Indonesian Gado-Gado Salad Recipe

Many Asian cuisines offer comforting dishes loaded with noodles, sticky sauces, and richly marinated meats. While undeniably delicious, sometimes we're in the mood for something fresh and crunchy. With inspiration from Chinese, Arabic, Indian, and European cuisines, Indonesian food provides a vast array of recipes to choose from. While you can enjoy popular favorites like nasi goreng, a fried rice dish, the spectrum is diverse. 

Food Republic recipe developer Julianne De Witt brings us this Indonesian gado-gado salad recipe, which she describes as being "light, healthy, and customizable." The name isn't a typo — it means mix-mix — and this dish is indeed all about mixing plenty of ingredients together. Aside from its versatile contents, De Witt notes that "this salad can be served warm or cold," adding, "It would work well for lunch or dinner, and it's easily portable." Whether you want a satisfying lunch to pack for work or the "perfect meal for a warm summer night or picnic," as De Witt suggests, Indonesian gado-gado salad is an excellent option.

For the peanut dressing, you'll need smooth natural peanut butter, soy sauce, minced garlic cloves, grated ginger, lime juice, minced Thai chilies, roasted red chili paste (or more Thai chilis if you can't find it), sugar, and salt. "While this dish hails from Indonesia, I like to use a Thai roasted red chili paste because it's a flavorful sauce that has the ingredients found in traditional gado-gado: chilis, tamarind, garlic, shrimp, and peanuts," De Witt says. If you're a vegetarian, it's worth noting that some of these pastes contain shrimp or anchovies.

"Traditional gado-gado features crispy tofu or tempeh," De Witt shares. "I like to use a smoky marinade on the tofu prior to grilling to add extra flavor." For that, you'll need soy sauce, liquid smoke, minced garlic cloves, and cooking spray to marinate and grill your extra firm tofu.

As for the rest of the salad, you'll need halved baby new potatoes, matchstick-cut carrots, chopped rainbow chard, green beans, halved hard-boiled eggs, a thinly sliced yellow or orange bell pepper, shredded purple cabbage, bean sprouts, thinly sliced English cucumber, quartered red radishes, finely sliced green onions, and chopped peanuts.

Start by making the peanut sauce. Set a small saucepan on the stovetop over medium-low heat and add the peanut butter, ⅛ cup of soy sauce, 2 minced garlic cloves, grated ginger, lime juice, Thai chili, chili paste, sugar, and a pinch of salt. To thin out the consistency, add about ½ cup of water. Bring the contents of the pan to a simmer and cook the sauce for 5 minutes while stirring regularly. Turn off the heat and cover the saucepan to keep it warm.

Next, mix ¼ cup of soy sauce, liquid smoke, and 2 minced garlic cloves in a shallow bowl. Slice the tofu into 12 evenly sized pieces and place them in the marinade for 15 minutes. As you near the end of the time, heat a grill pan on high and coat it with cooking spray. Grill the tofu slices for 1 ½ minutes per side or until they are nicely browned. Once all of the tofu is grilled, transfer it to a plate and cover it so it stays warm.

At this point, it's time to cook all of the vegetables. In a large pot of boiling water, cook the halved baby potatoes for 5 minutes until tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the potatoes to a bowl, leaving the hot water behind. Next, toss the matchstick-cut carrots into the pot and cook them for 1 minute. Drain them, then cook the chopped chard for 1 minute. Drain the chard, and, finally, cook the green beans for a minute or so before discarding the water.

Now, set out a large serving platter for the salad assembly. Transfer the warm peanut sauce into a bowl and place it in the middle of the dish (if the sauce has thickened while sitting, add a bit of water to give it a more drizzly consistency). Next, spread out the tofu, eggs, and cooked and raw vegetables into individual piles around the sauce. And lastly, garnish your Indonesian gado-gado salad with sliced green onions and chopped peanuts.

Though serving the colorful salad on a large platter is a dazzling (and shareable) delight, De Witt notes that "you can also assemble this salad on individual plates." And if you want to get a head start on meal prep before serving this at a gathering, she says to "prep everything beforehand, serve the salad cold, and reheat what you like beforehand." That being said, she recommends blanching the veggies right before serving for the best results.