture. No baking or air frying the gobi florets as these just do not give a crisp fried texture. For health reasons, you can bake or air-fry, but the crisp texture won’t be there.
• Blanching – It is always better to blanch cauliflower as this will get rid of insects and worms in the cauliflower. The frying time is also reduced.
• Keep everything ready – when making recipes which call for stir-frying, it is a best practice to keep all the ingredients ready near your stove top.
• Forgiving recipe – This recipe is forgivable and you can easily halve it.
• Soy sauce – if possible use naturally fermented soy sauce.
• More or less of the sauces – Do not increase the amount of sauces than what is mentioned in the recipe, or else the taste may go awry and the final dish won’t taste that good.
• Kashmiri red chilli powder – yes please use Kashmiri red chilli powder as it gives a deep orangish red color in this chilli gobi recipe and looks good. A natural red coloring ingredient as well. If using any other type of red chilli powder, you may not get this deep red color. If the red chilli powder is spicy, then reduce the amount. You can even use deghi mirch powder instead of Kashmiri red chilli powder.
• Balance – in all Indo Chinese recipes balance in all the various tastes is a key point. So keep a check while adding the sauces and spices and don’t go overboard.

This Chilli Gobi post from the archives, originally published in May 2019 has been updated and republished on February 2023.