Soya Chilli | Soya Manchurian

Boil 1.5 litre of water in a large vessel with ½ tsp of salt. Now add 1.5 cups of soya chunks to the boiling water. And cook it for around 5-8 minutes or until soya chunks turn soft. When cooked, turn off the gas and drain off the water and rinse with cold water. Cool completely and squeeze all the excess water from the soya chunks.

Now in a large bowl take 1/2 cup thick curd,1.5 tablespoons of ginger-garlic & red chilli paste,1 tsp salt,1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder and 1/4 tsp of orange-red food-grade colour (optional). Mix all the ingredients well and prepare a smooth marination paste.

Squeeze out all the excess water from the cooked soya chunks and add them to the marination paste. Mix well coating the soya chunks with marination paste well. Rest it for 10-15 minutes so that soya chunks absorb the marination well.

Add 1/3 cup all-purpose flour (maida) and 2 tablespoons of rice flour to the marinated soya chunks. Using hands, mix the ingredients very well. Coat the soya chunks with flour uniformly.

Heat oil in a pan, once hot add marinated soya chunks and deep fry till golden from all sides. Stir occasionally and fry on medium flame to golden and crisp. Take them out on a tissue paper to remove the excess oil. Keep aside.You may shallow fry them as well on the medium flame or bake in a preheated oven at 180-degree Celcius for 25 minutes.

Heat oil in another pan add 2 tablespoons of oil and saute 1 tablespoons of fine chopped garlic and 3-4 slit green chilli on high flame. Cook for few seconds then add one medium-sized finely chopped onion and let it cook till the raw smell of garlic goes on high flame. Further, add 1 medium-sized capsicum cut into cubes, roughly chopped onion and tomatoes and continue to saute till they slightly change colour. Additionally, add 2 tbsp tomato sauce, 1 tsp red chilli sauce, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp schezwan sauce and season with salt and pepper. Mix them well. Do not overcook at this stage as the capsicum and onion will loose its crunch. Add cornflour slurry. To prepare it, mix 1 tsp of cornflour with ¼ cup of water and prepare smooth lumpfree batter. Add this mixture to the pan and give a good mix until the gravy slightly thickens and turns glossy. Next add fried soya chunks toss it well in the sauces cook for a minute. Mix gently making sure the sauce has coated well uniformly. Garnish with some spring onion greens (optional) and Serve hot & crisp!!!

firstly, marinate soya chunks for at least 10 minutes to absorb flavours well. secondly, I have deep-fried the coated soya nuggets which can be easily pan-fried or shallow fried or baked for less oil consumption. you may have to stir the soya nuggets continuously while pan-frying, otherwise, it may stick to the bottom. The soya chunks turn out to be very crispy and remain the same for a longer time. They began to turn soggy 5-8 minutes after mixing them with sauce, so make sure you add the fried soya chunks before serving it. The quantity of sauce in this recipe can be varied according to personal choice.