Gado-Gado salad

I've been reading reviews of Kitchen Trotter written by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews for a while, thinking how exciting that travelling via world cuisines food box subscription was. And to my delight, it is available now in the UK as well. I was pleased to receive my first Kitchen Trotter box, which is Indonesia-themed this month. When I opened the box, I realised that I don't know most of the exotic ingredients. For a foodie like me, it is like opening a Christmas present. Oh, the excitement!
Every month Kitchen Trotter delivers a cooking kit to your door. Each box is a surprise, but it will allow you to cook an authentic meal that serves 4-6 people and create 4 authentic recipes. It includes 7+ gourmet items. You can subscribe at £29.00 monthly fee (unsubscribe at any time).

Today my boys are back to school after a week-long break. Eager to start cooking, using the ingredients from  Kitchen Trotter, I decided to make a quick and simple salad called Gado Gado.

What will you need?

Gado Gado recipe (recipe courtesy of Kitchen Trotter)
From the kit
for the dressing:
80g Gado Gado Mix - Asli
2tbsp Kecap Manis - Bango
2 Combava leaves - Terre Exotique

+ add:
80ml water
2 bay leaves

For the salad:
salad leaves (I used gem lettuce, the booklet suggests iceberg lettuce)
4 small potatoes
4 tomatoes
4 radishes
4 eggs
1/2 cucumber

As I was cooking just for myself, I have quartered the amount of ingredients and halved the amount of ingredients for the dressing (I still have some dressing left for another salad tomorrow).

Pour the water in the saucepan, adding the combava and bay leaves. Heat. Once the water starts boiling, add the Gado Gado mix.
As soon as the mix thickens, remove from the heat and mix in Kecap Manis. Keep aside.

What exactly is Gado Gado mix? This is a peanut base dry mix.with sugar, mixed herbs and spices. It is an interesting combination of sweet and savoury, a great base for a dressing.
Dried Combava leaves have a citrus fruit aroma close to lemon. Combava leaves are also known as kaffir lime leaves (which are easily found in supermarkets). This ingredient is very popular in Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian and Indonesian cuisines.
Kecap Manis (Bango) is apparently an Indonesian cusine must-have. This is a sweet and slightly thick soy sauce which is used in a variety of recipes. I loved the taste of this soy sauce, and can easily see it used in many Asian meals.

Back to our salad - peel and cook potatoes. Cook the eggs to hard-boiled. Slice the tomatoes and radishes.
Assemble your salad by putting the lettuce first, then all the other ingredients. Season with salt and add the Gado Gado dressing over.

Kitchen Trotter suggested this lovely vegetarian salad as a starter for an Indonesian-themed menu. I had it for lunch, and really enjoyed it. The salad itself is not specifically exotic, if anything, I have had salads like that for many years, but it's the dressing which makes all the difference, adding an exotic flavour.

I will be posting more recipes from the latest Kitchen Trotter box, but if you fancy seeing which other countries and recipes were covered in the past, check out Kitchen Trotter posts by Cheryl from Madhouse Family Reviews.

Disclosure: I received the food box for the purposes of testing and reviewing. All opinions are mine.