I love Gado Gado!! This Indonesian vegetable dish is inspired by my Balinese cooking class; which I did when I was there on holiday. I love Indonesian food soooo much!! Back home I made the Bumbu Bali paste recipe and used it for many dishes (check here). I used the Bumbu Bali paste basis for the homemade peanut sauce and tempeh. Gado Gado is a vegetarian semi warm salad, but you can add chicken sate if you want your meat. If you leave out the eggs you can even make it vegan! For everybody Gado Gado is a perfect and a healthy option on the menu!!! You can have it for dinner or lunch. I have eaten a lot of Gado Gado through my Indo trips, but Gado Gado is served in many different ways. I can’t say there is only one Gado Gado, that is way I call this dish: Veggie Style Gado Gado!!!!
What ingredients do you need for 4 diners of Veggie Style Gado Gado?
- 1 hour of your time
- Wok to make the Peanut Sauce
- Steel pan to prepare the Tempeh
- Small pan to cook the eggs
- Blender or other food processor
- Steam oven or steam pan for the vegetables
- Bowls for preparations
- Plates: 4 for serving
- Small bowls: 4 or one bowl for the peanut sauce
- Optional: Chopsticks
Ingredients
- Tempeh: 400 gr cut into small parts, I mean 2 by 1 cm or so….
- Eggs: 4 biological preferably
- Cauliflower: 1 medium cut in small parts
- Green beans: 250 gr, clean and chop the bean in 3 pieces
- Bean sprouts: 200 gr
- Cucumber: 1 cut in small pieces (remove the inside)
- Carrot: one big one cut in small pieces
- Peanut butter: 350 gr
- Coconut oil: 4 tablespoons
- Coconut creamy cooking milk: 250 ml (use a good creamy one, not too watery)
- Ketjap manis: 150 ml
- Optional: Rice or chicken sate
Spices for Bumbu Bali Paste
- Red onions: 2 large
- Garlic: 4 big cloves
- Coriander powder/Ketoembar: 1 teaspoon
- Ginger: fresh 4 cm, take of the skin and cut it in big parts
- Turmeric: fresh 4 cm. Be careful with cleaning, you will get yellow easily
- Red chili pepper: 2 cut in big parts
- Shrimp paste: 1 teaspoon
- Lemon juice: 1 tablespoons
- Cumin: 1 tablespoon
- Coconut oil: 2 tablespoons
- Salt: 1 teaspoon
- Black pepper: 1 teaspoon
Gado Gado: How to make it?
Start cutting all the vegetables in the right sizes. Put the green beans, cauliflower and carrots on the steamer tray, ready to put in the steam oven. If you don’t have a steam oven use a steam pan. Cut the tempeh and but in a bowl to use for later. After cutting the cucumber put in a bowl and set aside in the refrigerator. Put the vegetables (green beans, cauliflower and carrots) in steamer, mine took ±20 minutes. Start cooking the eggs too.
Tip: The beans spouts don’t need that much time to steam, you can use the last couple of minutes in the steaming process to finish the spouts!!
In the meantime prepare the Bumbu Bali paste which we use for both the peanut sauce and tempeh. Clean and peel all the ingredients for the paste and put in the food processor. Mix until all the ingredients become a paste. Heat up the wok and then cook all the paste until it is soft and you smell the flavor; ±7 min on high fire keep stirring. Heat up the other steel pan to prepare the tempeh, add the 4 tablespoons with coconut oil in this pan, add half of the paste from the wok and add 75 ml of the ketjap manis, all on a small fire. Stir and add the sliced tempeh into the pan. Keep an eye on the frying and stir now and then. In the wok we will prepare the peanut sauce with the remainder of the Bumbu paste; add the peanut butter, 75 ml ketjap manis and gradually add the coconut milk till all is a smooth and tasty sauce. If you like it less thick, add hot water to the sauce and keep stirring.
Tip: I know it is a lot of actions at the same time, but keep your head together, bear in mind the vegetables will be eaten as a half warm salad, so set them aside when ready and get on with the tempeh and peanut sauce that will be eaten warmer.
Cool off the eggs and cut them in 4 parts and get the cucumber out of the refrigerator. Time to prepare the plates! Put all the vegetables and tempeh on the plates, watch the color settings and divide the eggs on top. If you have small bowls for the peanut sauce; put them in the middle or aside. Scatter the fried onions on top of the plate as last decoration and crunchy bite. See first picture for an example.
Selamat Makan!! Check here for more Bambu Bali recipes!!
