Gado-Gado is an Indonesian Dish Comprising a Vegetable Salad

Gado-gado

Gado-gado (Indonesian and Betawi language) or also called Lotek (Sundanese and Javanese language) is an Indonesian dish comprising a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. It is thought to have originally been a Betawi dish. It is widely served from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) as well as in restaurants both in Indonesia and worldwide.

Gado-gado is part of a wide range of Indonesian dressing & salad combinations, along with lotek, pecel and karedok. In many places, to retain authenticity in both the production and flavor, the peanut sauce is made in individual batches, in front of the customers. However, since the dish has gained popularity (because of the increase of Asian-themed restaurants) Gado-gado sauce is now mostly made ahead of time and cooked in bulk, although this is probably more common in Western restaurants rather than in Indonesia. Compared to Western and Indonesian salads, Gado-gado has much more sauce in it. Instead of being used as a light dressing, the vegetables should be well coated in the sauce.

Gado-Gado

Many stores now offer Gado-Gado dressing in dried blocks to which you simply add hot water, making it easier and cheaper to cook at home.

The exact composition of the vegetable salad varies, but usually comprises some form of mixture of

blanched - shredded, chopped, or sliced green vegetables (such as cabbage, kang-kung), bean sprouts, young boiled jack fruit, string bean, bitter melon, and corn (outside of Indonesia, people improvise with whatever vegetables that are available), uncooked - sliced cucumber and lettuce, fried tofu and tempeh, sliced boiled potatoes, peeled and sliced boiled eggs.

The authentic gado-gado does not have carrot and tomatoes. Only the aforementioned vegetables are added to the dish.