Cooking Water Spinach For Lunch

From the garden to the table. Fresh veggies for family lunch. Spicy Alert!!!

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Blessing is not always about big things. Given nature in the form of fresh vegetables is also a blessing. If you are not blessed, of course there are no seeds that thrive until they are ready to be harvested.

The alternating sun and water is an expensive price to be thankful for. Without it, the vegetables in my garden cannot be of good quality. Yeah, about the veggies that are comfortable in our taste buds.

Well, after yesterday I shared about harvesting water spinach, today I will share a recipe for lunch with water spinach. This is in accordance with my promise in my previous post.



Read my post about harvesting water spinach: Growing Water Spinach To Harvesting In My Little Garden


Water spinach is very easy and suitable to be combined with other side dishes. So, I combined water spinach with potato and Tempeh.

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For potatoes, I'm using diet potatoes that I bought a few days ago and I've posted on Hive. Here the post: Diet Potatoes With Certified Pesticide Free


For Tempeh, I made Tempeh fried sticks. I shape the Tempeh into a stick-like shape which I then fry without adding any more flour.

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Seasoning Characteristics of Indonesia

One thing that is always present in Indonesian food is spicy sauce. It's called SAMBAL. Also, there are already many products for instant chili on the market.

In fact, my dining table also has chili sauce in a bottle. My husband always adds sambal when eating any side dishes. So crazy! 😅 Likewise with what I do.


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Well, I use spicy seasoning for the water spinach itself. With Chilli puree, we can eat more vegetables. At least, that's what we are used to in Indonesia. SAMBAL (Chilli puree) will boost many times the delicacy of simple vegetables. That's why Indonesian food menus are mostly about spicy taste!

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This is sambal (Chili puree) which already contains a mixture of red chilli, garlic, salt, and sugar.

This sambal (Chili puree) is a popular seasoning used for stir-fried water spinach. We will find a lot of Spicy Water Spinach menus to complement dine-in dishes at local Indonesian restaurants.




HOW TO MAKE SAMBAL

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I use favorite traditional tools. Pestle and mortar made of stone. Why not a blender? It is about texture. If you use a blender, the texture of the chilies will become soft and also tend to become liquid if we add more water to blend them.

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In cafes or restaurants, they still use this method to maintain the texture of the chilies and onions. Not too crushed into puree. We can still see Chili flakes on the sambal.

Don't forget to add 1 teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar for a balanced taste. We need to add sugar so that the spiciness doesn't burn too much in the mouth.




Cooking Potatoes

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I use the boil for the potato method. You can also use the bake method with an oven or air fryer. Or even the steam method. Just do according to your taste buds.

First, I bring the water to a boil. Then, add salt and potato wedges. Cook until the texture is the way you want it. Here, I use ten minutes.

Once cooked, drain and set aside while waiting for the water spinach to be cooked.




Cooking Tempeh

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For Tempeh that is long and thick like mine, cut it into two parts first.

Then from the part that has been divided by two, it is divided by two again. Which is then cut again into 3 pieces of Tempeh in the shape of a stick.

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Fried Tempeh until golden brown. Flip the other side for even cooking. Keep their attention. They burn easily at any time!

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Cooking Water Spinach

The final stage is cooking water spinach with sambal. Cut the stems of water spinach using only your hands. Don't use a knife.

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By directly using your hands, you will know the hard texture of the water spinach stems. Discard tough stems. Hard stems are water spinach stems that have been growing in the ground for too long.


Some people split the stem of the water spinach if it is too large. Also, to avoid small aquatic animals remaining in the stem, water spinach is developed above the surface of the water such as ponds and swamps.


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Next, heat the oil. Here, I'm using the olive oil option. If you are avoiding oil altogether, then simply cook chili puree in a little water.

Add sambal while continuing to stir. Cook for a while. You will see a color change.


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Add water spinach. Stir them well. Let them wither. Add about 50 ml of water.

When it will be removed, correct the salty taste. Then, serve this side dish with the components of boiled potatoes and fried tempeh.




Serving!

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All components are visible harmony on the serving plate. And, it really looks spicy!

The boiled potato pieces pair well with the fried tempeh sticks. 😍 Well, I also still add Chili sauce from my husband's favorite bottled product.

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We really like the spicy vibes from our plates. It felt even more arousing our feelings. Uppps! See you ❤️




Thank you for reading my blog and reblog if you want my blog this time worthy of reading by others.

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Best Regards,
Anggrek Lestari


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Who is Anggrek Lestari?

Anggrek Lestari is an Indonesian fiction writer who has published two major books. Now She is a full-time content creator. She has a goal to share life, poem, and food content that makes others happy and can get inspiration.


Contact Person: [email protected]
Discord: anggreklestari#3009




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48 comments
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Your smile denotes the liking you have for the vegetables you bought and the food you made. I wish you much success in your publication. Forward my friend @anggreklestari From Venezuela I wish you all the beauty in life.

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For this one, I really happy because I directly Harvest from my own garden.

I hope in same way for you 🙂

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That is very interesting, sowing, harvesting, preparing and also preparing a publication about food from the same production, that is very nice, I congratulate you my friend @anggreklestari , what you do is greatly appreciated from Venezuela. I wish you much success in your excellent publication. Hugs.

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It looks beautiful. I'm not a big fan of spicy things, but your recipes make me hungry. Great recipe from the garden to the plate.

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I thought in Turkish food has no chili?

Ah, your mouth will be burn! No, no

Maybe if I visit your country, my mouth will be bland 🙈

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Some Turkish dishes are also very spicy but not my preference.

I hope you will visit our country one day.

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My personal favorite dish is water spinach. I like its taste and smell very much. Therefore, I use this water spinach at least once in my main meal. Also, I always like to see a type of food that can be made from water spinach.

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Oh! Now I see. The chilli pepper will make the water spinach more enjoyable (I love spicy dishes) and the tip about the sugar reducing the spiciness will go a long way. Thank you for sharing💕

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❤️ I thought in your area has spicy food too?

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(Edited)

Yes we do and I love spicy foods though now I know what to do to reduce the peppery taste by adding a little sugar as you said.

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That looks soooo spicy! 🌶 My sister was just talking about making sambal, but I'm not sure I can manage the heat. Lol

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If you feel burn, then add milk 😅

That's why in our sambal, we add sugar to reduce the heat sensation. 🙂

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That is the good outcome of backyard gardening, we don't need to purchase vegetables in the market; we can have them for free. Indeed, it is a blessing. Additionally, we are certain that we consume chemical-free vegetables.

In the Philippines, we usually cook water spinach with oil, and that's it. We call it 'ginisang kangkong or sauteed water spinach".

I like how you incorporated water spinach into the dish you made, and this sambal surely made the dish more delicious. I like spicy food too, but not too much.

I'm not familiar of tempeh, is it yummy?

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From garden, we can Harvest whenever we want to cook them. So the texture is really fresh and still crunchy.

Tempeh is fermented soy beans. If you cook Tempeh in right way, it should be delicious 🙂

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Congrats! It looked not only tasty but also pretty, sis

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I hope the spinach in this dish was very good.
However, not everyone will be able to enjoy the pepper, you probably like spicy?
My husband really liked the recipe.
Now he insists that I cook the same for him.
Thank you so much for new ideas in cooking and your creativity!

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Me, my all family members and my husband like spicy taste. We can't live without Chilli 😅
But we did not like tomato sauce in spaghetti recipe. Not our type

Oh, I hope you can cook the thing that your husband want for 🌸

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This looks beautiful and looks delicious as well. Definitely green leaves are blessings☺️

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I have known you were a great chef, this one you shared has made me salivate ever since I saw it but know it would have finished by now, so I would wait patiently for the next meal. Kudos dear friend.

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If you came to my country, I Will cook for you, for sure 🙂

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Wao! I will be so honoured and it will feel like I have won a jackpot,🤣🤣🤣 and I will seat majestically to eat the nice recipe the master chef will prepare for me...

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Greetings @anggreklestari, what a blessing to be able to harvest your food and prepare delicious recipes, it looks very good plus the photos were spectacular.

Happy start of the week!

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Greeting, my friend
I love to set up my food into beautiful plating
Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

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This meal is really appertizing. I love spicy foods because it brings out good taste and gives us a good taste buds too. Thanks for sharing this fresh vegetable dish with us .

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In my family, we believe spicy can cure the dizzy thing and can makes our mood better 🙂

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Never been a fan of spicy food but damn, this looks delicious!!!

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I'm always craving for spicy food. 😋 Ehehe

Hey, thanks for stopping by

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Spicy goodness, Sambal is something we enjoy in a variety of ways using carrots, onions and green chili, or tomato, onions with chili both lightly sprinkled with vinaigrette, nice to learn new ideas in preparation always.

Water spinach looks interesting with typical local food added to the dish, thanks for sharing a taste of Indonesian.

!LUV
!LADY

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If people cant hold the spicy taste, then, can add more tomatoes for lighter taste 🙂

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In reality, eating spinach is very delicious.

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I have cooked water spinach but only a very simple recipe. I haven't tried it spicy. Feels like I wanted to taste it.

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In Indonesia, many veggie just add Chili puree / sambal 😅 even just Boiled veggies, then added sambal. That's our taste buds

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Wow looks like a very refreshing meal. The water spinach does compliment the rest. I'm curious enough about the hot sauce (sambal) I want to try it. I love seeing your healthy conscious dishes. 😋

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One more delicious recipe as always nice post and presentation thanks for sharing. greetings💖😄

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