Vegetarian Manchow Soup is a hot and spicy Indo-Chinese soup made with mixed vegetables, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. It has a bold flavor profile and a slightly thick consistency. This Manchow soup recipe is easy to make and comes together quickly. It’s popular in India and is commonly served as a starter or with Indo-Chinese meals.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 15 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Side Dish, Starters
  • Cuisine: Indo Chinese

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil (or any other oil)
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon red chilies (- fresh and finely chopped or 1 to 2 green chillies or fresh red chillies.)
  • 1 teaspoon ginger (- finely chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic (- finely chopped)
  • ¼ cup onions (- finely chopped or ¼ cup spring onion whites)
  • ¼ to ⅓ cup button mushrooms (- sliced or chopped)
  • ¼ cup french beans (- finely chopped)
  • ¼ cup cabbage (- shredded)
  • ¼ cup carrots (- grated or finely chopped)
  • ¼ cup capsicum (- finely chopped, (green bell pepper))
  • 1 teaspoon celery (finely chopped, optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper powder (or white pepper powder, add as required)
  • 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or add as required)
  • 3 cups water (or Veg Stock)
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch ((corn flour) dissolved in 2 tablespoons water)
  • ½ teaspoon rice vinegar (or regular white vinegar, optional)
  • 2 teaspoons coriander leaves (- finely chopped, (cilantro) or 1 to 2 tablespoons spring onion greens, for garnish, optional)
  • salt (as required)
  • ⅓ cup noodles (- cooked)
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch (- for coating noodles)
  • oil (for deep frying, as required)

Method

Stir frying veggies

  1. First rinse and chop all the veggies, mushrooms and keep aside.
  2. Heat oil in a wok or pan and add the chopped fresh red chilies, garlic and ginger.
  3. On low heat, sauté for 8 to 10 seconds and then add chopped onions or spring onions. Sauté again for a minute.
  4. Now add finely chopped french beans and chopped mushrooms.
  5. Stir fry on a medium to high heat till the mushrooms get lightly browned from the edges.
  6. Then add grated carrots, shredded cabbage, finely chopped capsicum/bell pepper and celery.
  7. Stir fry on a medium to high heat for 3 to 4 minutes.
  8. Once the veggies are stir fried for 3 to 4 minutes, then add soy sauce and black pepper. Stir to mix.

Making manchow soup

  1. Now add water or veg stock.
  2. Season with salt. Let the soup to come to a simmer on a medium heat. Keep a check on the amount of salt as soy sauce already has salt.
  3. Meanwhile. Make a smooth slurry or paste of the cornstarch with water.
  4. Reduce the heat to a low and add the cornstarch slurry or paste to the soup.
  5. Mix very well and let the soup thicken by simmering on medium-low to medium heat.
  6. Lastly add rice vinegar or regular vinegar. Turn off the heat.
  7. Stir and check the taste of soup. Add more seasonings like salt, black pepper or soy sauce or vinegar if needed.
  8. This is an optional step. In the meantime, if you have cooked noodles, first coat them with 1 teaspoon of cornstarch evenly.
  9. Then add them to medium hot oil for frying.
  10. Fry the noodles till they are crisp. Drain the fried noodles on kitchen paper towels.
  11. Stir and serve Manchow Soup hot topped with the fried noodles.
  12. You can also mix chopped coriander leaves towards the end or serve Veg Manchow Soup garnished with cilantro. Instead of coriander leaves, garnish with spring onion greens.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.