This spicy, tangy Indo-Chinese recipe for Mushroom Manchurian is sure to please both vegetarians and vegans alike. Meaty mushrooms are battered and shallow-fried to crispy perfection before being tossed with sweet bell peppers and a delightfully zingy sauce.
Table of Contents
About Manchurian-Style Recipes
Indo-Chinese cuisine is one of my all-time favorite food fusions. For centuries, Indian and Chinese cultures have mingled along the Silk Road via Tibet, but this culinary tradition began in earnest when a large population of Chinese people relocated to Calcutta around 250 years ago.
The combination of local Indian spices and produce with Chinese cooking techniques has taken the world by storm in recent years, resulting in the proliferation of Desi-Chini restaurants in India, Bangladesh, America, the U.K., and Canada.
The term “Manchurian” refers to a particular Indian-Chinese cooking style whereby the primary ingredient – in this case, mushrooms – is battered and fried before being tossed with a zippy sauce made from soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and green chilies.
It should be noted that the culinary creation known as Manchurian is a fusion and does not bear much resemblance to traditional Manchu cuisine that you’d find in Northeastern China.
There are two primary styles of Manchurian dishes – either dry (also sometimes called crispy) or with a sauce/gravy. Both styles use the same primary ingredients – cornstarch (cornflour), all-purpose flour, green onions, capsicum, ginger, garlic, chilies, and soy sauce.
The only real difference between dry Manchurian or Manchurian with gravy is in the amount of sauce that is used. An easy way to think of it is that the dry or crispy style dishes resemble more of a battered and fried preparation, whereas the gravy dishes have a sauce base.
About Mushroom Manchurian
What I have posted here is a dry or crispy version of Manchurian mushroom. A Manchurian dish can be made with any vegetable and even paneer.
Some of my other favorite Manchurian recipes on blog are Veg Manchurian, Gobi Manchurian and Paneer Manchurian.
This deliciously spiced mushroom dish is at once tangy, spicy, salty, and sweet – it’s a real flavor explosion! Best of all, it comes together in just 45 minutes, making it the perfect option for a busy weeknight dinner.
We love to serve our Mushroom Manchurian with bread or Roti, Fried Rice. Sometimes we pair it with a dipping sauce like Schezwan Sauce or even a red chili sauce like sriracha or sambal oelek. You can serve them as a full meal, or use them as a tasty snack or appetizer.
How to Make Mushroom Manchurian
Make Batter and Prep Mushrooms
Add all below listed batter ingredients to a bowl:
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- ½ teaspoon freshly crushed black pepper
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sugar or add according to taste
- salt to taste
2: Add ⅓ cup water and whisk to a smooth batter that is neither too thick nor too thin.
3: Rinse, wipe dry and halve the mushrooms (250 grams button mushrooms). Set aside.
Fry Mushrooms
4: Heat oil for shallow frying or deep frying in a wok. Dip the mushroom in the prepared batter.
5: Once the oil is moderately hot, gently and carefully place the mushrooms in the oil. Let one side firm up and become light golden. Turn over and fry the second side.
6: .Once the mushrooms are crispy and golden brown, remove them to a plate (on kitchen paper towels) and keep them aside.
Make Mushroom Manchurian
7: Heat about 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in another pan or remove the extra oil from the pan in which we fried the mushrooms and keep about 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in it.
Add ⅓ cup chopped spring onion whites and stir fry them for a minute.
8: Add 2 to 3 chopped green chilies, 1 teaspoon finely chopped celery, 2 teaspoons finely chopped garlic, 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger, and some of the spring onion greens. Stir fry for a minute.
9: Add bell pepper/capsicum (1 medium-size green, yellow, orange, or red bell pepper, sliced, diced, or chopped in bite-sized pieces).
I only had yellow bell pepper instead of green bell pepper. Making the best use of what I had this day 🙂
10: Stir fry till the capsicum gets cooked a little but still retains its crunchiness.
11: Add salt, sugar, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, and ½ teaspoon black pepper powder or crushed black pepper.
12: Stir fry and mix well.
13: Add the fried mushrooms.
14: Stir fry and mix well so that the sauce coats the mushrooms.
15: Remove and serve dry Mushroom Manchurian hot garnished with some spring onion greens and/or celery.
It goes well with any kind of fried rice. You can also serve it as is with your favorite dipping sauce.
FAQs
Sure! Simply swap in your favorite cup-for-cup gluten-free all-purpose flour alternative, and trade out the soy sauce for either tamari or coconut aminos.
Absolutely. I used white button mushrooms because they are easily available year-round, but feel free to substitute creminis, portobellos, oyster mushrooms, or shiitakes.
Just be sure to cut whatever variety into roughly bite-sized pieces so you can get all the flavors in one bite.
Since anything crispy never seems to last very long, I suggest eating this dish immediately for the best results.
However, if you have any leftovers they can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Just note that they will not have the same light texture upon reheating.
More Mushroom Appetizers To Try!
Indo Chinese Recipes
Mushroom Recipes
Mushroom Recipes
Hyderabadi Recipes
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Mushroom Manchurian
Ingredients
For the batter
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon Ginger Garlic Paste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder or freshly crushed black pepper
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- ⅓ cup water or add as required
- ½ teaspoon sugar or add as required
- salt as required
For frying mushrooms
- 250 grams white button mushrooms
- oil as required for deep frying or shallow frying
For mushroom manchurian
- 1 to 2 tablespoons oil
- ⅓ cup spring onions (finely chopped spring onion whites) or 3 to 4 small-sized scallions – reserve the greens for garnish
- 2 to 3 green chilies – finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons garlic – finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons ginger – finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon celery – finely chopped, optional
- ½ teaspoon black pepper powder or crushed black pepper
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce or add as needed
- 1 bell pepper (small to medium-sized), green or red or yellow sliced, diced or chopped
- salt as required
Instructions
Preparing mushrooms and making batter
- Take all the ingredients for making the batter in a mixing bowl.
- Add ⅓ cup water and make a smooth batter. Not too thick nor too thin.
- Rinse the mushrooms in water a few times. Drain all of the water. Halve the mushrooms or quarter them if they are large. Trim off a small portion of the stalks and discard them.
- Heat oil for deep frying or shallo frying as needed in a wok or kadai.
- Let the oil become medium hot. Dip the mushroom in the batter evenly all over. Place them carefully and gently in the oil.
- Fry them till golden brown and crisp. When one side looks firm and light golden, turn over each mushroom piece and fry the second side. Turning over as needed fry the mushrooms until crispy and golden.
- Keep the fried mushrooms aside.
Making mushroom manchurian
- Heat 1 to 2 tablespoons oil in a frying pan or wok. Add the spring onion whites and stir fry them for a minute on a medium heat.
- Now add the chopped celery, green chili, ginger, garlic and some of the spring onion greens.
- Stir fry these also for a minute on a medium heat.
- Add the black pepper, salt, sugar and soy sauce.
- Mix well. Add the fried mushroom to this sauce.
- Stir so that the sauce coats the mushroom well
- Serve dry Mushroom Manchurian hot garnished with chopped spring onion greens and celery.
Nutrition Info (Approximate Values)
This Mushroom Manchurian recipe from the archives first published in August 2012 has been republished and updated on November 2022.
Tried this yesterday and it turned out the best that I’ve been able to prepare from your blog. The level of detail that you provide in your recipes is already known, but some of your suggestions like what makes the food glazing and those numerous other things are a testimony of your deep understanding in the subject of cooking and how you bring it out dedicatedly in each and every dish and share your best practices with your readers and it is really commendable. Your sense of responsibility towards giving your readers the best and making their time and effort worth of it is highly respected by us and all those who I’m referred your blog to. Cannot thank you enough. Wish you lot of success.
thanks again hemanth for your kind words. i try to give all the possible instructions (but some times i do miss writing them)… thats because many readers are just beginners. person who already know a recipe will not search for that recipe. so the recipe should serve the purpose for a beginner to a person who has some experience in cooking. you have got the point right. i feel responsible for the recipe. because i feel someone might be making the recipe for a special occasion or for the first time. so i make sure from my end that they are able to cook a good recipe.
While frying mushrooms sticked together and lots of oil was coming out of the pan (maybe due to moisture in mushrooms?) . Is it normal or was I missing something?
the oil should be enough hot and also as soon as the mushrooms are added, turn them so that they do not stick to each other. after some minutes of frying, the oil will splutter due to the moisture of mushrooms. i fry even after the spluttering as if you stop before, the mushrooms are not cooked enough.
I tried scezwan sauce and it came out very good. Even tried mushroom munchurian . very delicious it was. thx 🙂
thanks for the feedback on both the recipes.
Hey Dasssana,
I am back again to bother u.. 😛 I have always referred to your blog for recipes but for the past one week or so whatever I am cooking is from ur blog. 🙂 Which means trying minimun two to three recipes of yours in a single day 😀 😀 Not to mention I am loving it!!!!!! Day before yesterday I made aloo 65 for evening snack and one pot rajma for dinner. Both came out really well. 😀 Next on my list is this mushroom manchurian. My doubt is that what is shallow frying which u mention in many of ur recipes. Is is frying on a tawa like we fry aloo tikkis? And which way are you frying in the above picture? Deep or shallow? What I know is deep frying means the food is fully immersed in the oil.. Thanks again for your wonderful recipes. 🙂 🙂
hi himani, you are not bothering me 🙂 feeling good about you trying the recipes. in shallow frying a part of the food comes in contact with oil and a part stays above. just like frying tikkis or cutlets or if you have seen frying fish. about deep frying what you mention is right. in this recipe its shallow frying. its a close up shot, so looks like to much of oil.
HI! I’m 14 and I prepared this dish for a family gathering with my mum. The guests just couldn’t believe that we made the dish!! Haha so we actually gave them the recipe and told them how simple it was 🙂 Thank you so much, I’m obviously an amateur cook but being able to make tasty dishes feels great – ALL THANKS TO YOU.
you are welcome and good to know that recipe is so easy that even a budding cook can also make it. all the best to you.