Sambal Onion

Like to make sambal yourself? This super easy Beb Vuyk recipe for sambal onion is a delicious one. I use fresh spring onions; it looks and tastes well with this freshly made Indonesian salsa.

This sambal onion can easily be made spicier by using another, stronger pepper.

This recipe is enough for 6 people and is finished in 5 minutes.

Sambal Ui # 23 translated from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 59.

Ingredients

5 chili peppers
1/2 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon terasi
1 tablespoon of finely sliced onion

Make sambal terasi, but rub chopped onions and the sliced garlic with it. This sambal is not long-lasting, even in the refrigerator.

This is all you need. I use the old cobek (mortar) from my grandmother to rub the salsa. Sambal trassi is trassi (shrimp paste), crushed with a pinch of salt and hot chili peppers. I buy trassi at my local supermarket but specialist Asian food stores sell it too. Trassi is used a lot in Thai cuisine as well. I buy it dried or as a pasta. Both work great for this sambal onion.

We have for people for dinner tonight. I use: 3 chili peppers, 1/4 garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon of , 1 spring onion and a pinch of salt.

I cut everything into equal pieces, but not too tiny. I serve this sambal with an Asian noodle soup. A rough sambal looks nice in a soup, I believe ;-).

I rub until the mix becomes juicy and the trassi is well combined.

Want to try more homemade sambals? Here are all the Indonesian chili salsa’s I’ve made up till now. Some are done under 5 minutes, others are a bit more complex. I have to warn you though, if you start making your own sambal you can never return to chili salsa from the supermarket… 😉 .