What comes to mind is “Indonesian Exquisite Garden Medley with Sweet-Spiced Peanut Sauce Emulsion” or Gado-gado. Its name means mixed food. Why? Because it is cheaper, easier, and healthier. Let me explain.
Mainly it consists of veggies and protein with peanut sauce. You can have several types of veggies: boiled potatoes, blanched green beans, blanched bean sprouts, cucumber, cabbage, spinach or water spinach (kangkung), and carrots. These veggies are very affordable, you can make 4 portions with only 1 dollar. Like another salad, you can mix and match the veggies. Eat them raw or half-boiled. But I suggest still boiling the potato for better taste.
For the peanut sauce, it is highly recommended not to use peanut butter. Sometimes I saw videos which explained the making of gado-gado and they used peanut butter. You are in the wrong way. We do not use butter, only sauce, spiced sauce. Unless you have the instant sauce, you need it to make it from scratch. Do not worry, it won’t take your entire day.
How to make sauce: Deep fry peanuts (without shells) 15–20 minutes. Why don’t just use an air fryer? No, all you need is the oil will make the taste better and legit. Somehow to reduce the oil you can drain the peanut for minutes or tap with the tissue. Now blend garlic, onion, tamarind paste, chilli, aromatic ginger, and salt. Mix the blended with peanuts and add palm sugar (not brown sugar). Add some water and boil it for a while. Now it is ready. It is less than 1 dollar for 4 portions of sauce.
What about the protein? You can choose, because it should be cheap, buy some tempeh, tofu, and egg. Fry the tempeh and tofu then add boiled egg to give more texture.
The steps were completely simple, all you need is frying, blending, and boiling. But if you have no time to prepare, I suggest not using potatoes, just choose simple vegetables like tomatoes, avocados, zucchini, bell peppers, turnips, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, or kale. Everything is perfect with peanut sauce. If you live in southeast asia you can find any stored peanut sauce anywhere, just add hot water to it and ready to serve.
Last but not least, it is healthier as it does not need cooking treatment that can damage the micro and macro nutrients inside. You will get carbs, fat, and protein to fulfil your daily calories. Luckily, it contains lots of fibre and vitamins that will make you full much longer. Indonesian usually add some lontong (compressed rice cakes) or steamed rice to bring more carbs. Actually it is very adjustable food I have ever knew, just loke common salad. But this is Indonesian cuisine. You may find another look like gado-gado with different composition let’s say: lotek, ketoprak, pecel, karedok, tahu tek, rujak cingur, siomay-batagor and many more.
