Indonesian food series: Gado-Gado recipe (Indonesian salad with peanut sauce)

Gado-Gado is one of the staples of Indonesian cuisine. While the gado-gado recipe originates in Java, you can find it virtually everywhere in the country. Having a vegetable base and a peanut sauce, it is a perfect vegan and gluten-free alternative to the mostly meat-oriented Indonesian cuisine. In this post, I will show you the gado-gado recipe that we learned from Chef Hero on our cooking class in Warung Sunny in the beautiful tropical paradise island of Gili Air. It is a really easy dish to put together and with ingredients that are found anywhere in the world! Let’s dig in!

Warung Sunny Cooking Class review: our experience in an Indonesian cooking class in Gili Air

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Indonesian gado-gado recipe ingredients

1. Gado-gado ingredients

• Vegetables. This is the best part, you can really choose whatever vegetables you prefer. An example:
  • 2cups of cabbage, shredded
  • 2cups of string beans cut into 5 cm-long pieces (you can substitute with long green beans)
  • 2 cups of bean sprouts
  • 1 packet of hard tofu
  • 1 small cucumber
  • (optional) tempeh
  • (optional) egg
• Peanut sauce

2. Peanut sauce ingredients (saus kacang)

• Fried/roasted peanuts
• Fried shallot
• Garlic
• Salt
• Red chili
• Brown sugar
• Tamarind paste
• Water

Instructions

1. Make peanut sauce following this recipe.
2. Blanch the vegetables that need blanching.
3. Fry the tofu (optional: and tempeh).
4. (optional: boil eggs)
5. Mix vegetables with peanut sauce in a big bowl.

And that’s it! We served it on an opak cassava cracker with some shredded coconut and fresh sambal.

Closing statement

This simple gado-gado recipe is a perfect summer salad resource that you can use as a side dish for a BBQ, a starter on a dinner party or simply a way to impress your friends with your Indonesian cooking skills. We learned this recipe at our cooking class in Warung Sunny in Gili Air, Indonesia. You can check out our experience in the class here:

Warung Sunny Cooking Class review: our experience in an Indonesian cooking class in Gili Air

If you’re in the Gili islands, you’ll probably find these helpful:

Quick Gili islands guide: a starters kit for paradise seekers in Indonesia

The chill Gili: Gili Air

The party Gili: Gili Trawangan

The honeymoon Gili: Gili Meno

Also, if you’re in Indonesia, have a look at these:

Perfect 3 days itinerary in Ubud, Bali

Hiking Mt. Bromo and Mt. Ijen in Java, Indonesia

Perfect 3-day itinerary in Nusa Penida, Indonesia

What to do in North Sumatra, the secret Indonesia keeps from you

Perfect 10 days Flores itinerary in Indonesia

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