Home > Urap (Vegetables in Grated Coconut Dressing)

Urap (Vegetables in Grated Coconut Dressing)

Posting Date: 08/12/17

Urap (Vegetables in Grated Coconut Dressing) is steamed vegetables mixed with spiced grated coconut dressing. This dish originated in Java but it is also found in Bali in a slightly different name, called Urab. Bali also has the meat version of urap, called lawar. In Indonesia, this dish is considered as a side dish and served with steamed rice along with other dishes. It adds freshness to your other dishes and the coconut adds texture to the vegetables. However, you can serve it as salad, too. You can make it a day ahead and store it in the fridge. If you are serving it as a side dish, you can let it sit on the kitchen counter for an hour to bring it to room temperature. If you are serving it as a salad, you can just serve it right out from the fridge.

The dressing used in urap consists of shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, grated coconut, red chili peppers, and palm sugar. Some people may use shrimp paste, called terasi in Indonesia, in the dressing, so if you are a vegetarian and getting it from a restaurant, check with your waiter or waitress that the dressing doesn't contain shrimp paste. For this recipe, I use red chili pepper flakes since I cannot find fresh red chili peppers in Asian stores. I use 1.5 teaspoons which make it mild. If you like it hot, you can use more.

The vegetables used in urap are normally bean sprouts, long beans, green beans, cabbage, spinach, and cassava leaves. All these vegetables are blanched or steamed. You can use your favorite vegetables, such as carrot, kale, etc. I prefer my vegetables in urap to be tender-crisp. If you like yours softer, you can cook them longer. If you are serving it as salad and craving for protein, you can add fried tofu or slices of hard boiled egg. This will make it almost similar to gado gado, except it uses peanut dressing.

The recipe serves about 4 people.

Ingredients:

6 cups baby spinach, about 300 g
3 cups bean sprouts, rinsed and drained
15 green beans (about 1 cup when sliced into 1" length), trimmed and sliced into 1" length
2 cups sliced cabbage
ice water bath to blanch vegetables. Use big bowl so that your strainer can fit inside it.
For spice paste: 2 small shallots or 1 large shallot, quartered
For spice paste: 4 cloves of garlic, halved
For spice paste: 1.5 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes or to taste. You can also use fresh red chili peppers if you have access to them. The quantity to use is dependent on you tolerance to heat.
For spice paste: 1/2 teaspoon galangal or galanga powder
For spice paste: 40 g palm sugar, roughly chopped so that it will be easier to process in food processor. You can also substitute it with brown sugar.
For spice paste: 4 kaffir lime leaves or lime leaves, finely shredded. If you cannot find them in Asian stores, you can substitute with zest of 1 lime.
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
200 g freshly or frozen grated coconut (about 2 cups). You can find frozen grated coconut in the freezer section of Asian stores. If you cannot find it, you can use dry unsweetened shredded coconut. However, I find some dry shredded coconut brands have very strong coconut flavor and smell and thus, it might interfere with flavor of the other ingredients. So, if possible, use either freshly or frozen grated coconut.
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon salt or to taste

Methods:

Fill up a pot with water and boil it over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add baby spinach to the boiling water. Let it cook for 30 sec to 1 min. Pour water out of pot over a strainer so that you can catch the spinach on the strainer. Dip the strainer in the ice bath making sure the spinach is fully immersed in the ice bath. Let it sit for 2 min or until spinach is cold. Remove spinach from the ice bath and let the excess water to drip for about 3 min before placing it on a plate lined with paper towel.
Fill up the pot with water and boil it over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add bean sprouts to the boiling water. Let them cook for about 30 sec. You can cook them slightly longer if you like them slightly softer. I like mine tender-crisp, so that's why I only cook them for 30 sec. Pour water out of pot over a strainer. Dip the strainer in the ice bath making sure bean sprouts are fully immersed in ice bath. Let them sit for 2 min or until they are cold. Remove strainer from the ice bath and let the excess water to drip for about 3 min before placing bean sprouts on a plate lined with paper towel.
Fill up the pot with water and boil it over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add green beans to the boiling water. Let them cook for about 80 to 90 sec. You can cook them slightly longer if you like them slightly softer. Pour water out of the pot over a strainer. Dip the strainer in the ice bath making sure green beans are fully immersed in ice bath. Let them sit for 2 min or until they are cold. Remove strainer from the ice bath and let the excess water to drip for about 3 min before placing them on a plate lined with paper towel.
Fill up the pot with water and boil it over high heat. Once the water is boiling, add cabbage to the boiling water. Let it cook for about 60 sec. You can cook it slightly longer if you like it slightly softer. Pour water out of the pot over a strainer. Dip the strainer in the ice bath making sure cabbage is fully immersed in ice bath. Let it sit for 2 min or until it is cold. Remove strainer from the ice bath and let the excess water to drip for about 3 min before placing it on a plate lined with paper towel.
Add shallots, garlic, red chili pepper flakes, galangal powder, palm sugar, and kaffir lime leaves into a food processor. Pulse them until they become smooth paste.
Turn on the stove to medium high heat and heat vegetable oil on a pan. Add spice paste to the pan. Saute it until it becomes fragrant and shallots becomes soften. Add coconut and mix it well with spice paste until coconut is covered with spice paste. Add water and salt and saute to mix them. Taste it and add more salt if needed. Turn off the stove. Remove the pan from the heat.
To assemble it, place all vegetables in a bowl. Pour the coconut spice paste into the bowl. Toss the vegetables so that they are completely covered with the coconut spice paste. Serve it as a salad or side dish with steamed rice and other dishes. If you have left over, you can keep it in the fridge for couple days. You can also make it a day ahead and keep it in the fridge. If you are serving it as a side dish, let it sit on the kitchen counter for an hour to reach room temperature. If you are serving it as a salad, you can serve it right out from the fridge.

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