Affordable and healthy dinner: Veggie Peanut Butter Lemon Sauce

 

Affordable and healthy dinner: Veggie peanut butter lemon sauce (long bean and red spinach) & veggie fritters, cucumber, kiwi, rice cake - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Hi all of you, welcome back to Ichi's fusion recipes! How are you? It's been a while since the last article I published. Well, many things happened recently and I have to handle some issues. Anyway, today I would like to share the story about one of the recipes from my book; it is veggie peanut butter lemon sauce. Does it mean that I am not writing the recipe? Yes. So, read my book if you want to know how to make it 😊

Veggie peanut butter lemon sauce is also known as "pecel". Pecel is a traditional food in my hometown that not only cheaper but also contains lots of vitamins. I am proud to say it is definitely vegetarian. Well, if you are a vegan then this menu suits you! 

Back then in my hometown, villagers use to cook this menu at home. I remember when I called my aunt, she said that she cooked pecel and fried tempeh 😋😋 The vegetables are varied when we are talking about what kind of veggie we can use to make this recipe. In a tiny village like my hometown, villagers just grabbed cassava leaves, young papaya leaves, papaya flowers from their yards to cook this menu at home. Or sometimes they used to pick some kind of flower that I can't figure out what the name of that flower 😐😒 This flower has a pink color (it could be white color), crescent shape, this particular plant could grow quite tall. The uncommon veggie that villagers use to cook this particular dish was some kind of water plant. Just same as that flower, I do not know the name. That how happy become someone from a village because sometimes we just picked from nature without spending money to buy vegetables. Actually, other vegetable variations that we can use to make this dish are spinach, long bean, cabbage, bean sprout, carrot, cucumber, reddish, french bean, or even kale. Well, in my other article I mention that the kale texture is the same as cassava leaves.

I am proud to say that veggie peanut butter sauce is full of vitamins because of the vegetables we use to make it. For most villagers, this is the cheaper food they got to boost their health, at least in my hometown. The fresh and natural ingredient makes this dish famous and exists until today. Furthermore, when eating it with fried tempeh or veggie fritter, or even both; it makes healthier food; affordable, cheaper!

Affordable and healthy dinner: Veggie peanut butter Lemon Sauce (french bean, purple cabbage, carrot), rice cake, an orange - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti

Speaking of which, do you know that papaya leaves, papaya flowers, cucumber are good sources to lower blood pressure. All food sources in the village are also nature medicines and there is always a reason to eat these sources. I have always been admiring their knowledge and I can still remember what kind of vegetables or food sources give us benefits for our body. I learned all this knowledge from my grandma, my neighbors in the village. 

How about the sauce? The sauce called peanut butter lemon sauce, it is definitely fusion which means I create it to adapt where I live. Believe me, when you show my recipe to the villager in my hometown, they will say it is not "pecel" recipe. I am sure about that and that why I create a new name based on the ingredients I use. The original way to make the sauce is to consume time because we need to fry the peanut first, then use pastel and mortar to grind all the sauce ingredients. In my recipe, I just simply substitute it with peanut butter because it easy to find in the place I live today. Moreover, it saves time, easier to make, and delicious. I also substitute tamarind with lemon or lime. You could say that lemon or lime is everywhere which is sold in many places. One sauce ingredient that I can't substitute is sand ginger. But, do not worry even if without sand ginger, the sauce taste is still awesome! How do I know? I often make this menu! 😉🤞

So, are you interested in Veggie Peanut Butter Lemon Sauce, you can read my book. This is an affordable and healthy dinner that you would like it. If you are not vegetarian, you can add a boiled egg 😊👍

Thank you for reading my article. Wishing you the best for all of you! Stay healthy, keep courage, and stay safe!

Note:

• Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
• Do not copy this article without permissions
• Do not reuse these photographed anywhere else without permissions