Gado Gado Bowl with fresh veggies and peanut sauce! This Indonesian dish is so healthy and delicious!
In Bali, I came across “Gado Gado”, which stands for a colorful mix of fresh vegetables garnished with a delicious peanut sauce. The traditional Indonesian salad is very easy to prepare.
That’s exactly why we have court almost every week. It is great as a light lunch but also tastes good with dinner or as a snack.
What is Gado Gado?
Translated, Gado Gado means something like “hodgepodge” and that’s exactly what the Indonesian dish is all about: diversity. In Indonesia, the vegan classic is served as a kind of vegetable platter with peanut sauce. It often consists of cucumber, tomato, tofu, egg, rice, and of course peanut sauce. So it’s a relatively simple yet delicious dish.
What you need for Gado Gado
For this Indonesian salad, I add vegetables like radishes, carrots, iceberg lettuce. I also love Gado Gado with spicy baked potatoes. Basically, you can just use whatever veggies you like. Peppers, zucchini, beans, soybean sprouts, or sweet potatoes also go well with it. Simply create your very own rainbow bowl.
Ideas for different salad components
- tempeh
- fried tofu
- lettuce (corn lettuce, iceberg lettuce, etc.)
- paprika
- zucchini
- mushrooms
- corn
- bean sprouts
- sweet potatoes
- spinach
Indonesian peanut sauce
All you need for the delicious Gado Gado Peanut Sauce is peanut butter, soy sauce, chili paste, garlic, ginger and lime. After peeling and grating the garlic and ginger, you can simply blend all the ingredients into a creamy, runny peanut sauce.
If you like, you can roast whole peanuts instead of peanut butter and puree them with the remaining ingredients. Depending on how good your blender or food processor is, you may need more water to get a liquid sauce.
How to enjoy the Indonesian dish
Gado Gado can be enjoyed as a healthy snack, as salad, or as a full meal.
The mixed vegetables with peanut sauce are originally served with rice, the most important staple food in Indonesia. If you want to enjoy the Indonesian dish as a main meal for lunch or dinner, you can also eat it with carbohydrates such as rice, glass noodles or potatoes.
The Balinese dish is also suitable as a light salad. The peanut sauce serves as an ideal salad dressing and brings an incredibly delicious taste.
If you are hungry in between, you can also snack on a few vegetables with the peanut dip.
Ingredients
BAKED POTATOES:
- 4-6 small potatoes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 1 tsp thyme
SALAD:
- 1-2 carrots
- 2 handfuls of iceberg lettuce
- 6-8 radishes
- 1/2 cucumber
- 4 cherry tomatoes
- 1 lime
PEANUT SAUCE:
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (natural, unsalted, unsweetened)
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili paste (sambal oelek)
- 1 lime
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 cm fresh ginger
- 2-4 tbsp water
Instructions
- Prepare the baked potatoes: wash the potatoes, cut into quarters, mix with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper, and approx. 1 tsp thyme. Place on a baking tray and bake at 180°C for about 20 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the peanut sauce: peel and finely grate the garlic and ginger. Blend all ingredients into a fine sauce. Add a little more water if you want the sauce to be more liquid.
- Wash the vegetables. Roughly chop the iceberg lettuce, grate the carrots, slice the radishes and cucumber, and cut the tomatoes into chunks.
- Divide the vegetables and fried potatoes between two plates and serve with the peanut sauce.
Save the pin for later:
Have you tried the recipe?
Then I would be very happy about a good review. Feel free to tag @bloomingwithflavors on Instagram. That’s how I see your awesome creation! ❤️