Gado-Gado Vegetable Salad with Peanut Dressing
An Indonesian salad of blanched and raw vegetables, boiled egg, and tofu, tossed with a warm spiced peanut dressing.
Gado-gado translates roughly to "mix-mix," and true to its name it's built from whatever vegetables are on hand — here a mix of blanched green beans and cabbage alongside raw cucumber and bean sprouts for contrast in both texture and cooking method. The peanut dressing, warmed with garlic, chili, and a touch of tamarind, is what pulls the whole plate together.
Because the base of the dish is vegetables, boiled egg, and tofu, this comes out as a genuinely fiber- and plant-protein-forward meal, and the peanut dressing's fat is mostly the unsaturated kind, which is part of why dishes built around nuts like this tend to fit comfortably into a heart-healthy way of eating. It's substantial enough to be a full lunch rather than a side salad.
Arrange everything on a platter rather than tossing it if you're serving a group — it looks like the feast it's meant to be.
Ingredients
- 2 cups green beans — trimmed and blanched
- 2 cups cabbage — shredded and blanched
- 1 cup bean sprouts — blanched
- 1 cucumber — sliced
- 8 oz firm tofu — pan-fried and cubed
- 3 eggs — hard-boiled and halved
- 0.33 cup natural peanut butter
- 0.75 cup warm water
- 1 clove garlic — minced
- 1 tsp chili paste — or to taste
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste or lime juice
- 1 tsp brown sugar
These ingredients are common at South Asian grocers; a well-stocked international supermarket usually carries them too.
Instructions
- 1Arrange the green beans, cabbage, bean sprouts, cucumber, tofu, and eggs on a platter.
- 2Whisk the peanut butter with warm water until smooth, then stir in the garlic, chili paste, tamarind, and brown sugar.
- 3Warm the dressing gently in a small pan for 2-3 minutes, stirring, until it thickens slightly.
- 4Pour the warm dressing over the vegetables just before serving.