gado-gado — Central Java, Indonesia

Gado-gado is a vegetable salad in which blanched and raw vegetables, boiled potato, hard-boiled egg and pieces of fried tofu or tempeh are coated in a thick, spiced peanut sauce rather than a light dressing. The dish is reported from Central Java and is eaten across Indonesia at any time of day, as a light meal or side dish. In 2018 it was named among six dishes promoted as representative of Indonesian cooking, alongside soto, satay, fried rice, tumpeng and rendang. To prepare it, vegetables such as long beans, bean sprouts and cabbage are briefly blanched and cooled, while cucumber is left raw; potatoes are boiled and sliced, eggs are hard-boiled and halved, and tofu and tempeh are fried until golden. The peanut sauce is made by grinding roasted peanuts with garlic, chili, palm sugar and tamarind with a little water into a thick paste, which is spooned generously over the arranged vegetables just before serving. What distinguishes this Central Javanese version is the balance struck in the peanut sauce between sweetness from palm sugar and sourness from tamarind, alongside the mix of both blanched and raw textures on the same plate - a combination that separates it from satay sauce, which is thinner and served alongside grilled meat rather than poured over a vegetable salad.