21 Essential Indonesian Recipes, From Satay to Sambal

My first time in Indonesia, I landed in Bali and climbed into a middle-of-the-night car to my hotel. The driver was excited to meet Americans; he had lived in Chicago for many years. When he told us about it, he talked about the food. “Where was the rice?” he asked, emphatic, as he recounted what it was like to eat so many thousands of miles away from his home. The thought of a meal served without rice was the height of ridiculousness, unbelievability. “A meal with no rice?”

How do you talk about Indonesian food when the country is made up of more than 17,000 islands (6,000 or so of those inhabited) and over 280 million people? The cuisine of every island is different, depending on its climate, resources, culture, and history. Indonesian cuisine is perhaps best understood as a collection of regional foodways shaped by this multiplicity. Rice is one obvious throughline, as it is across much of Asia. And, according to chef and cookbook author Lara Lee, the near-ubiquitous and ever-varied condiment sambal is another. “If you sit down at an Indonesian table and there’s no sambal, people will wonder what’s wrong,” Lee explains.

“Sambal is a state of mind,” chef and TV presenter William Wongso told us in 2016. Food writer Matt Gross, who interviewed him for the magazine, speculated that “in a nation as vast and varied as Indonesia, sambal functioned as a uniting principle, perhaps the only thing some groups had in common.”

Lee would add coconut to that list. Along with rice, krupak (deep-fried crackers), and kecap manis (thick, palm sugar–sweetened soy sauce), Lee makes the case that sambal and coconut form the backbone of most Indonesian dishes. It’s why she titled her award-winning debut cookbook Coconut & Sambal. “I wanted to give a broader voice to those 6,000 islands, which is almost impossible.”

For home cooks exploring Indonesian cuisine, Lee’s biggest piece of advice is not to rush the bumbu, which forms the foundation of so many Indonesian dishes. “Everything really starts with the bumbu. It’s the initial spice mix or spice paste. It doesn’t necessarily mean a ground spice paste, it could also be garlic and shallots and chile. That’s the base of every dish,” Lee said.

Take your time caramelizing the shallots and cooking down the chiles — the flavors deepen with patience. That said, don’t worry if your measurements aren’t exact; a little extra shallot or garlic won’t throw the dish off. “Indonesian food is not prescriptive, it’s not as if not following the recipe exactly won’t make it turn out,” Lee said. “What was wonderful when I met Indonesian cooks is that everyone has their own idea of how many garlic cloves or shallots or chiles should go into a dish, and they were very intuitive.”

These recipes highlight the remarkable diversity of Indonesian cooking, from iconic staples like nasi goreng, satay, and soto ayam to regional specialties from Bali, Java, and North and West Sumatra. Along the way, you’ll find fiery sambals, fragrant coconut curries, grilled meats, crisp fritters, savory dumplings, and festive sweets, as well as refreshing desserts that showcase tropical fruits and pandan. Together, they offer a delicious introduction to the ingredients, techniques, and regional traditions that define one of the world’s most diverse culinary landscapes.