Pecel, a vegetarian recipe from Indonesia

Name: Pecel
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Indonesia
Ingredients: 200 g raw shelled peanuts; 3 dried red chillies; 2 garlic cloves; 2 cm kencur or galangal; 2 tbsp grated palm sugar; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp tamarind juice; 200 g green beans; 200 g spinach or water spinach; 200 g bean sprouts; 1 cucumber, sliced; 4 krupuk rice crackers

Method

Fry the peanuts in a little oil for 5 minutes until they brown, then drain them on kitchen paper.
Fry the chillies and garlic briefly in the same oil, about 1 minute.
Pound the peanuts, chillies, garlic and kencur in a mortar to a coarse paste. Work in the palm sugar, salt and tamarind until it forms a firm block.
Blanch the beans for 4 minutes, the spinach for 30 seconds and the bean sprouts for 1 minute, each on its own. Drain and cool.
Take 3 tbsp of the sauce block and slacken it with 150 ml hot water to the thickness of cream.
Arrange the vegetables and cucumber on plates, spoon the sauce over and set the krupuk alongside.

The sauce keeps as a firm block for two weeks in the fridge, then gets slackened with hot water one portion at a time. That is how the pecel sellers in East Java markets carry it. Kencur, a rhizome with a camphor scent, can be swapped for galangal if you cannot find it. The block brings together dried chillies, palm sugar and tamarind, a sweet and hot pairing found in other recipes in our article on chilli peppers.

The techniques this recipe uses

Drain and rinse
Canning liquid clouds a sauce and salts it blind: rinse until the water runs clear.
Sweat the aromatics
Medium heat, no browning: the onion should turn translucent and sweet, not toasted.

Frequently asked questions

What is kencur and what can replace it?

It is a camphor-scented rhizome, a close relative of galangal and very common in Javanese cooking. Galangal is the most faithful substitute; failing that, use less and accept a less fragrant sauce, since ordinary ginger tastes distinctly different.

Why make the sauce as a firm block rather than a liquid?

The pounded block keeps for about two weeks in the fridge and is loosened with hot water portion by portion, so the sauce is always freshly made. It is also the form in which pecel sellers carry it.

Why blanch each vegetable separately?

The timings are very different: four minutes for green beans, one for bean sprouts, thirty seconds for spinach. Cooking them together would give mushy spinach and raw beans.

Chilli peppers, from mild to Scotch Bonnet

How Caribbean and African cuisines harness the perfume and heat of Scotch Bonnet, and how others pair chilli with palm sugar, tamarind or pomegranate.

The tomato, three centuries to conquer the world

The tomato reached Europe in the sixteenth century and was distrusted for two hundred years. What each kitchen made of it, and the handling that matters.

The aubergine, one vegetable and ten kitchens

How the aubergine travelled from India to the Mediterranean, what each kitchen made of it, and the techniques that decide the result.

Pecel

Method

The techniques this recipe uses

This recipe also appears in

Nutrition per serving

Frequently asked questions

Read more

Have you cooked this dish?

More recipes from Indonesia

Sayur lodeh

Vegetarian nasi goreng

Tempeh goreng

Recipes in the same spirit