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Gado-Gado Inspiration Bowl

"Mom, you've been holding out on us!"

By WordSmithtressPublished 3 years ago 5 min read
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Gado-Gado Inspiration Bowl
Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

I discovered gado-gado in a dog-eared copy of The Moosewood Cookbook I picked up in college. Although it’s an unapologetically vegetarian cookbook, when I bought it, I was decidedly NOT. I had grown up in a household that consumed something like five hundred pounds of potatoes a year and had an entire chest freezer devoted to meat. Vegetables other than potatoes appeared as garnishes to the real stars of the plate: meat, meat, more meat, and potatoes. Salads consisted of shredded carrots and iceberg lettuce that was starting to brown. When I got to college, I tried to live off of boxed cereal and pizza for a long time. Not ideal.

As a cash-strapped college student, I didn’t have money for meat. But I did have money for beans. Vegetables. And yes, potatoes. Thanks to amazing friends and roommates from Spain, Singapore, Peru, Burundi, and many other parts of the world, all of whom loved to cook, I discovered spices...and a whole new way of eating. Spinach and onions now made appearances in my grocery cart. Vegetables suddenly became things I craved. I was wowed by how a single vegetable could meet up with spices and be completely transformed. The same base ingredients became a South Indian curry in one person's hands, but a South American dish the next week. Oh, the things you could do with a can of beans!

Although I’d always been comfortable in the kitchen, those collaborations and revelations around the stove in our dingy college rental house gave me new confidence. And set me on a path to a different way of eating, one that is veg-centric and bursting with flavor. And part of the reason I bought that cookbook: so I could find new ways to make vegetables taste even more delicious.

Gado-gado is a salad recipe from Indonesia that can include both cooked and raw vegetables, as well as starches like rice cakes or potato. I’ve never had the pleasure of trying the real thing (yet), so think of this as a highly Americanized version. This gado-gado bowl is the kind of meal that will lift your spirits in more ways than one. Make it when you need to clean out the fridge. Every bite should be colorful, hot and spicy, cool and crunchy. The peanut sauce ties everything together, making it a great mid-week, hump-day, kind of recipe. In fact, I’m not sure it’s even a recipe at all. The only thing you really need to get right is the peanut sauce. Which is d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s.

I served this to my family recently, on a writing day. If I’m using my mental energies to make words, I don’t have space for making decent food. So when I opened the fridge and saw a bunch of pre-cooked veggies, a little container of leftover rice, and a whole batch of peanut sauce I made earlier in the week, I knew I was looking at five minutes to Gado-Gado heaven.

My family looked at the brightly colored salads on their plates and raised their eyebrows.

“It’s a recipe I’ve had since college,” I explained. “I just forgot about it until today.”

My 9 year old took two bites and exclaimed, “Mom! You’ve been holding out on us!”

Not anymore, son, not anymore.

Gado Gado Inspiration Bowl

1) Spicy Peanut Sauce

½ cup peanut butter

2-3 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1-2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

juice of one lime (or 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar)

zest of one lime, optional

2 dates

1 Tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

1/3 cup hot water

Sriracha, hot sauce or chili flakes to taste

½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil, optional

Put all sauce ingredients into the food processor and mix until smooth. Taste, adjust flavors to personal preference, and store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. For a dip, this should be fairly thick, and can be served warm or cold. Add hot water to thin it out if using as a dressing and serve warm. Store in the refrigerator and use within 5 days.

2) Toppings:

Lettuce: try sorrel, spinach, or mixed baby greens

Cooked rice: I love using coconut-turmeric, but any rice will work

Shredded cabbage: Purple cabbage makes for an Instagram-worthy plate!

Crunchy vegetables: shredded or shaved carrots, fresh cucumber, or radishes

Soft vegetables: steamed green beans or other cooked vegetables you'd like

Garnishes: peanuts , raisins , flaked coconut , chopped green onion , cilantro

3) How To:

Assemble salad ingredients; drizzle warm peanut sauce over the top. Enjoy!

Notes:

I've adjusted my recipe from the original because I wanted to eliminate processed sugars. If you're able to find sorrel, try it instead of spinach or other lettuce greens for a nice tangy bite.

If you don’t have issues with sweeteners, you can use brown sugar, maple syrup, or honey to sweeten this instead of the dates. Next time, I’ll soak the dates in the hot water first, to soften them up, since my food processor doesn’t do a great job of pureeing them. But the little chunks of sweetness weren’t a problem for anyone. It just didn’t look as pretty!

Fresh garlic and ginger will give you the best flavor, but in a pinch, you can certainly use powdered, dried options instead. Tamari or soy offers umami flavors and needed salt. The hot sauce or chili flakes give kick, and lime juice or rice vinegar offsets the sweet. I like to add a small drizzle of toasted sesame oil into mine as well for a hint of smokiness, but I understand this is not authentic.

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About the Creator

WordSmithtress

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