Gado-Gado
Blanched vegetables, tofu, tempeh and boiled egg, dressed in rich peanut sauce and finished with crackers. Indonesia's best-known salad.
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total
- 50 min
- serves
- 4
- level
- easy
Gado-gado translates loosely to "mix-mix," and that is really the whole dish: whatever vegetables, tofu and tempeh you have, blanched and piled onto a plate, held together by a thick, rich peanut sauce.
The sauce is doing almost all the work, so give it real attention. Grind the peanuts properly, balance the sweetness from palm sugar against the tamarind's sourness, and get the thickness right before you call it done.
Part of our 20 best Indonesian recipes list.
method
Blanch the long beans, cabbage, bean sprouts and spinach separately in boiling water, just until tender-crisp, 1 to 2 minutes each. Drain and let them cool.
For the sauce, grind or blend the peanuts with the garlic and chilies into a coarse paste.
Stir in the kecap manis, tamarind paste and palm sugar. Loosen with the warm water, a little at a time, until the sauce is thick but pourable, like a loose nut butter.
Arrange the blanched vegetables, potato, tofu, tempeh and egg on a plate.
Spoon the peanut sauce generously over everything.
Scatter over fried shallots and crushed krupuk, and serve right away.
chef's tips
- Each vegetable blanched separately, briefly, keeps them each at their own best texture instead of one mushy pile.
- The sauce should be thick enough to properly coat the vegetables, not run straight to the bottom of the plate. Add the water slowly.
- Some traditional recipes include a touch of shrimp paste (terasi) in the sauce. Leave it out if you want a fully vegetarian version; the dish still works well without it.
- Gado-gado is meant to be served at room temperature, not hot. Cook everything ahead and assemble just before eating.