Gado-gado Recipes

What is Gado-Gado? Gado-Gado is a “mix-mix,” the term is often used to describe situations that are all mixed up – Jakarta, for instance, is a Gado-Gado city. As a food, however, it is one of Indonesia’s best-known dishes, essentially a vegetable salad with boiled long beans, spinach, potato, corn, egg and bean sprouts coupled with cucumber and tofu tossed with the most incredible peanut dressing.

Serves 4  

Prep time: 10 min, cooking: 40 min

Gado-Gado ingredients:

• 400 g new potatoes
• 4 large free-range eggs
• 400 g firm silken tofu
• sesame oil
• ½ Chinese cabbage
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 1 handful of radishes
• ½ cucumber
• 2 handfuls beansprouts (ready to eat)
• ½ bunch of fresh coriander
• prawn crackers , optional
• 1 fresh bird’s-eye chilli , optional

For the sauce:

• 1 clove of garlic
• 50 g palm sugar
• 120 g crunchy peanut butter
• 1–2 fresh red chillies
• 2 limes 
• 2 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp low-salt soy sauce
• 1 tbsp tamarind paste

Gado-Gado preparation:

1. Scrub the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water for around 15 minutes, or until tender
2. slice up potatoes
3. Soft-boil the eggs for 6 minutes
4. Cut the tofu into 2½cm chunks and fry in a splash of sesame oil for around 15 minutes, or until golden, then sprinkle lightly with sea salt.
5. Finely shred the cabbage if you want it raw or, if you’d rather cook it (which is traditional), then cut it into 2cm slices
6. Place in a colander and slowly pour a kettle of boiling water over the top.
7. Cut the tomatoes into wedges, quarter the radishes and slice the cucumber
8. Put all the sauce ingredients into a blender, peeling the garlic and grating in the palm sugar (if needed),
9. Then blitz until smooth. And enjoy!

• (optional) Traditionally, you’d take a little bit of everything, put it into a bowl and pour the sauce over it.