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Lontong sayur is a popular Indonesian dish often enjoyed for breakfast, brunch, or at any time of day. It has a creamy, spicy coconut-milk vegetable soup that pairs well with rice cakes.

Lontong Sayur

Lontong sayur is a vegetable curry cooked in coconut milk served with hard-boiled rice called lontong. It’s one of the popular street foods, often sought after for breakfast, and a traditional dish for celebrations such as Eid and Christmas, as well as for gatherings.

The dish is usually served with Ayam Goreng Bumbu, Sambal Goreng Ati, Beef Rendang, or Balado Ati.

Lontong Sayur with overlay text. — Photo Credit: So Yummy Recipes.

Although the original recipe uses dried shrimp paste or fish sauce to create the umami taste, you can always make this dish vegan by omitting them and substituting them with tamari.

There are many versions of lontong sayur in Indonesia. Every region has its way of cooking it and uses different ingredients. But it is essentially a vegetable curry cooked in coconut milk and served with hard-boiled rice.

What is Lontong?

Lontong is rice wrapped in banana leaves and shaped into a tube/ cylinder. It is then slowly boiled until the rice is mushy. When it cools, the rice will harden. And when you open the wrapper, the hard-boiled rice will form a tube.

The taste of lontong is simply like rice, but its texture is like firm tofu made with overcooked rice grains.

In Indonesia, there are two types of hard-boiled rice cakes. They are lontong and ketupat. They have the same cooking method: boiling for a long time until the grains are softened and mushy.

The difference is that ketupat is wrapped in woven palm leaves and shaped like a diamond. Traditionally, ketupat will be made for festive Eid celebrations. Therefore, you won’t find sellers selling ketupat wrappers outside the Eid season.

How to Make Lontong

Now, making a proper lontong with a banana leaf is possible in the UK because you can get banana leaves at the Asian shops in Chinatown. However, the price can be costly.

Alternatively, we can do it with a food-grade plastic bag.

Fill the bag with rice up to a third, then pierce it with skewers to create holes. You can also use pre-packaged Basmati boil-in-a-bag rice packets from supermarkets.

Then, boil the bags in plenty of water. You can do this in a pressure cooker for about 1 hour, or in a large pot for about 1.5 hours.

When it’s done, your boil-in-a-bag rice will be soft to the touch but harden once it’s completely cooled. So leave it on a colander to ensure any excess moisture drains and evaporates.

I have a tutorial post on how to make lontong without banana leaves that you can look at.

Flexible Ingredients for Lontong Sayur

Traditionally, the vegetables in this curry dish are raw papaya or labu siam/chayote, Kacang Panjang/yardlong, and potatoes.

Although those items are available in the UK, they are not easy to find. You may need to go to certain Asian shops to find these veggies.

Alternatively, you can add green beans or broad beans, along with potatoes. They make an equally delicious Lontong Sayur if the spices are rightly balanced. And, of course, it also depends on how we cook it.

By all means, you can choose whichever vegetables you’d like to use.

Top Tips to Make Mouthwatering Lontong Sayur

Make sure you fry the spice paste until it is cooked and releases a delicious aroma. If needed, add more oil so the spice doesn’t dry out.
Terasi (dried shrimp paste) and fish sauce contain salt. So, you may want to add a little salt as you try the taste.

Ways to Enjoy Indonesian Vegetable Curry with Lontong

You’ll only need crispy fried onions, some kerupuk (prawn crackers), and sambal (homemade chili sauce) to add to your lontong sayur.

But, as a festive food such as Eid’s feast, you can have lontong sayur Betawi with semur daging (slow-cooked meat in spicy sweet soy sauce), beef rendang (slow-cooked beef in spicy coconut milk), sambal goreng hati (liver cooked in spicy coconut milk), and/or Ayam goreng (Indonesian fried chicken).

However, I often have lontong sayur with Ayam kecap (sweet soy chicken), or krecek ati Ayam (chicken liver braised in soy sauce), as shown in the picture.

Storing Matter

You can cook and prepare this lontong sayur for another day. If you want to make it in bulk and save it as a keeper, you can freeze it for up to 2 months. Take it out of the freezer the night before serving and leave it in the fridge/ refrigerator to thaw overnight.

Reheat the vegetable curry until piping hot before serving. Once it has thawed, you must not refreeze it.

When keeping some leftovers, the curry keeps well in the fridge/ refrigerator for up to 4-5 days.

As for the lontong, you can keep and store them for the same period. Steam the lontong and let it cool down slightly before serving.

Take care and all the best.