Ketoprak – Indonesian Style Peanut & Tofu Salad

This is one dish I have made countless times at home and every time I make it, my dad (originally from Indonesia) always tells me this is the best version yet.

Ketoprak is an Indonesian salad/main that consists of tofu, vegetables, rice cakes and rice vermicelli all coated in a peanut sauce.

Traditionally served with Krupuk (think of a prawn cracker) or Emping (Indonesian crackers made of Belinjo nuts), crispy fried shallots and spicy Sambal sauce. It’s like Gado Gado but I guess Ketoprak has the rice vermicelli added in.

So the star of the show is definitely the peanut sauce. If you have ever had Satay sauce and enjoyed it immensely just like I have, then you definitely relate to this dish. Of course you can make your own, but luckily my dad always brings back a crate of our favourite brand of Peanut Sauce, so this is always the one we opt for.

It comes with 3 sachets, one is the ground peanuts, the darker sachet is the spicy sambal and flavouring and the 3rd sachet comprises of crispy shallots to sprinkle over.

The ground peanuts and spicy paste were simply added to a pan with some hot water and whisked to form the peanut sauce.

I can’t believe I am admitting this and rest assured I know full well I am not the only one who has thought this (You know who you are, I am not going to shame you like that…) but this sauce can literally be eaten directly out the pan with a spoon, not that I have done that of course, but just saying, it could be. It’s that good. No comment.

Anyway… the vegetables are chopped up, blanched and added to a dish. This is what I opted for:

• Baby potatoes (Diced and boiled till soft)

• Green Beans (Chopped and Blanched)

• Beansprouts (Blanched)

• Green Cabbage (Sliced and Blanched)

• Rice Vermicelli noodles (Soaked in hot water till soft)

• Tofu (Straight out the packet, drained and chopped into small cubes)

• Cucumber (Diced up)

• Spring Onions (Sliced up finely)

• Fresh Green Chilli’s (Chopped finely)

Recipe Notes:

• Usually I would have boiled and added Longtong which are Indonesian rice cakes (Like compressed rice cubes), however due to lockdown, I was not able to obtain my annual supply of Indonesian ingredients, so on this occasion it was omitted.

• You could opt for sweet potato as opposed to normal baby potatoes

• Bell Peppers can be added too, along with tomatoes, lettuce, blanched baby corn, mange tout or any other vegetables you have in your kitchen jungle

• The tofu is traditionally deep fried – But I opted for fresh for a lighter choice. You could also perhaps marinate the tofu in a little soy sauce/chilli and bake it.

• If you have leftover Peanut Sauce, you could either chicken/fish/meat/tofu/vegetable satay in the oven/BBQ or perhaps use the sauce as a simple salad dressing

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