Georgina Hayden has shared a quick and easy recipe for charred corn gado gado, a vibrant Indonesian salad that packs in vegetables and adds colour to meal rotations. The dish, which she describes as one of her favourites, is a well-loved Indonesian salad she ate almost daily while travelling around the islands. It is an excellent way to eat an abundance of veg and can be adapted to taste, with optional additions such as tofu, tempeh, prawn crackers and beansprouts.
Ingredients and preparation
The recipe serves four and takes 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook. Ingredients include 2 tbsp vegetable or groundnut oil, 1 tbsp red Thai curry paste, 80g pure peanut butter, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp light soft brown sugar, 200ml coconut milk, sea salt, white pepper, juice of 1 lime, 300g baby potatoes, 4 large eggs, 150g green beans, 2 ears of corn, 100g baby spinach, and half a bunch of coriander.
For those with a peanut allergy, the dressing works well with good-quality almond butter. To make the dressing, pour the oil into a small saucepan, add the curry paste and fry for a few minutes. Stir in the peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar and 175ml of the coconut milk, season with salt and white pepper, and bring to a gentle boil. Add the lime juice and simmer for five minutes until thick, rich and creamy. Add the remaining 25ml coconut milk, simmer for a further minute, then take off the heat and leave to cool.
Cooking the vegetables and assembly
Meanwhile, put the potatoes in a pan of salted cold water, bring to a boil and cook for about 15 minutes until tender. Boil the eggs for seven minutes for just-set yolks, give the beans six minutes and the corn five minutes. Drain everything, leave to cool, then stand the corn ears upright and carefully cut off the kernels.
Assemble the bowls with all the different components in sections: a quarter of the potatoes, the green beans, the shaved corn, a handful of spinach leaves and a boiled egg cut into quarters. Drizzle over the cooled sauce, and serve topped with a scattering of coriander and with a wedge of lime for squeezing over.
