Skip to main content
Epicurious
Cookbooks

Gado Gado (Mixed Vegetable Salad With Indonesian Peanut Sauce)

By Patricia Tanumihardja

4.5

(2)

Photo of Gado Gado on a plate with peanut sauce fried pork skins and plates on the side.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich

This delicious salad can be eaten as a first course or a main meal. Most of the prep work involves cutting and blanching the vegetables, but it goes by quickly. Prawn crackers are the traditional accompaniment, but store-bought vegetable chips make a great vegan substitute. If you're short on time, you can turn this into a fresh salad using lettuce, spinach, cucumbers and/or carrots.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    50 minutes

  • Yield

    4–6 servings

Ingredients

8 oz (225 g) yellow potatoes
3 cups (300 g) shredded green cabbage
3 cups (90 g) baby spinach
2 cups (200 g) bean sprouts
5 oz (300 g) green beans, cut into 2-in (5-cm) lengths
1 small seedless cucumber cut into half-moons
2 large hard-boiled eggs, sliced into wedges
8 oz (225 g) tempeh, store-bought tofu puffs, or baked tofu, cut into 2-in cubes
1 cup (250 ml) Saus Kacang (Indonesian Peanut Sauce)
Vegetable chips or straws, for garnish
Fried shallots, for garnish

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 20 to 25 minutes, until fork-tender. Peel and cut into 2-inch (5-cm) cubes.

    Step 2

    Prepare a bowl or tub of ice water. Blanch the cabbage for 1 to 2 minutes, until translucent and wilted, and transfer to the ice bath. When cool, drain on kitchen towels. Set aside. Repeat with the spinach (30 seconds to 1 minute), bean sprouts (30 seconds to 1 minute) and green beans (3 to 4 minutes).

    Step 3

    Arrange the vegetables, eggs and tofu or tempeh on a large platter. Serve with a bowl of Indonesian Peanut Sauce, with the vegetable chips and fried shallots on small plates alongside. Each diner should pick and choose an assortment of ingredients to put on their plate. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons of peanut sauce over the vegetables and top with vegetable chips and fried shallots. Stir everything together and enjoy!

Image may contain: Food, Dish, Meal, Noodle, and Pasta
Reprinted with permission from Farm to Table Asian Secrets: Vegan & Vegetarian Full-Flavored Recipes for Every Season © 2017 by by Patricia Tanumihardja. Published by Tuttle Publishing. Buy the full book on Amazon.
TagsSaladIndonesianSoutheast AsianAsianYukon Gold PotatoPotatoRoot VegetableVegetableSproutPeanutNutTempehTofuStarterMainDinnerDairy FreeGluten FreeVegetarianRamadanCookbooks

See Related Recipes and Cooking Tips

Read More
Kung Pao Cabbage With Tofu
Reliable cabbage is cooked in the punchy sauce and then combined with store-bought baked tofu and roasted cashews for a salad that can also be eaten with rice.
Crispy Tofu With Scallion-Ginger Sauce
The tofu is crunchy on the outside, in part thanks to a panko-studded exterior, and squishy-in-a-good-way on the inside. It also comes together in 20 minutes.
Crispy Oyster Mushroom Skewers With Bok Choy Salad
Oyster mushrooms are a strong all-rounder in the kitchen, seeming to straddle both plant and meat worlds in what they look and taste like when cooked. Here they’re coated in a marinade my mother used to use when cooking Chinese food at home—honey, soy, garlic and ginger—and roasted until golden, crisp, and juicy.
Zucchini, Pea, and Bulgur Pilaf
This fragrant salad uses bulgur wheat as its base, an endlessly versatile, slightly chewy grain that’s very popular throughout the eastern Mediterranean.
Smothered Italian Sausage
This is what I call a fridge-eater recipe. The key here is getting a nice sear on the sausage and cooking the tomato down until it coats the sausage and vegetables well.
Smoky Tofu Shakshuka
This vegan version of the classic North African scramble uses soft silken tofu instead of eggs without any sacrifice of flavor.
Stir-Fried Phở Noodles With Beef
This dish is not only a quick meal option but also a practical way to use leftover phở noodles when you’re out of broth.
Charred Vegetable Ragù
This sauce is slightly magical. The texture cloaks pasta much like a traditional meat sauce does, and the flavors are deep and rich, but it’s actually vegan!