Pecel (Pecel Jawa)
A Javanese vegetable salad of lightly blanched greens, bean sprouts and cucumber, smothered in a fragrant, spicy peanut sauce scented with kencur root. Fresh, comforting and full of texture, finished with crisp fried shallots and crackers.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Fry the peanuts
Heat the oil in a wok or pan over medium heat and fry the raw peanuts, stirring often, until golden brown and fragrant. Drain on paper towels and let cool completely; they turn crunchy as they cool, which is exactly what you want for the sauce.
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200 g raw peanuts
✅ Done when: the peanuts are golden brown all over and smell toasted, not raw
Blanch the vegetables
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Blanch each vegetable separately and briefly, starting with the long beans (about 2 minutes), then the cabbage (1 minute), then the bean sprouts and water spinach (30 seconds each, as they wilt fast). Lift each one out with a slotted spoon straight into a bowl of iced water, then drain well; this short shock keeps the vegetables bright, crisp-tender and stops them turning dull or mushy.
- 150 g long beans
- 100 g cabbage
- 150 g bean sprouts
- 150 g water spinach or spinach
✅ Done when: each vegetable is just tender but still has some bite, and keeps its bright colour
Pound the chili paste
In a mortar and pestle (or a small blender with a splash of water), pound or blend the red chilies, bird's eye chilies, garlic, and salt into a fairly smooth, fragrant paste. The is what makes this taste like real pecel rather than an ordinary peanut sauce, so don't skip it.
- 5 red chilies
- 3 bird's eye chilies
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cm
- 1/2 tsp salt
✅ Done when: the paste is smooth with no large chunks and smells sharply aromatic
Make the peanut sauce
Add the cooled fried peanuts to the chili paste and pound or blend again until mostly smooth but still a little textured, not completely silky. Stir in the palm sugar, tamarind water and kaffir lime leaf, then add warm water a little at a time, stirring, until you have a thick, pourable sauce. Taste and balance it: it should hit spicy, sweet, salty and sour all at once, with none dominating.
- 200 g fried peanuts (from step 1)
- 60 g palm sugar
- 1 tbsp tamarind water
- 1 kaffir lime leaf
- 200 ml warm water
✅ Done when: the sauce coats the back of a spoon thickly but drips off slowly
Arrange the salad
Arrange the blanched vegetables on a plate alongside the raw cucumber slices and scatter over the basil leaves. Keep the vegetables at room temperature rather than fridge-cold; pecel is traditionally served this way, and the flavours come through much better than chilled.
- 1 cucumber
- a small handful basil leaves
Dress and serve
Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the vegetables, scatter with crisp fried shallots and serve right away with crackers on the side. Pecel is best eaten within minutes of dressing, while the vegetables still have their crunch.
- to serve fried shallots
- to serve crackers
Fry the peanuts
Heat the oil in a wok or pan over medium heat and fry the raw peanuts, stirring often, until golden brown and fragrant. Drain on paper towels and let cool completely; they turn crunchy as they cool, which is exactly what you want for the sauce.
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 200 g raw peanuts
✅ Done when: the peanuts are golden brown all over and smell toasted, not raw
Blanch the vegetables
Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Blanch each vegetable separately and briefly, starting with the long beans (about 2 minutes), then the cabbage (1 minute), then the bean sprouts and water spinach (30 seconds each, as they wilt fast). Lift each one out with a slotted spoon straight into a bowl of iced water, then drain well; this short shock keeps the vegetables bright, crisp-tender and stops them turning dull or mushy.
- 150 g long beans
- 100 g cabbage
- 150 g bean sprouts
- 150 g water spinach or spinach
✅ Done when: each vegetable is just tender but still has some bite, and keeps its bright colour
Pound the chili paste
In a mortar and pestle (or a small blender with a splash of water), pound or blend the red chilies, bird's eye chilies, garlic, and salt into a fairly smooth, fragrant paste. The is what makes this taste like real pecel rather than an ordinary peanut sauce, so don't skip it.
- 5 red chilies
- 3 bird's eye chilies
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 cm
- 1/2 tsp salt
✅ Done when: the paste is smooth with no large chunks and smells sharply aromatic
Make the peanut sauce
Add the cooled fried peanuts to the chili paste and pound or blend again until mostly smooth but still a little textured, not completely silky. Stir in the palm sugar, tamarind water and kaffir lime leaf, then add warm water a little at a time, stirring, until you have a thick, pourable sauce. Taste and balance it: it should hit spicy, sweet, salty and sour all at once, with none dominating.
- 200 g fried peanuts (from step 1)
- 60 g palm sugar
- 1 tbsp tamarind water
- 1 kaffir lime leaf
- 200 ml warm water
✅ Done when: the sauce coats the back of a spoon thickly but drips off slowly
Arrange the salad
Arrange the blanched vegetables on a plate alongside the raw cucumber slices and scatter over the basil leaves. Keep the vegetables at room temperature rather than fridge-cold; pecel is traditionally served this way, and the flavours come through much better than chilled.
- 1 cucumber
- a small handful basil leaves
Dress and serve
Spoon the peanut sauce generously over the vegetables, scatter with crisp fried shallots and serve right away with crackers on the side. Pecel is best eaten within minutes of dressing, while the vegetables still have their crunch.
- to serve fried shallots
- to serve crackers
The Story Behind the Dish
Pecel is one of Java's oldest everyday salads, built around whatever vegetables are in season and bound together by a peanut sauce perfumed with kencur, a small aromatic rhizome that sets it apart from other Indonesian peanut dressings. It was, and still is, humble market food: vegetables briefly cooked in boiling water, then dressed with a sauce pounded fresh in a stone mortar.
The city of Madiun in East Java is especially famous for its pecel, often sold as nasi pecel (with rice) by street vendors and in traditional markets, but the salad itself, without rice, is eaten in homes across Java as a light, everyday dish.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It is loved for the unmistakable aroma of kencur in the peanut sauce, a flavour found almost nowhere outside Java, paired with the comfort of simple, well-cooked vegetables.
💡 Fun Fact
Kencur, the ingredient that defines pecel's flavour, is also used in traditional Javanese herbal tonics (jamu), long before it became known as a kitchen spice.
Java, Indonesia (especially the city of Madiun, East Java)
-7.63°S, 111.52°E
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