Gado-gado is an Indonesian salad of raw and blanched vegetables, boiled potato, hard-boiled eggs and fried tofu and tempeh, served with a peanut sauce dressing (Wikipedia). This version grinds roasted peanuts with garlic and chilies, then simmers them with kecap manis, tamarind and palm sugar. The vegetables cook one batch at a time in the same pot of salted water, and the sauce goes on warm, just before you eat.
Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 40 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 4
Difficulty: Easy | Calories: ~710 per serving
Should You Grind Peanuts or Use Peanut Butter?
Either works. Wikipedia puts ground fried peanuts first among the sauce ingredients. The traditional tools are the cobek and ulekan, a mortar-and-pestle set with a flat, rounded stone. The dry ingredients are ground first, then tamarind liquid goes in until the sauce is as thick as you want it (Wikipedia).
Lara Lee, author of Coconut and Sambal, starts from 150 g of raw peanuts, preferably with skins on. She cooks them in oil at 160°C for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring the whole time because they burn easily, until golden. Her alternative is 150 g of unsweetened, unsalted smooth peanut butter, so the swap is gram for gram (VICE).
This recipe starts from unsalted roasted peanuts, so there is no frying. Grind them with the garlic and chilies to a coarse paste, stopping well short of butter. A few visible bits of peanut are what you want on the plate.
Peanut butter needs more care. Tom Pepinsky stirs 4 tablespoons of smooth, natural-style peanut butter into a fried paste of shallot, garlic, ginger or galangal and chilies. He warns that the sauce can separate, and if it does you either start over or eat it lumpy (Tom Pepinsky). Keep the heat low and add water a little at a time.
How Thick Should the Peanut Sauce Be?
Thicker than a salad dressing. Wikipedia points out that the sauce is a larger part of gado-gado than a dressing is in a Western salad, and the vegetables should be well coated with it (Wikipedia). Pepinsky adds that Indonesians leave it thick (Tom Pepinsky).
Lara Lee aims for pourable. She adds about 125 ml of water a splash at a time and warns that the sauce keeps thickening as it sits, so it needs more water when you serve it (VICE). Here the target sits between the two: the sauce should fall from a spoon in a thick ribbon and stay put on a green bean. If it has set stiff by Step 5, beat in warm water one tablespoon at a time.
Kecap manis sets the sweetness. Pepinsky calls it sweet soy sauce and says most Asian grocery stores stock it, with the other soy sauces or with Indonesian, Malaysian and Filipino foods. If you can’t find it, he uses more regular soy sauce and caramelized sugar to taste (Tom Pepinsky). For tamarind paste, Lara Lee’s stand-in is 4 teaspoons of lime juice mixed with 4 teaspoons of brown sugar (VICE).
Heat is the other dial. In Indonesia gado-gado is generally made fresh, sometimes in front of the customer, so the cook can match the heat they want, and that comes down to the number of chilies (Wikipedia). Two small red chilies make a mild sauce; four or more make a hot one.
What Goes on the Plate?
Gado-gado has no fixed list of vegetables. Wikipedia’s covers blanched cabbage, water spinach (kangkung), spinach, bean sprouts, young jackfruit, chayote, string beans, bitter melon and corn. It adds boiled potatoes, raw sliced cucumber and salad vegetables, boiled eggs, and fried tofu and tempeh. Outside Indonesia, it says, cooks improvise with whatever vegetables they can get (Wikipedia).
Pepinsky’s recipe for two treats only chayote, carrots, bean sprouts and cucumber as required; cabbage, potato and eggs are optional (Tom Pepinsky). Lara Lee’s plate holds baby potatoes, tenderstem broccoli, green beans, carrot, bean sprouts, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, tofu, tempeh and eggs (VICE).
Starch and crunch come with it. In Indonesia the plate is commonly mixed with chopped lontong or ketupat (rice cakes), or served with steamed rice. It nearly always comes with krupuk, tapioca crackers, or emping, crackers made from melinjo. Fried shallots, bawang goreng, are a common garnish (Wikipedia). This recipe uses prawn crackers and fried shallots; add sliced lontong if your Asian grocer sells it.
Ingredients for Gado-Gado
For the Peanut Sauce:
- 1 cup (150 g) unsalted roasted peanuts
- 3 cloves garlic
- 4 small red chilies (or to taste)
- 2 tablespoons kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- 1 tablespoon tamarind paste
- 1 tablespoon palm sugar or brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (200 ml) warm water, plus more to loosen
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
For the Vegetables:
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
- 2 medium carrots, sliced into rounds
- 7 oz (200 g) green beans, trimmed and cut into 2-inch (5 cm) pieces
- 7 oz (200 g) green cabbage, shredded
- 7 oz (200 g) bean sprouts
- 1 small cucumber, sliced
For the Eggs, Tofu and Tempeh:
- 4 large eggs
- 5 oz (150 g) firm tofu
- 5 oz (150 g) tempeh
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) neutral oil, such as sunflower, for frying
To Serve:
- 2 tablespoons fried shallots
- Prawn crackers (krupuk), to serve
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Make the Peanut Sauce
1Pound or pulse the roasted peanuts, garlic and chilies in a mortar or food processor until coarsely ground, not smooth. Scrape the paste into a small saucepan and add the kecap manis, tamarind paste, palm sugar, salt and 3/4 cup (200 ml) warm water. Stir over low heat for about 5 minutes, until smooth and thick. Take it off the heat, stir in the lime juice and taste for salt, sweetness and sourness.
Step 2: Boil the Eggs and Potatoes
2Lower the eggs into a saucepan of cold water, bring it to a boil and give them 10 minutes. Cool them in a bowl of iced water, then peel and halve them. While they cook, heat a large pot of salted water and boil the potato cubes and carrot rounds for about 8 minutes, until a knife slides easily into the potato. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon; the same water blanches the greens next.
Step 3: Blanch the Green Vegetables
3In the same boiling water, blanch the green beans for 3 minutes, until bright green but still crisp, and lift them into a bowl of iced water. Blanch the cabbage for 1 minute and the bean sprouts for 1 minute, then drain both in a colander. Drain the beans and slice the cucumber.
Step 4: Fry the Tofu and Tempeh
4Pat the tofu dry and cut the tofu and tempeh into slices about 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat. Fry them a batch at a time, about 3 minutes a side, until both faces are golden brown, and drain on paper towels.
Step 5: Assemble and Serve
5Rewarm the peanut sauce over low heat, beating in warm water a tablespoon at a time until it falls from a spoon in a thick ribbon. Arrange the potatoes, carrots, green beans, cabbage, bean sprouts, cucumber, tofu, tempeh and egg halves on a large plate or four plates. Pour the warm sauce over the middle, scatter with fried shallots and serve with prawn crackers and lime wedges.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does gado-gado come from?
Nobody knows for sure: Wikipedia says the dish has no fixed historical background, only competing theories. One traces the name to the Betawi word digado, to eat without rice, which is why gado-gado comes with lontong rather than plain rice. Others credit Portuguese settlers who founded Tugu village in the early 1700s, or Chinese residents of Betawi reworking Javanese pecel. Wikipedia also says it is thought to have begun as a Sundanese dish, since it is most common in western Java (Wikipedia). The Munchies video description gives its meaning as “mix-mix” (Munchies).
Is gado-gado vegetarian or vegan?
Without the prawn crackers this recipe is vegetarian, and without the eggs as well it is vegan. Tom Pepinsky calls true gado-gado vegetarian, with meat only as an optional extra (Tom Pepinsky). Many sauces are not, though: Wikipedia lists terasi, a dried paste of shrimp, among the common sauce ingredients (Wikipedia). This version leaves terasi out. Check the labels on your kecap manis and crackers.
Can you make the peanut sauce ahead?
Yes. Wikipedia notes that outside Indonesia the sauce is often made ahead of time and in bulk (Wikipedia). Lara Lee warns that it thickens as it sits, so add water to keep it pourable when you use it (VICE). Chill it covered, and when you need it, warm it gently in a small pan with a spoonful or two of hot water. Pour it on only at the table so the vegetables stay crisp.
Is the video recipe the same as this one?
Close, but Lara Lee starts from fried raw peanuts and finishes her sauce in a food processor. The Munchies video description lists tomatoes, broccolini, green beans and potatoes, with pan-fried tempeh, firm tofu, hard-boiled eggs and a rich and spicy chili peanut sauce (Munchies). Her written recipe softens the garlic and chilies in oil and blends them with the peanuts, kecap manis and tamarind paste (VICE). This page starts from roasted peanuts, simmers the sauce, adds palm sugar and lime, and swaps cabbage for broccolini.
Sources
- Gado-gado, Wikipedia
- Gado-Gado Salad with Peanut Sauce Recipe, Lara Lee, VICE (Munchies), January 2021, reprinted from Coconut and Sambal
- gado gado, Tom Pepinsky, October 2004
- Make Gado Gado with Chef Lara Lee | Quarantine Cooking, Munchies, YouTube, January 2021
