Gado-Gado
Indonesia's vegetable salad with peanut sauce: barely-cooked beans, cabbage, beansprouts and potato draped in a thick, spicy, lime-sharp peanut dressing. Eaten cool or warm; the dressing is the dish.
Overview
A mix of raw and lightly-blanched vegetables; firm tofu pan-fried; hard-boiled eggs halved. The peanut sauce is built fresh from roasted peanuts blended with garlic, chilli, kecap manis, tamarind, lime and water. Pour over at the table; toss; eat.
Ingredients
Salad
- 200 g new potatoes (cubed)
- 200 g green beans (cut into 4 cm lengths)
- 200 g savoy cabbage (shredded)
- 200 g beansprouts
- 200 g firm tofu (cut into 2 cm cubes)
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (for frying tofu)
- 4 eggs (large, hard-boiled, halved)
- ½ cucumber (sliced)
- 50 g prawn crackers (vegetarian; for serving - optional)
Peanut sauce
- 200 g roasted unsalted peanuts
- 3 garlic cloves
- 2 long red chillies (deseeded for less heat)
- 1 cm fresh ginger
- 3 tablespoons kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or lime juice if unavailable)
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 lime (juice)
- 200-300 ml hot water (to loosen)
- Salt to taste
Method
Stage 1 - Vegetables
- Boil the potatoes 8-10 minutes until tender; drain.
- In the same water, blanch the beans 2 minutes, then the cabbage 1 minute (just-wilted), then the beansprouts 30 seconds. Drain each through a colander; refresh under cold water; pat dry.
Stage 2 - Tofu
- Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
- Fry the tofu 6-8 minutes, turning, until deep golden on all sides. Drain on kitchen paper.
Stage 3 - Peanut sauce
- Blend the peanuts to a coarse rubble in a food processor; add the garlic, chillies, ginger, kecap manis, soy, tamarind, sugar, lime; pulse to a thick paste.
- With the motor running (or stirring by hand), add the hot water gradually until the sauce is thick but pourable.
- Taste; adjust lime, sugar, soy and salt - should be balanced sweet/salty/sour with heat.
Stage 4 - Assemble
- Arrange the potato, beans, cabbage, beansprouts, tofu, eggs and cucumber on a large platter.
- Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the top, or serve alongside.
- Top with crushed prawn crackers if using.
Notes
- Vegetable mix is flexible: Add carrot, bok choy, fried tempeh, watercress; subtract whatever you don't have. Gado-gado is a household salad - every cook makes it differently.
- Sauce thickness: Should be thick enough to coat a spoon. If too thick after sitting, loosen with hot water.
- Vegetarian prawn crackers: Many "prawn crackers" contain shrimp; check labels or use cassava crackers (krupuk) instead.
Storage
- Best fresh. Sauce keeps 1 week refrigerated; thickens in the fridge - loosen with hot water on use. Vegetables don't refresh well; cook fresh.
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