Sayur Lodeh
An Indonesian vegetable soup in a mild coconut milk broth with cabbage, green beans, carrot and aubergine.
Photograph credit: Sayur lodeh (image of sayur lodeh on Wikidata Q4208242) by Midori · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The wet season is when this belongs, when markets are full of cheap greens and a pot of coconut broth feeds the household. Sayur lodeh means vegetables in a coconut soup, and the details change with whatever is available.
The broth begins with a paste of shallot, garlic, turmeric and a little chilli, cooked briefly in oil until fragrant. That is the aroma that fills the kitchen. Stir the paste for 2 minutes. Raw spice paste tastes harsh and green.
Add the vegetables in order of how long they take. Carrots and aubergine go in first, then green beans, and cabbage last. Mixed together they cook unevenly, with mush on one side and rawness on the other.
Keep the simmer gentle once the coconut milk goes in. A hard boil can make it split and look curdled. Leftovers taste even better the next day as the coconut broth soaks into the vegetables. Reheat slowly and add a splash of water if it has thickened.
How to Make Sayur Lodeh
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Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion, garlic, turmeric and chilli for 2 minutes, stirring.
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Add the carrots, aubergine, coconut milk and water and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 8 minutes.
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Add the green beans and cook for 5 minutes, then the cabbage for 3 minutes.
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Stir in the salt and sugar. Taste and adjust, then serve with rice.
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Tips That Matter
- Cook the spice paste until it smells fragrant.
- Add the vegetables in stages so none is overdone.
- Keep the simmer gentle once the coconut milk is in.
- Swap any vegetable you have, keeping to the firm ones first.
Ingredient Swaps
- If coconut is a problem, a cooking cream (dairy or plant-based) can stand in for the coconut milk in a sauce; the dish will lose the coconut flavour and taste noticeably different.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
Serve It With
Steamed rice · Fried tempeh · Boiled eggs · Chilli sambal
Leftovers and Storage
Keeps in the fridge for 3 days. Reheat gently; do not boil hard.
Sayur Lodeh Nutrition Facts
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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