Gado Gado – Indonesia Vegetable Salad

31 Days In Jakarta Day 23

We love to learn new dishes. Gado-gado is one of the first Indonesia dishes we tried in Jakarta and we love it. If you love salad, and peanut butter, then this Gado-gado recipe is for you.

Gado-gado is delicious and very satisfying. It is a traditional Indonesian home cooked dish. Many Indonesians have Gado-gado alone as lunch.  We sometimes make it in our house and everyone loves it.

Gado-gado means “mix mix” in Indonesia. It is basically a combination of raw and slightly cooked vegetables and soybean products, mixed together in yummy peanut sauce.

There are many variations of Gado-gado and this is our very own MidNightVisitor’s Gado-gado.

Ingredients:

• Boiled vegetables 2 cups (use any leafy veggie you like, spinach, KangKong; or try cauliflower, long beans, carrots, bean sprouts and potato)
• Chinese cabbage raw 1/8, very finely shredded
• Cucumber raw 1/2pc, cubed
• Boiled eggs 1pc, wedged
• Fried tempe 1/8pc , cubed (this a special Indonesia soy product, not sure if you can get it outside Indonesia. Optional)
• Fried tofu 1/8pc, cubed
• Fried shallot ( for decoration, you can find these in Asia grocery stores. Optional)
• Prawn crackers (optional)

Gado-gado peanut sauce:

• Oil 2 tsp
• Garlic 4 cloves, chopped
• Shallot 1pc, peeled and chopped
• 150 g fried peanuts (or simply use crunchy peanut butter)
• Red chillies 2pcs, discard the seed and chopped
• Palm sugar 1pc (about 65 grams or brown sugar if palm sugar is not available)
• A small amount of water

1. Pour oil to heated frying pan (medium heat)
2. Add shallots and garlic,  fry for 2-3 min or until aromatic.
3. Pour above into a blender
4. Add rest of the ingredients, add water and blend until smooth
5. Add water gradually, until the mixture has the consistency of double cream

To serve, place boiled vegetables, fried tempe and tofu on plate. Pour peanut sauce over, garnish with egg, prawn crackers, and fried shallot.

Gado gado is pretty cheap in Jakarta. So if you are here, you might simply buy it from the shops instead of making it. There are street food vendors selling it for IDR 8,000 per portion. In the restaurants, it is IDR 20,000 to IDR 40,000 per dish.

So why not give Gado gado a go the next time you are in Jakarta?

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