Urap (Indonesian Coconut Vegetable Salad)

About This Recipe

Urap is a Javanese and Balinese vegetable salad built around one distinctive step: freshly grated coconut, seasoned with a fried spice paste of chili, garlic, shallot, and ginger, tossed through a mix of blanched vegetables just before serving. It's less a raw salad and more a warm, textured dish where the coconut coating does the flavoring work. The technique is in two parts. First, each vegetable -- typically bean sprouts, long beans, cabbage, and spinach -- is blanched separately for just long enough to lose its raw edge while staying crisp, then shocked in cold water to lock in color and crunch. Second, the coconut is steamed briefly with the spice paste until fragrant, which mellows the raw garlic bite and lets the ginger and chili perfume the coconut fully. Urap is often part of a larger Indonesian rice-table spread (nasi tumpeng or nasi campur), served at room temperature. Its appeal is the contrast between the crisp, slightly sweet vegetables and the warm, spiced, slightly toasted coconut clinging to every piece.

Ingredients

Serves 5

• 1 cupfresh grated coconut(or thawed frozen unsweetened coconut)
• 2 cupsbean sprouts
• 1 cuplong beans(cut into 2-inch pieces)
• 1 cupshredded cabbage
• 1 cupspinach
• 2shallots
• 2 clovesgarlic
• 1red chili
• 1 tbspgrated fresh ginger
• 1kaffir lime leaf(thinly sliced)
• 1 tsppalm sugar
• 0.5 tspsalt
• 1 tbspoil

Instructions

1. 1

   Blanch the vegetables

   Blanch long beans and cabbage in boiling salted water 2 minutes, bean sprouts and spinach 30 seconds. Shock each separately in ice water, then drain well.

2. 2

   Make the spice paste

   Blend shallots, garlic, chili, and ginger into a coarse paste.

3. 3

   Fry the paste

   Heat oil and fry the paste until fragrant and no longer raw-smelling, about 3 minutes.

4. 4

   Season the coconut

   Add grated coconut, kaffir lime leaf, palm sugar, and salt to the pan. Stir-fry 2-3 minutes until the coconut is warmed through and evenly coated.

5. 5

   Combine

   In a large bowl, toss the blanched vegetables with the spiced coconut until evenly distributed.

6. 6

   Serve

   Serve immediately at room temperature as part of a rice spread or as a standalone salad.

Variations

• •

  Add blanched shredded green papaya or carrot for extra crunch.

• •

  Make it vegan-friendly as written -- it already contains no animal products.

• •

  Toast the coconut dry in the pan a minute longer for a nuttier, more Balinese-style version.

Storage

Best eaten the same day. If needed, store vegetables and coconut mixture separately in the fridge for up to 1 day and toss together just before serving.

Frequently Asked Questions