Sambal balado is a spicy little number that is used more as a cooking ingredient than a condiment. It is yet another spicy recipe that makes a regular appearance on my dinner table, because hey, it’s great as a condiment!
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
What is Sambal?
If you’ve been a long time LinsFood follower, and especially if you receive my weekly chilli newsletter, you’ve got this one!
There is no direct translation for the Malay/Indonesian word sambal. Generally speaking, it refers to something spicy, as in chilli hot. For the most part, when we say sambal, many of us are thinking about spicy condiments like today’s sambal balado, or sambal belacan or mango sambal, for example.
However, we may just as likely be referring to a side dish like sambal fishball, a wet dish, or sambal goreng a vegetable and tempeh stir fry.
One thing they all have in common is that they are spicy. So sambal is a spicy dish and can be a condiment or a side dish. The word is also used in Sri Lankan cooking, as in pol sambol.
What is Sambal Balado?
Sambal balado is native to Western Sumatra, Indonesia. But like any good recipe, it has travelled and found a second home in the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan, where Ayam Masak Lemak Cili Api comes from.
The food of this area is called Padang food and is extremely popular in Singapore and Malaysia, we have restaurants dedicated to this cuisine. Padang is the capital of the West Sumatran province and is home to the Minangkabau people.
The language spoken by these folks is called the Minang dialect and in this dialect, the word balado means with chilli, a slight variation of the Indonesian and Malay term berlada.
- The prefix “ba” or “ber” = with
- the word lado = chilli (pepper), again a colloquialism of the word lada which means the same thing.
I remember always being tickled pink when I would hear my dad, who was Malaysian, speaking in Malay with a very distinct Negeri Sembilan dialect. It was weird as he was born in the Cameron Highlands! Probably where I get the habit of changing my accent slightly to suit my listeners!
So Sambal Balado basically means a sambal with chilli. Kind of redundant really, when the word sambal conjures up images of a dish made with chillies!
Sambal Balado Recipe
So today’s recipe is quick and easy, in fact, it’s very much an impromptu one. I was going to make sambal balado telur goreng, and decided to shoot a quick video with my phone and some super quick photos. In English, that would be:
- sambal balado = today’s recipe
- telur = egg
- goreng = fried
So essentially, an omelette stirred through with today’s sambal. Recipe soon.
In the recipe card below, I’ve given quick instructions for sambal balado telur, but this is with boiled eggs. Technically, I would add the word rebus at the end, to denote that it’s boiled eggs (rebus = boiled). So sambal balado telur rebus. But really, no one says that!
Sambal balado is extremely easy to make, it’s a case of placing all the ingredients in a chopper, zapping to a paste, then frying everything in a little oil to cook the sambal.
We season it with salt, sugar and lime juice and optional lime leaves for some fragrance. That’s it. It can be stored in the fridge in a clean jar for up to a week.
Ingredients
The ingredients are pretty basic and easily found, with the exception of the optional Kaffir Lime leaves. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Chillies
We use fresh red chillies for this. The type of chillies you use will determine the spice level of your sambal. You want red, as that’s the signature look of this sambal.
Use mild chillies or Thai chillies or a combination of the two. I’ll give you the total weight of chillies so that you can keep the flavour proportion. But how hot will depend on the type of chillies themselves. Jalapeños are going to be mild-medium, while a scotch bonnet will be rather exciting, to say the least.
Tomatoes
A ripe fresh tomato is perfect for this. Some people use more than others, I’ve given 1 tomato for the amount of chillies here, you can use 2, if you like your tomatoes.
My granny used to make a sambal tomato that used the exact same ingredients here but with more tomatoes.
Shallots
We use a small amount of shallots in this sambal. You can sub this with regular onions, preferably red ones for their sweeter taste.
Garlic
A couple of small or medium cloves of garlic is all we need. As our sambal balado only gets about 5 minutes of cooking, it remains fairly raw in flavour. So too much garlic will overpower everything else.
Having said that, this sambal is used an an ingredient more often than not, so it’ll be cooked further.
Kaffir Lime Leaves
These add a lovely aroma to our sambal, but are totally optional, as I know that they are not easily available to everyone outside of South East Asia.
If you are in the UK, you’ll find them in many of our bigger supermarkets, and Ocado stocks them too. Or do what I do, and grow them. That way, you’ll never run out!
Lime juice
Lime juice is a must in sambal balado. It adds a citrusy zing to our sambal and let’s face it, lime juice makes everything taste better! Use whatever limes you can get your hands on.
How to Use It?
This is the sort of chilli paste you would reach for when a recipe calls for chilli paste or sambal oelek. And it also makes the perfect replacement for fresh chillies in a recipe. So if you were doing a stir fry or any stew or curry, or even a salad, use sambal balado instead of the the chilli paste or fresh chillies in the recipe.
Our Char Kway Teow recipe says “any generic chilli paste” as one of the ingredients. Instead of using a shop bought one, this would be perfect.
Here are some examples:
How long will Sambal Balado Keep?
If you don’t use it all up on the first day, store it in a clean jar in your fridge. Cover it with a layer of vegetable oil, and it will keep for 1 week.
And now, shall we get cooking?
If you like the recipe, why don’t you leave me a comment and if you like, a 5-star rating? Thank you!
And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood
Lin xx
Sambal Balado (Indonesian Red Chilli Paste)
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 chopping board
- 1 Food chopper or pestle and mortar
- 1 small frying pan
- 1 ladle
Ingredients
- 5 large red chillies about 120 g (about 4.2 oz)
- 5 Thai red chillies (or any birds eye type) about 40 g (about 1½ oz)
- 2 shallots pre peeled weight 50g (about 2 oz)
- 2 small cloves garlic
- 1 medium tomato
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil or coconut oil, for a different flavour
- 1 tsp white sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp lime juice any lime
Instructions
- Place the chillies, shallots, garlic and tomato in a chopper and blitz to a fairly fine paste.
- Heat the oil in a small frying pan over medium heat and fry the paste for 1 minute.
- Add the sugar, salt and lime leaves, stir, then lower heat to medium-low, and cook for another 4 minutes, until you have a dry-ish paste.
- Turn the heat off and stir in the lime juice.If not using immediately, store it in the fridge, in a clean jar.
Quick recipe for Telur Balado (Egg Balado)
- Boil 4 eggs and peel them.
- Heat 1 Tbsp vegetable oil in a frying pan or work and fry the peeled eggs for 2-3 minutes on medium heat, just to brown slightly and for a little crisp.
- Stir in the sambal, add a little water, if you want more sauce. Check seasoning and serve immediately as a side dish.
Made a huge batch over the weekend. So far, we used it to barbecue stuff and for the egg recipe you gave. Simple but so good, who needs shop bought sambal oelek!
Perfect condiment to spice up my food. I would love to try this recipe with my homegrown chilies.
I’m sure you’ll love it.
Sambal Balado, yum, now I have a recipe to follow. When I was in Bali, my son’s friend’s wife would make a jarful for us. It adds just the right amount of kick and flavour to any dish. I’m going to try out this recipe. Wondering if I can use dried kaffir lime leaves which is sometimes available in spice shops.
My goodness! How do I stop salivating now after reading this recipe! I want to make this sauce right now and then use it for egg balado, salads and stews. Or just spread it on a slice and devour – you know how much I love spicy. 💘
Thank you, Maria. I had to chuckle when I read your comment about spreading it on a slice of bread – that’s exactly what I do for a lazy lunch, with cucumbers and tomatoes!
Really enjoyed this one. Made those boiled eggs as you suggested, so quick and easy. Cheers!
I am so pleased to hear that, Rhys, and it’s my pleasure.