Lara Lee, author of Coconut & Sambal: Recipes From My Indonesian Kitchen and A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food From Asia, employs a simple but smart strategy to acquaint her child to spice: a gradual introduction over months to build up tolerance. Her advice for parents everywhere? Start with something familiar to stir a little heat into. Condiments like peanut butter, cream cheese, or mayo are great vehicles for a spoonful of sriracha or chili paste. And a shining example of that is gado-gado—where sambal oelek is added to peanut butter to temper the heat.
Gado-gado is one of Indonesia’s national dishes, found everywhere from food stalls, restaurants and family kitchens. This noodle-based version employs a combination of soy sauce and brown sugar as a substitute for kecap manis, a salty-sweet condiment often used to season the peanut sauce at the heart of the dish. It’s also delightfully adaptable. Lee suggests cauliflower in place of broccoli, green beans instead of carrots, or an equal quantity of cooked lo mein or other egg noodles for the rice noodles.
Recipe information
Total Time
30 minutes
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
½
1
1
4
6
½
⅓
½
1
2
½
2
1
1
3
¼
Preparation
Step 1
Cook ½ small head of broccoli (about 4 oz.), cut into small florets, and 1 large carrot, peeled, cut into 3"-long matchsticks, in a large pot of boiling salted water until crisp-tender, about 1 minute. Transfer to a fine-mesh sieve with a spider or slotted spoon. Gently lower 4 large eggs into pot. Cover and cook, adjusting heat as needed to maintain a boil, 8 minutes; transfer to sieve. Let vegetables and eggs cool.
Step 2
Place 6 oz. dried wide rice noodles in boiling water, cover pot, and remove from heat. Let sit, stirring occasionally, until tender, 10–15 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water until cool. Shake off excess water; set aside.
Step 3
Meanwhile, bring ½ cup light brown sugar and ⅓ cup soy sauce to a boil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve sugar. Cook, stirring often, until mixture is thickened and syrupy, about 3 minutes. Measure out ⅓ cup soy syrup in a heatproof measuring glass and pour into a medium bowl.
Step 4
Reduce heat to medium and add one-half of a 15-oz. package firm tofu, drained, cut into ½" cubes, and 1 tsp. vegetable oil to remaining soy syrup in skillet. Cook, turning occasionally, until tofu absorbs sauce, about 4 minutes.
Step 5
Vigorously whisk 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped, ½ cup creamy peanut butter, 2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice, 1 tsp. Diamond Crystal or ½ tsp. Morton kosher salt, 1 Tbsp. sambal oelek, and ⅓ cup warm water into soy syrup in bowl, adding more warm water by the tablespoonful if needed, until peanut sauce is creamy (it should be the consistency of ranch dressing).
Step 6
Peel eggs and cut into quarters. Spread peanut sauce on a platter or in a large shallow bowl; top with reserved noodles. Arrange eggs, broccoli, carrot, tofu, 1 avocado, sliced, 3 Persian cucumbers, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced on a diagonal, and ¼ cup salted roasted peanuts over.
Step 7
Just before serving, toss salad to coat. Serve with shrimp chips if desired and more sambal oelek.
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