Gado-Gado Recipe (Indonesian Salad with Peanut Sauce) (2024)

Gado-Gado Sauce Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp tamarind pulp OR 2 Tbsp paste from a jar
• 60 ml hot water if using tamarind pulp
• 200 g skinned raw or blanched peanuts click to buy on Amazon
• 3 Tbsp vegetable oil or peanut oil
• 125 ml water
• 1 Tbsp palm sugar OR 1 Tbsp white sugar, not brown
• 4 kaffir lime leaves optional
• 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• 125 ml coconut milk
• juice of 1 lime or about 4 calamansi limes

Ingredients to be Ground (for the Sauce)

• 1 small onion about 60 g/2 oz pre peeled weight
• 3 red chillies (or less) OR 1-2 Tbsp of any generic chilli paste like sambal oelek
• 1 medium clove garlic
• 1 Tbsp dried shrimp (udang kering) or ½ Tbsp shrimp paste (belacan)

Salad Ingredient Examples (choose a selection from here – see post explanation above and Notes below)

• 4 eggs
• 2 medium potatoes or rough equivalent baby potatoes
• 200 g tempeh
• 200 g tofu or use shop bought puff tofu
• 400 g baby spinach leaves or traditionally, about 200g water spinach (kangkung)
• 1 handful green beans or about 4 long beans
• 4 handfuls beansprouts
• ½ length cucumber
• 2 handfuls white cabbage Chinese cabbage will work too
• 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes or 4 medium ones
• 4 handful salad leaves
• prawn crackers as much as you fancy

Gado-Gado Sauce

The Tamarind (skip if using shop bought paste)

• Place your pulp in the first bowl and pour the hot water over it. Leave to soak for 10 minutes, mashing with a fork halfway through, to loosen the pulp.

  2 Tbsp tamarind pulp, 60 ml hot water

• At the end of 10 minutes, mash it up well with your fingers. Strain the tamarind mix through a large mesh sieve or strainer, pushing down on the pulp in the strainer. You don't want a fine mesh, as you won't get the essence of the tamarind juice which will be too big to go through.

  Set aside until needed.

The Peanuts (skip if using peanut butter)

• Place the raw or blanched peanuts in a small frying pan over medium heat and toast for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium-low after 2 minutes, so the peanuts don't brown too quickly and burn.

  Keep tossing and flipping the peanuts until they are a light brown colour and giving off a sweet and nutty aroma.

  200 g skinned raw or blanched peanuts

• When done, tip the nuts onto a large, flat plate and leave to cool for for at least 15 minutes while you get the other ingredients going.

• Place the toasted peanuts in a chopper and pulse to a fine state. Set aside for adding to the sauce.

Ground Ingredients

• Halve the onion, and roughly chop the chillies.

  1 small onion, 3 red chillies (or less)

• Add the onion, garlic, chillies and dried shrimp to a food chopper and chop to a fine state. You could also use a pestle and mortar for this.

  1 small onion, 3 red chillies (or less), 1 medium clove garlic

Let's cook the Gado-Gado Sauce

• Heat the oil in a mdium saucepan over medium heat.

  3 Tbsp vegetable oil

• Fry the ground ingredients for 2 minutes.

• Tip in the peanuts and tamarind juice. Stir, then pour in the water and give it a stir to mix well. Bring to a simmer.

• Add the coconut milk, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, sweet soy sauce and salt. Give it a good stir and bring back to a simmer. Lower the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes.

  I like the sauce to be fairly thick, so that it will stick to whatever you dip into it. If you want to drizzle it, just add a little more water to make it slightly runnier.

  1 Tbsp palm sugar, 1 Tbsp sweet soy sauce, ½ tsp salt, 125 ml coconut milk, 4 kaffir lime leaves

• Take it off the heat and stir in the lime juice. Check seasoning, and add a little more salt if you need it. The sauce is meant to be strong in flavour, like any salad dressing, as it's meant to be eaten with unseasoned vegetables.

  Leave the sauce until you are ready to serve.

  It can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored in the fridge, covered.

  The sauce is served at room temperature, but you can have it hot, if you prefer.

  juice of 1 lime

Gado-Gado Salad Ingredients Prep Work

• Eggs – boil the eggs, cool and peel them. Then halve or quarter them.

  4 eggs

• Potatoes – scrub clean, then cut into bite-sized cubes. Boil them for about 7 minutes until a knife glides through easily. This will depend on the size of your cubes. Drain and set aside.

  2 medium potatoes

• Tempeh and Tofu – cut into bite-sized cubes and fry separately in a frying pan until crisp and lightly browned, about 3 minutes for each. Drain onto kitchen paper lined plates and set aside.

  200 g tempeh, 200 g tofu

• Spinach – you can quickly blanch this in a pot of simmering water, or do like I do and use the microwave oven. Give them about 60 seconds, tossing halfway, so they cook uniformly.

  400 g baby spinach leaves

• Green beans & Beansprouts – I prefer to leave these raw but you can blanch them in a pot of simmering water.

  1 handful green beans, 4 handfuls beansprouts

• Cucumber – cut these into sticks or chop them up roughly into bite-sized pieces like when served with satay.

  ½ length cucumber

• Cabbage – shred them or cut them into bite-sized pieces. Leave them raw or blanch them, if you like.

  2 handfuls white cabbage

• Tomatoes – halve or quarter, depending on size of the tomatoes you are using. I tend to leave cherry tomatoes whole.

  2 handfuls cherry tomatoes

• Salad Leaves – leave them whole or cut them, it's matter of preference.

  4 handful salad leaves

NUTRITION: the fat and calorie content is pretty high because of the peanut sauce. You could reduce this by using half the amount of peanuts. But bear in mind that the peanut sauce in this recipe is pretty generous and will serve 6 – 8 people, especially if you are making it runnier.

The Gado-Gado Vegetables and other Ingredients
I’ve given you an idea of what you can serve gado-gado with. You don’t want to use every single ingredient I’ve given. Half a dozen will be perfect. Potatoes, tempeh, beans and eggs are a must for me. Everything else, I chop and change dpending on my mood.