Easy Pea-sy Nasi Goreng – Good Serving for 2-3

I am literally harvesting my snap peas from the garden on a daily basis at the moment, so this is an easy pea-sy yet healthy and delicious recipe to use up your peas. 

To make it fun, I serve the dish on a pineapple. Don’t throw away the inside of the pineapple after carving, though, as then you can make a quick pickled radish and pineapple using radishes picked fresh from the vegetable garden.

Nasi Goreng is usually eaten as breakfast in Indonesia because the dish is actually made by using the leftover rice from dinner. That’s why it’s always better to make Nasi Goreng using cold leftover rice to give it a better texture.

You Will Need:

• 2 eggs, beaten, fried, and sliced sideways then put aside, you will only need them at the end.
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
• Half an onion, finely sliced.
• 1 carrot, chopped into little cubes (optional).
• Half a chicken stock cube/½ teaspoon of chicken bouillon.
• A bowl of leftover/cold rice – this is to avoid having a sticky Nasi Goreng.
• 1 handful of snow peas, washed and chopped sideways (peel off the strings around the peas as it is quite hard to chew).
• 3 tbspn of vegetable/sunflower oil.
• 2-3 tbspn of light soya sauce.
• A pinch of salt and pepper.
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped.
• 1 tomato, for garnishing.

To Make:

In a wok or pan, heat oil. Then add the chopped garlic, onion, and carrot. Cook until they have turned a little brown. Then add the chicken stock cube (just crush it or diluted in a really small amount of water). Mix them all well.

Turn the heat lower. Prepare the rice, make sure it does not have any lumps. Then add it into the pan. Add soya sauce. Mix them all well until all rice is evenly covered with the soya sauce. As the soya sauce is already salty, just add a little pinch of salt and pepper, I prefer white pepper for this dish. 

When everything is well covered and cooked, switch off the heat, add the spring onions, and give them a quick stir. Leave some spring onions for garnishing. Don’t forget to add the fried eggs on top.

I like to garnish with spring onions, sliced tomatoes, and sometimes cucumbers and serve with Spicy Pickled Radish and Pineapple as a side dish. 

Spicy Pickled Radish and Pineapple

To me, radishes taste better just raw and look great with their pretty bright pink colours. I  pickle them with some green chillies (or use any type of chillies you are growing at the moment) and pineapple. These three different colours look fantastic and will be delicious to eat with your Nasi Goreng.

You Will Need:

• 5-6 radishes, chopped.
• 3-4 green chillies.
• One small bowl of chopped pineapple.
• 1 tspn of caster sugar.
• ½ tspn of salt.
• 4 tbspn of malt vinegar (any other type of vinegar would do as well).

To Make:

Just mix them all well in a bowl and serve them with the Nasi Goreng or even to accompany fried noodles.

Dina Watt grew up in Bandung, West-Java, Indonesia and now happily married and living in Aberdeenshire, she is known as The Indonesian Cook. In her regular column, Dina shares her own adventurous recipes for delicious home cooked meals that are easy to make, mostly using the homegrown, seasonal, fresh fruits and vegetables from her own Scottish garden.

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