Gado-gado
Indonesia’s big peanut sauce platter: warm potatoes, green beans, cabbage, crispy tofu and boiled eggs under a rich, tangy, gently spicy peanut sauce.
- 45 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.79 a serving
- 590 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 lb baby potatoes, halved
- 4 large eggs
- 8 oz green beans, trimmed
- 2 cups green cabbage, chopped
- 1 package extra-firm tofu, 14 oz
- ½ cup peanut butter
- 2 tbsp kecap manis
- 1 lime, juiced
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 cucumber, sliced
- 1 cup bean sprouts
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ½ cup water, hot
Each serving has about 590 calories, 32 g protein, 46 g carbs and 34 g fat, and costs about $2.79 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No baby potatoes? Red potatoes or Yukon Gold potatoes work.
- No green beans? Frozen green beans work.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No extra-firm tofu? Firm tofu works.
- No limes? Lemons work.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover them with cold water by an inch, add the salt, and over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Lower the eggs into the water with a spoon, turn the heat to medium, and boil 10 minutes.
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Medium heatTimer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: Lower them gently so they don’t crack on the bottom of the pot.Food safety: For the safest eggs, cook until the whites are fully set and the yolks begin to thicken. Dishes made with eggs are done at 160°F.
Scoop the eggs into a bowl of cold water. Add the green beans and cabbage to the pot and cook 3 minutes, then everything.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Medium heatTimer: 3 min
Dolly’s tip: Poke a potato with a knife before you drain. It should slide in with no push.Meanwhile, the tofu dry, cut it into 1-inch , and fry it in the oil in a large over medium-high 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until on most sides.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium-high heatTimer: 9 min
Food safety: Tofu is safe to eat straight from the package; cooking is only for texture and flavor.
the peanut butter, kecap manis, lime juice, garlic, chili garlic sauce and hot water until smooth and pourable.
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
the eggs and cut them in half.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Arrange the potatoes, green beans, cabbage, tofu, eggs, cucumber and bean sprouts on plates and spoon plenty of peanut sauce over the top.
Dolly’s tip: The sauce thickens as it sits. Loosen leftovers with a spoonful of hot water.Food safety: If you’re pregnant, or cooking for small children or older people, cook the bean sprouts until steaming hot or leave them out. Raw and lightly cooked sprouts carry a small risk that rinsing doesn’t remove.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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