Gado gado with a twist
I always become intensely happy from eating in a bowl. And then I especially become very happy from a lot of different colors of food in a bowl. So hop, on the couch under a blanket with a good movie.
As you know, I often prep food on Sundays for the week ahead. Even when I have little time, there's something waiting for me in the fridge. I make a quick stir-fry from that leftover rice. I turn the cooked broccoli into a filling soup and I use the leftover quinoa in a nice salad.
Yesterday I dove into the kitchen and tried out a new recipe. You understand that I want to share this with you right away. You know the traditional gado gado, a classic Indonesian dish consisting of rice, a mix of vegetables with a boiled egg, peanut sauce, and crumbled krupuk. Intensely delicious, but also intense for your hips. So I made it with a twist, replacing the rice with quinoa for some extra protein. I left the vegetables raw so that the vitamins wouldn't be cooked away. This dish is lovely as a lunch, but also in the evening as ultimate comfy food for on the couch, especially when you serve it lukewarm.
Enough chit-chat, hop into that kitchen, you. Trust me: you want this.
Gado gado (for two meals)
100 grams of white or red quinoa
230 ml of water
100 grams of green beans or sugar snaps
half a red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
25 grams of bean sprouts
50 grams of red cabbage, finely chopped
2 carrots (Julienne), sliced
Spicy peanut sauce
80 grams of peanut butter without nuts
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 to 3 tablespoons of maple syrup
3 tablespoons of lime juice
1 clove of garlic
half a red chili pepper
optional: a little water
For garnish:
coriander
lime wedges
red chili flakes
1 Cook the quinoa in about 20 minutes until al dente.
2 In the meantime, clean the beans and steam them briefly. This takes about 4 minutes.
3 Shock the beans in a bowl of ice water; this way you retain the crunchiness and the beautiful green color.
4 Put all the ingredients for the peanut sauce in a blender and mix until you have a smooth sauce. Add a little water if the sauce is too thick.
5 If the sauce is too salty, adjust the flavor with some extra maple syrup and/or lime juice.
6 Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the bean sprouts briefly. Like other sprouts, bean sprouts can contain traces of harmful bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli (EHEC).
7 Divide the quinoa over two bowls.
8 Top the quinoa with the various vegetables and arrange them by color.
9 Drizzle the bowls with the peanut sauce and garnish with coriander, lime wedges, and optionally some extra red chili flakes.
