Recipe for Gado Gado (Malaysian Salad with Peanut Sauce)

Hi Friends,

Greetings! Hope all is well with you all.  This time I am penning down a recipe on Malaysian Salad known as Gado Gado, which I am sure you will like it and also enjoying making as it is not difficult at all.  

Try it, as this salad has peanut sauce (which is also very delicious) as dressing.

Gado gado is one of the well known dishes from Malaysia. Although it looks like a salad dish, gado gado is also eaten as a one dish meal in Malaysia. Whenever I see gado gado served by a street side hawker, I am tempted to stopover and have it.  I make sure my plate is piled high with veggies drenched in the sauce. The creamy, sweet, sour and spicy peanut sauce is what makes this a great salad. It may look intimidating with the amount of ingredients, but the recipe is pretty flexible with the options of salad ingredients that you like.

Gado gado sauce is not to be confused with satay sauce, which is also a peanut sauce. I make extra sauce to keep in the fridge, so this dish can easily be prepared with practically any fresh vegetables anytime.

Cheers!!

Gado Gado (Malaysian Salad with Peanut Sauce)

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Gado Gado Sauce

• 100g Peanut - roasted
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 25g Palm Sugar
• 2-5 Bird's Eye Chili - seeded (use more if you prefer the heat)
• ½ teaspoon - Shrimp Paste- omit if making vegetarian sauce
• ½ teaspoon Tamarind Pulp - soaked in 1 tablespoon of warm water to get the juice
• juice of ½ Lime
• ½ tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1 cup hot water
• Salt to taste

Gado Gado Ingredients

• 2 Potatoes - cut into quarters & boiled
• 2 Eggs - boiled and cut into quarters
• Bean Sprouts - blanched
• Long Beans - cut into 2 inch long, blanched
• Firm Tofu - pan fried/baked & cut into cubes
• Tempeh (Soya bean chunks) - cut into slices & pan fried/baked

Optional Salad Ingredients

• French beans - cut into 2 inch long, blanched
• Spinach - blanched and roughly chopped
• Cabbage - blanched and thinly sliced
• Cucumber - cut into cubes

Instructions

Sauce

1. Roast peanuts in oven at 170C for 5mins.
2. Place peanut, garlic, palm sugar, chilies, and shrimp paste in a food processor. Grind until everything is well mixed. Remove into a mixing bowl.
3. Add tamarind juice, lime juice, sweet soy sauce and half cup of water. Stir well and add more water to get to the consistency of peanut sauce that you like.

Salad

1. Rub 1 teaspoon vegetable oil onto firm tofu and sliced tempeh and place into oven to bake for 15 mins. Alternatively, place onto the oiled tofu and tempeh onto pan to fry for 1 min on each side on medium heat.
2. Meanwhile, bring 2 small pot with water to boil to cook eggs and potatoes. After 1 min, switch off the fire of the pot with eggs and let it sit for 12 mins. Remove shell and cut egg into quarters. Cook the potatoes until soft when pricked with a fork.
3. Blanched the rest of the vegetables in boiling water and remove with slotted spoon. Beansprout (30 sec), long beans (2-3mins)
4. To serve, place a portion of each salad ingredient onto a serving plate/bowl. Serve the peanut sauce and mix well. It can be eaten warm or cold.

 Gado Gado (Malaysian Salad)

Peanut Sauce

Parsan Narang

27th July 2016