About this recipe

Gado-gado is Indonesia’s beloved peanut-sauce salad: warm blanched vegetables, tofu, tempeh, egg, and lontong under a thick, sweet-savory peanut dressing.

It is a practical motherly platter—mostly vegetables, protein on the side, and a sauce you can make milder or hotter. Everything can be prepped ahead and assembled just before serving.

The sauce should coat a spoon, not run like soup. If it is too thin, it slides off the vegetables and tastes watery.

Prep & cook time

Prep25 minutes
Cook15 minutes
Total40 minutes
Servings4 servings
LevelMedium

Tools you need

Pot for blanching
Blender or mortar
Colander
Serving platter

Ingredients

2 cups water spinach or spinach, cut
2 cups bean sprouts
2 medium potatoes, boiled and sliced
200 g firm tofu, fried and sliced
200 g tempeh, fried and sliced
2–3 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1 lontong (compressed rice cake), sliced, or steamed rice
200 g fried peanuts (or 180 g peanut butter for a shortcut)
2 cloves garlic
3–5 red chilies (to taste)
2 tablespoons palm sugar, grated
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tamarind water
150–250 ml hot water, to thin the sauce
Fried shallots and crackers, for topping

Directions

Blanch water spinach and bean sprouts separately in boiling water until just tender-crisp. Drain well.
Fry tofu and tempeh until golden; boil potatoes and eggs if not already done. Slice everything for the platter.
Blend or pound peanuts, garlic, chilies, palm sugar, and salt. Add tamarind water and enough hot water to make a thick, pourable sauce.
Taste the sauce: it should be nutty, lightly sweet, salty, and gently tangy. Adjust as needed.
Arrange lontong, vegetables, potato, tofu, tempeh, and egg on a large platter.
Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the top.
Finish with fried shallots and crackers. Serve immediately.

Kitchen tips

Drain vegetables thoroughly so the sauce does not thin out.
Make the sauce thicker than you think; it loosens on warm vegetables.
For young children, blend the sauce without chili and offer sambal separately.
Leftover sauce keeps well for other salads or grilled chicken.

Serve with

Kerupuk
Emping
Extra lime wedges
Warm rice

How to store

Keep components separate up to 2 days in the fridge. Sauce keeps 4–5 days. Assemble just before eating.

Common mistakes

Making the peanut sauce too watery.
Overcooking greens until dull and soggy.
Dressing the platter too early so crackers go soft.