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Gado-Gado Jakarta: Jakarta-style Salad with Peanut Dressing (Vegetarian)

  • Author: Nunuk Sri Rahayu
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
  • Category: Vegetables
  • Method: Blending
  • Cuisine: Indonesian
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Description

Gado-gado, a salad of mixed blanched vegetables topped with peanut sauce, is one of Indonesia’s most popular dishes. This recipe is for Jakarta-style gado-gado.


Ingredients

Scale

For the salad:

  • 2 medium potatoes, washed, steamed
  • 1 small chayote, washed, steamed
  • 50 gr beansprouts, washed
  • 50 gr white cabbage, washed, shredded into bite sized pieces
  • 1 carrot, peeled, washed, julienned
  • 50 gr spinach/morning glory, cut into bite sized pieces, washed
  • 2 long beans, cut into smaller pieces, washed
  • 1 small cucumber, washed, cut into bite sized pieces
  • Water for blanching/steaming
  • 2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
  • 100 gr fried tempe, diced into smaller pieces
  • 2 pcs fried tofu, diced into smaller pieces
  • Fried shallots for garnish

For the peanut dressing:

  • 150 gr peanuts
  • 3 bird’s eye chillies
  • 2 big red chillies, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp tamarind extract
  • 50 gr palm sugar, shaved
  • 1 tbsp sweet soy sauce
  • Salt to taste
  • 100 ml drinking water
  • 2 small kaffir limes
  • Cooking oil for deep frying

Instructions

For the salad:

  1. Blanch each vegetable separately for 1 minute, starting from the lightest colored to the darkest colored vegetables: beansprouts, cabbage, carrot, spinach and long beans. Set aside.
  2. Peel and dice the steamed potatoes and chayote into bite sizes, set aside.
  3. Arrange all the salad ingredients in one big flat plate for easier assembly.

For the peanut dressing:

  1. Deep fry the peanuts in enough oil to cover them over medium heat until golden brown (around 5 minutes).
  2. Transfer the peanuts to a plate layered with kitchen towels to absorb the excess oil and let cool.
  3. Once the peanuts are cool, crush using a mortar and pestle or a chopper. Set aside.
  4. Fry the chillies and garlic over medium heat for 2 minutes.
  5. Using a mortar and pestle or a blender, make the peanut sauce by blending the chillies, garlic, crushed peanuts, palm sugar, sweet soy sauce, salt, tamarind extract and 100 ml of drinking water until smooth. When using a blender, you may press Pulse several times for a chunkier paste. Add a little bit more water if necessary.
  6. Transfer the sauce to a bowl.
  7. Cut the kaffir limes into half, remove the seeds and squeeze the juice all over the sauce. Mix well. Include some of the lime zest for extra fragrance and flavor.

How to assemble the dish:

  1. Put all the vegetables (beansprout, cabbage, spinach, carrot, beansprout, long beans, potatoes, chayote and cucumber), tofu and tempeh in a big bowl. Add the peanut dressing and mix everything together.
  2. Transfer the portion to an individual serving plate.
  3. Sprinkle some fried shallots, and top with hard boiled eggs.
  4. Alternatively, put all the vegetables, tofu and tempeh in a big serving plate with a separate bowl for the dressing. Everyone is to help themselves with the assembling.


Notes

  • Crush the fried peanuts for easier blending.
  • For the vegan version, omit the hard boiled eggs.
  • In this recipe, young jackfruit is not included as it’s hard to find outside Indonesia.
  • Adjust the amount of chilies based on your preference.

Keywords: Vegetarian peanut sauce salad