One of the things that saves me at every Aidilfitri Open House? That steaming fragrant turmeric coconut broth with mixed vegetables and mungbean noodles over leaf-wrapped compressed rice.
I’m a sucker for all coconut-based broths and Lontong is one of few plant-based dishes available during festive times with the Muslim community.
But making Lontong without coconut milk was a challenge I did not expect to achieve!
Testing out this recipe was a laborious process, and the preparation of so many ingredients each time doesn’t help! But I’m glad that I have been able to present a unique twist to an already unique dish.
Although this is traditionally eaten with ketupat, even the less exotic pot-cooked rice complements this beautifully.
This recipe was one of six I developed in collaboration with Malaysian health food brand Spoon Health.
Lean Lontong
A fragrant Malaysian / Indonesian vegetable stew, usually made with coconut base. This is a variation that replaces the coconut milk with quinoa powder and cashews.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Long Beans, cut into long strips
- 1 tomato, diced
- 1 cup cabbage, cut finely
- 1 small carrot, cut into long strips
- 1 small eggplant, cut into long strips
- 1 cup tempeh, diced
- 1/8 cup cooking oil
- 1/2 cup dried beancurd sheets
- 1/2 cup of glass noodles (Also known as ‘tung hoon’ or ‘soh hoon’)
- 1/3 cup cashews, with the rest of the cup filled with water and soaked for 4 hours
- 2 tsp lime juice / juice of 2 calamansi limes
- 1 cup of diced pumpkin
- 2 liters of water
- 1/2 cup Spoon Health Quinoa Powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp shredded ginger OR 1/2 tsp ginger powder
- 2 tsp pink salt
- 3 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- 5-7 lime leaves
- Juice of 2 calamansi limes
- 1 bulb garlic, diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
Directions
- Step 1 Set water to boil in a pot.
- Step 2 While waiting, heat oil in frying pan on high heat. Fry long beans, eggplant and tempeh with a pinch of salt for 3-5 minutes. Leave aside.
- Step 3 Once the water hits boiling point, put in the pumpkin dices and allow to cook for 10 minutes (refer to next step). Remove the pumpkin and leave the water in the pot.
- Step 4 While the pumpkin is cooking, blend the cashews together with the water it has been soaking in, until it becomes a fine paste.
- Step 5 Add garlic, onion, lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, tomato, lime juice, salt and sugar to the pumpkin water and leave to boil.
- Step 6 Once the water boils, add quinoa powder and stir until powder has dissolved.
- Step 7 Add carrot and beancurd sheets, followed by cashew paste, and turmeric powder, and glass noodles. Allow soup to simmer on medium heat for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Step 8 Stir in the fried long beans, eggplant and tempeh.
- Step 9 Serve immediately with rice.
