![]()
During this post-Thanksgiving, pre-holidays week, BA staffers are sharing their favorite hit-the-reset button meals. This isn’t diet food—it’s the stuff that we eat when we just need a ever-so-slight detox. Today, assistant editor Amiel Stanek shares his recipe for gado gado.
This time of year, all I want is a good VDS. What’s a VDS, you ask? VDS stands for Vegetable Delivery System, the kind of dish that facilitates rapid and enthusiastic consumption of plant matter. And in this dangerous space between Thanksgiving’s leftover turkey and New Years Day’s penance-inducing hangover, it’s the only thing standing between me and an endless whirlpool of ham sandwiches, holiday cookies, and hard liquor.
My ideal VDS goes by an Indonesian name: gado gado. It’s basically just a spread of brown rice, raw and cooked vegetables, warm peanut sauce, and a bunch of garnishes, to be assembled into a gigantic, colorful pile in accordance with one’s taste. It’s worlds more delicious than it sounds. Whether you make it for yourself, for your friends (or, you know, your family), all involved will set down forks feeling supremely, utterly nourished. (I should also be very clear right now that my version of this popular Indonesian street food makes literally no claim to authenticity.)
Start by cooking some brown rice however you please—this generally takes a while, so I normally get it started and then set to work on all the other components, and keep it warm if it finishes first.
The bulk of the work associated with gado gado is simple veggie prep, which somehow manages to feel healthy, as if handling massive piles of bright vegetable matter translates nutrients into the body through osmosis. Shred some red cabbage (green and savoy work too). Finely julienne some raw, crunchy root vegetables (beets, carrots, turnips, daikon, and the like)—a mandolin really helps here. Blanch some green beans. Boil and dice some potatoes. Sliver a bunch of scallions, roughly chop some cilantro, crush a few handfuls of toasted peanuts, and quarter a couple of limes. (I also like to boil some eight-minute eggs and get them in the mix, but you can omit those if you want to keep the whole thing vegan). Arrange all of these components across various platters and in ramekins—part of the joy of this dish is the the sight of so many bright, beautifully arranged vegetables on the table.
Now comes the peanut sauce, which is the key to pulling all of that roughage together into a rich, satisfying meal. To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever made the sauce the same way twice, but it generally goes a little something like this: Mince some chiles, garlic, and ginger, and sizzle together in a little vegetable oil in a dutch oven until fragrant. Then, scoop in a jar of smooth peanut butter, drizzle in some hot water to thin the whole thing to a gravy-like consistency, and whisk until smooth. Season with soy sauce, lime juice and/or rice vinegar, and hot sauce (if that’s your thing). However you end up making it, just make sure that it’s highly seasoned, since it’s going to dress a bunch of unseasoned vegetables; that it’s served warm; and that there’s plenty of it (you will be shocked by how much peanut sauce people can consume; I usually budget at least a cup per person).
Once everything is prepped and ready, spread your bounty across the table and go to town. I like to start with a small scoop of brown rice, arranging all of the vegetables around it like a color wheel and garnishing from on high before drizzling liberally with that warm, salty peanut sauce. The vibe at the table should feel convivial, with all the reaching and passing of bowls. But, once all the plates are assembled and everyone sets to eating, a calm will fall over the table, interrupted only by sporadic reaching and pinching as folks attempt to calibrate their vegetable-to-rice-to-garnish-to-sauce ratio perfectly. Seconds will be had. Everyone will be full—often painfully so—but full of all the right things. That, my friends, is a VDS par excellence.
And the best part? Once the meal is over and the table is cleared, you’ll inevitably find yourself with the makings of a gado gado lunch, or even a repeat performance for dinner. It’s a gift that keeps on giving, further shelter from the seductive draw of the season’s temptations. It’s a VDS, for sure, but more importantly it’s proof that vegetables are worth eating—and that’s what I need more than anything else this time of year.
Want more healthy-but-tasty meals? We’ve got a brand new cookbook coming out on December 22! Pre-order The Food Lover’s Cleanse right this very second.
See More
Cooking Without Recipes gado gado Healthy Reset Vegetarian
Share this:
