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Indonesian-Inspired Vegetable Salad - Vegetable Salad Recipe

User Rating 2 Star Rating (1 Review) Write a review

By , About.com Guide

This is a simplified version of the Gado Gado salad served in Indonesian restaurants, using easier to find ingredients. It makes an interesting alternative to potato salad.

Serves 6

Ingredients:

  • Salad:
  • 3 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
  • 3/4 cup cabbage, shredded
  • 3/4 cup green beans, sliced
  • 3/4 cup carrots, sliced
  • 3/4 cup cauliflower, chopped
  • 1/2 cup mung bean sprouts
  • 1/3 cup snow peas
  • 1/2 cucumber, sliced
  • 2 red potatoes, cut into wedges
  • Peanut Dressing:
  • 3/4 to 1 cup coconut milk (depending on whether you want a thicker or thinner sauce)
  • 1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon red curry paste or chile paste (or Tabasco sauce)
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons fish sauce (or substitute 1 tablespoon soy sauce)

Preparation:

Wash all the vegetables. Ideally, with the exception of the eggs and cucumber, all of the salad ingredients should be blanched or boiled in a large pot of boiling water. However, if you are pressed for time you can serve them raw with the exception of the potato, which has to be boiled. To blanch: plunge the vegetable briefly in the boiling water, then plunge into cold water. This leaves the vegetables nicely crisp and neither too firm or limp. Drain all the vegetables.

Arrange the vegetables on a serving platter, starting on the outside of the platter and work inwards, arranging the vegetables in a colorful pattern. Top with the chopped eggs.

To make the dressing: In a small saucepan, bring the coconut milk to a boil. Stir in the remaining ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes, until the peanut butter has melted and the mixture is thickened.

User Reviews

 2 out of 5
Authentic Gado-Gado, Member BetawiDude

When people mention Gado-gado, they mean Gado-Gado from Jakarta. I am a big fan of this dish, for I am a native Jakartanese. There several big flaws of the receipe here. 1. The real gado-gado sauce does not involve cooking at all. 2. Carrots and cauliflower have never been used in an authentic gado-gado. 3. Not coconut milk at all. This receipe is a mixed up between Jakaratanese Gado-Gado and Padangnese Gado-gado. In a real Padang Gado-gado, lime juice is not used at all. But Jakarata Gado-gado, one MUST use certain kind of lime, we called Limo lime, without this lime the aroma of the dish will not be right. 4. There is no gado (whatever style) that use curry paste. The receipe here is basically modified to adept to typical ingredient available in the western society. A real gado-gado needs : taufu, tempe, kangkung (certain kind of tropical vegetable), string been, boiled potatoes and egg, cabagges, been sprout, boiled young jack fruit. and NO coconut milk. Hope this helps.

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