Gado Gado

Another one of the “10 Dollar meals” as part of Food Revolution. These “10 Dollar” meals are just great for when you want to make something tasty and different from your day to day meals, on a budget ☺. Gado Gado, traditionally an Indonesian dish is a perfect low budget, tasty, meat free meal.

What you need (serves 4)
– 300 – 400 grams mixed vegetable, this can be bean sprouts, finely sliced potatoes, julienne carrots, shredded white cabbage, string beans/ green beans, you can even add tofu if you like.
– 2 hard boiled eggs, sliced
– fried onion bits (store bought)

For the sauce:
– 250 grams roasted peanuts
– 3 red chillies
– 2 teaspoon palm sugar/ brown sugar
– 2 gloves garlic
– 1 teaspoon trassi/ shrimp paste
– 200 ml coconut water (santen) from desiccated coconut
– 1 tablespoon white vinegar

Start with the sauce.
Mince the peanuts, chillies, palm sugar, garlic, and shrimp paste in a blender. Add the paste to the santen in a saucepan, add the vinegar and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, stir often, once the sauce has reduced you can take it off the heat.
Meanwhile, you can bring a pot of salted water to the boil, add the thicker vegetables such as potato first, your bean sprouts should only be blanched.

Once your veg is cooked, be sure not to over cook them as you would want a crisp bite to the veg, you can drain the veg and even cool them off with some cold water.
Arrange the veggies in a dish, add the peanut sauce, sprinkle the fried onions, and layer the eggs on top.

Gado Gado is best enjoyed with some steamed fragrant rice like basmati or jasmine rice. If you want to add some meat to this, you can make some easy sate.