Gado-Gado - Indonesian Salad with Peanut Sauce
Indonesian salad served with a super awesome peanut sauce with a tang of tamarind, sweetness of palm sugar, the umami of shrimp paste, and a kick of chili.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 1 hr
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 200 gram peanut, deep-fried or roasted
- 4 cloves garlic
- 50 gram palm sugar (Indonesian: gula Jawa)
- 1 to 10 Thai chilies (Indonesian: cabe rawit), seeded - use as much or as little as you like
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (Indonesian: terasi, Malaysian: belacan), toasted, omit to make a vegetarian sauce
- 1 teaspoon tamarind pulp, soaked in 2 tablespoon of warm water to get the juice
- juice of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce (Indonesian: kecap manis)
- 2 cup hot water
- 4 potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled
- ketupat/lontong/steamed rice cake
- 4 eggs, hard-boiled, peeled, and cut into quarters
- deep fried tofu
- deep fried tempeh
- blanched cabbage (Indonesian: kol)
- blanched bean sprouts (Indonesian: tauge)
- blanched snake beans (Indonesian: kacang panjang)
- blanched spinach (Indonesian: bayam)
- boiled chayote (Indonesian: labu siam)
- raw cucumber (Indonesian: timun)
- fried shallots (Indonesian: bawang goreng)
- prawn crackers (Indonesian: kerupuk udang)
- melinjo crackers (Indonesian: emping)
Instructions
- 1
Gado-gado spicy peanut sauce
- 2
Using a food processor, grind peanuts, garlic, palm sugar, chilies, terasi/belacan/shrimp paste, and salt. Try to stop when the peanuts still have some chunks and not completely turned into a smooth paste.
- 3
Transfer the peanut mixture into a mixing bowl, add tamarind juice, lime juice, and sweet soy sauce.
- 4
Then add enough hot water to the mixture while stirring to get the consistency of the peanut sauce that you like.
- 5
To serve
- 6
Arrange all gado-gado ingredients in a plate/bowl, the carbs, the protein, and the vegetables. Garnish with fried shallots and crackers. Serve the peanut sauce in a separate bowl.
- 7
Just prior to eating the salad, pour the peanut sauce and mix well.