Gado Gado
Gado Gado is a dish from Indonesia which can be classified as a salad.
It is really really healthy and full of nutrition…not to mention delicious! My neighbor was born and raised in Jakarta and is a great cook. She was generous enough to share this recipe with me. She told me gado gado is kind of a street food in Indonesia.
Basically its bowl full of steamed and raw vegetables served with a sweet, salty and tangy peanut sauce and topped with crumbled up crackers.
I really like recipes like these where you get a flavor of something different in every bite.
For my bowl- I used a combination of dark greens, cabbage, green beans, cucumber, tofu and potato. The next day I also added some jasmine rice to the bowl. The rice made it a wholesome meal and it was very filling….perfect for a lunch!
I topped my bowl with some sriracha (hot sauce) because I like a little bit of heat in my food. You dont have to if you don’t like the heat–that’s the good part about this recipe…it gives you the flexibility to play around with different flavors.
The peanut sauce is the star of this recipe and is a great blend of flavors. It is sweet, salty, tangy and spicy at the same time….what I like to call a well balanced sauce! You can make the sauce and keep it refrigerated in an airtight container up to a week, so later on all you have to do is steam vegetables and drizzle the sauce that’s already sitting in your refrigerator…easy peasy!
Serves 3 to 4
Cooking time 30 min
Things you will need:
For peanut sauce
1 cup peanuts, unsalted and roasted
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 tbs vegetable oil
1 tbs palm sugar
1 tbs water
1/2 lemon
2 dried red chilies, soaked in warm water for 1 hour
salt
In a pan, stir fry onions and garlic till it reaches a golden brown color. Let cool. Mix/melt palm sugar in water, keep aside. In a blender add peanuts, onion, garlic, salt, palm sugar dissolved in water and red chilies. Blend to form a smooth paste (you will have to scrape the sides in between and might have to add a little more water). Adjust the salt and mix in the lemon juice.
For the salad
rice, steamed (optional)
tofu, cubed
potato, boiled and peeled
green beans, steamed
cabbage, shredded and steamed to desired crunch
cucumber, sliced
boiled egg, sliced (optional)
soy chips, or any other kind of chips- preferably unsalted and unflavored
sriracha (hot sauce, optional)
soy sauce
To arrange gado gado
In a pan, stir fry slices of boiled potato- till it turns golden. In a big bowl, place 1 to 2 tablespoon cooked rice. Add cabbage, green beans and potato slices. Arrange egg and cucumber slices on the side. Drizzle good amount of peanut sauce over the salad. Roughly crumble a few chips in your palm and spread over the salad. Drizzle a little bit of soy sauce and sriracha. Serve immediately!
Great idea- I love any kind of peanut sauce. I’ll put this on my list. Thanks!
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Thanks Robin…I am glad you liked it!
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Have been eating Gado Gado for years now. Only problem with it is that I overindulge every time!! Can not get enough of it!!
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I’ve just recently gone vegan (though have been a vegetarian for 10 years) and have been looking for exciting recipes to try. Stumbled across this site and fell in love with this idea. Wholesome and different, such a treat. Thanks 🙂
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Will try this. Are there several varieties of Gado Gado? Which ingredients can one change (or must keep) and still retain the name?
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Gado gado is one of my all-time favorites from the homeland, and it looks like you’ve replicated it pretty authentically here – nice! Traditionally it’s eaten with slices of lontong, rice that’s been cooked in a tube of banana leaf, but plain rice is great, too.
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mindblowing foodporn…feel like im in love just looking at them, what a rush of feelgoodness, thank you
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Thank you all for liking my posts so much!
I am not sure it there are several varieties of Gado Gado, but as far as ingredients are concerned…I think it can be a combination of whatever vegetables you like as long as you steam them. You need to have the peanut sauce but rice can be substituted with noodles. I wouldn’t experiment with other things like quinoa or barley etc. though.
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I would love to make the peanut sauce at home, thanks for this recipe! We buy Bumbu Gado Gado from our local international market and eat it with chicken over rice. So good! We’ve never eaten it as a salad dressing, but we should definitely try it.
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Thank you! If you like the taste of peanuts and the combination of sweet & salty, you will like this recipe.Do share your thoughts when you try it?!
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This sounds delicious, I’ve never had it but I think I shall make it now. Also, I wanted to tell you how beautiful your photographs are…they are what brought me to your blog. Keep up the great work!
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This looks delicious! I found you via chowhound, and I’m happy I did!
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