The Various Peanut Sauces in Indonesian Dishes

Rujak Juhi (Photo via Kucungersfoodblog) and Gado Gado (Photo via Pinterest)

Don't judge a book by its cover. They all look the same but have different taste.

If you have spent some times in Indonesia, you might have noticed that many Indonesian delicacies come with delicious peanut sauce, such as sate, pecel, gado gado, siomay, lotek, karedok, batagor, and much more. You might have tasted some of them and decided your favorite, and despite they share the same peanut sauce, somehow all of them have their own distinctive taste.

Yes, because even though those peanut sauce look all the same, they are actually different. Basic ingredients of Indonesian peanut sauce are ground peanuts, brown sugar, salt, and chili, but there are some additional spices used to make the sauce tastes different in each dish. Here are the differences of peanut sauce in some Indonesian dishes, so next time you go to an exotic local restaurant youll know whats inside your sauce.

1. Gado Gado

Gado gado (Photo via BackpackerLee)

Sometimes served with rice or rice cake, the most famous Indonesian-style salad has become one of tourists'favorites. Most of gado gados veggies are boiled, such as spinach, long beans, bean sprouts, corn, potatoes, and squash. Meanwhile, some are served raw, such as cucumber, with additional crackers, hard-boiled egg, fried tofu, tempeh, and sprinkled with fried shallots. Gado gados peanut sauce contains roasted peanuts, lime leaves, sweet soy sauce, coconut milk, brown sugar, tamarind water, and salt. All of the sauces ingredients are raw, except the peanuts.

2. Pecel

Pecel Madiun (Photo via SMEIndonesia)

At a glance, pecel looks so much like gado gado, but this Madiunese dish comes with more lime leaves in its peanut sauce. In addition to roasted peanuts, salt, brown sugar, and lime leaves, the sauce also contains red chili and cayenne pepper, garlic, local aromatic ginger (kencur), and shrimp paste. Unlike gado gado, pecels sauce does not contain sweet soy sauce, coconut milk nor tamarind. All of the veggies in are boiled, and the dish is typically served with rempeyek (peanut brittle crackers) and rice.

3. Lotek

Lotek Jogja (Photo via HasanMangrove)

You can easily find this dish in West Java and Jogja. Basically, loteks vegetables and peanut sauce are slightly different with gado gado, with some additions such as carrot, water spinach, cabbage, and soybean. The peanut sauce contains roasted peanuts, cayenne peppers, tamarind water, salt, brown sugar, and kencur, without coconut milk and soy sauce. It served with rice cakes and crackers.

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