Urab sayur is a traditional Balinese salad made with blanched vegetables, grated coconut and a chilli-spiked dressing.
I'm back from a blissful solo escape to Bali, where I spent most of my time in Ubud and Pemuteran. I took the opportunity to do a few things that I really wanted to do when we visited last year, that just didn't fit in with our family plans. One of those things was a photography workshop/tour (some of you will have seen a few pictures on Instagram) which was an incredible day, and another was to learn more about cooking Balinese food.
When I was planning this trip I was so happy to come across Traveling Spoon, a fantastic company that connects you with local cooks around the world. It's easy to find a cooking class in Bali - but not so easy to find a really personal, authentic experience that's off the usual tourist circuit - which is exactly what I got.
On the day I was picked up by Putu, a mum and a cook, and one of the kindest people I've met. We started early at the Ubud market to pick up supplies, then headed to her village where she lives with her extended family in a traditional Balinese compound with orchard and animals. Working with simple tools, a fire and a gas burner, she taught me how to cook an authentic Balinese meal. We had a great day and shared lots of laughs, and of course an excellent meal to top it off.
I love Balinese food. It's fresh, fragrant and spicy, vegetable-heavy and very well suited to vegetarian or vegan diets. I'll be sharing a few of my favourite recipes with you, starting with today's recipe for urab sayur, a traditional Balinese salad.
Balinese urab sayur - coconut and vegetable salad
Urab sayur (also known as sayur urab, or urap sayur) is one of the traditional side dishes served with nasi campur - an assortment of dishes served with rice. I clocked this tasty Balinese salad the first time I tried it, trying to decipher its ingredients and noting it down to learn more about.
The basic ingredients are usually blanched snake beans (long green beans), bean sprouts (mung or lentil) and spinach or cabbage. The blanched vegetables are tossed with grated coconut, and a cooked sambal dressing of chilli, shallot, garlic and lime. It's light and delicious, and perfect alongside curry.
Another thing I like about urab sayur is that it's cooked. I operate on a sliding scale of care about food hygiene when I'm travelling, sometimes I'll closely follow the old traveller's adage of 'cook it, wash it, peel it or forget it', and other times I'll use my judgment to decide when it's appropriate to risk a crisp fresh salad (the thing I always miss the most when I'm travelling). Happily, this salad is cooked so I could enjoy it any time I felt like it.
With no unusual ingredients, this is also one dish that's easy to replicate at home without having to make too many substitutions. You can be flexible with how much to use of each vegetable, and use snake beans if you can get them (otherwise use any thin green beans). This salad is best with fresh grated coconut, but you can substitute dried thread coconut instead (much easier).
I bought a fresh brown coconut for this recipe and regretted it, I don't know what I'm doing and it was a lot of work to crack the coconut, pry out segments of flesh and grate it. Do what you feel like.
Here's a picture of the urab sayur I made with Putu, as part of our incredible vegan feast.
Book your own Balinese cooking lesson
If you want to get off the tourist trail on your next trip to Bali, I highly recommend booking with Traveling Spoon for an authentic experience.
NOTE: This post is not sponsored. My day with Putu was one of the best travel experiences I've ever had. I want you to know about it so you can file the idea away for your next trip and have an awesome experience too. 
Get the recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup green beans cut into short lengths (about 150g)
- 2 cups mung bean sprouts (about 150g), or lentil sprouts
- 3-4 cups spinach roughly chopped (about 90-120g)
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic finely sliced
- 1 shallot finely sliced
- 1 long red chilli finely sliced
- 1-2 small hot red chillis finely sliced (optional - see recipe notes)
- 1 cup grated fresh coconut (or substitute with ½ cup dried thread coconut)
- 1 lime for squeezing
- Salt and pepper to season (preferably white pepper)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Start by blanching your vegetables. Bring a pot of water to a slow boil, drop in the green beans for 1 minute, then follow with the sprouts and spinach for 20-30 seconds. Drain all vegetables and rinse them under cold water to stop cooking. Set aside to drain.
- Heat coconut oil in a small frypan (skillet) or wok over high heat. Add the sliced garlic, shallot and chillis and cook for 2-3 minutes, until fragrant and softened but not brown.
- Combine the blanched vegetables, grated coconut (or thread coconut) and garlic mixture in a mixing bowl. Squeeze over the juice of a lime, and add a bit of salt and pepper. Get in there with your hands and give it a good mix together, scrunching it a bit to get the spices into everything.
- This recipe will serve four people as a substantial side, or more as part of a meal with lots of side dishes.
RECIPE NOTES
- Balinese recipes usually call for a combination of long (mild) red chillis, and small (hot) red chillis. The long red chilli here gives a mild heat to the salad, which is nice as it is. If you like spicy food you can add more long red chilli, or 1-2 small hot chillis to really amp it up.
- Balinese shallots are very small, while New Zealand shallots are a lot bigger. I used one New Zealand shallot (about the length of my thumb) for this recipe, and about three Balinese shallots when I made the salad in Bali.
- If you are planning to use fresh coconut, use a dry coconut with a brown husk (not a young, green coconut).
Terri Thomson
Oh this is my favourite dish - i would love to do this cooking class whilst i am in ubud next week. I couldn't find it on the traveling spoon - can you please point me in the right direction?
Thank you
Terri
Amber
Hi Terri, sorry about the slow reply, here is a direct link to Putu's page on the Traveling Spoon website https://www.travelingspoon.com/hosts/2858-traditional-balinese-cooking-in-a-multi-generational-family-compound
Sandra Niessen
Hi Amber!
It turns out that the other, closely related salad is called 'terancam'. Here is the recipe as my friend Mara just sent it to me (she got it from her brilliant Javanese cook):
Garlic, chillies, kencur (kampferia galanga) a small piece), palm sugar, salt
Grind all together in mortar and add grated fresh coconut (preferably
youngish)
Mix the above with finely cut raw vegetables like snake beans, cabbage, bean sprouts and some leaves. We use kenikir (cosmos caudatus) which is a type of marigold. You could use salad leaves with some basil to add aroma.
So this is the raw variant while urab is the cooked variant.
Amber
Thanks Sandra that sounds so good, and it's so interesting to hear about the variations on these traditional dishes. Thanks for taking the time to send this to me, much appreciated 🙂
Mason Parry
could you use kaffir lime threads in this also sandra? sounds delicious
Amber
Kaffir lime threads would be delicious in this 🙂
Chelvi S
Hi Amber,
This is such a nice recipe since I am also vegetarian and love coconut. I am originally from Sri Lanka where we use coconut in all of our recipes. We shred the coconut ourselves which is the white part.
What is brown fresh coconut? Is it a different variety of coconut and looks brown? Just curious since I have never seen this, but in Sri Lanka we have 3-4 different varieties of coconut
Amber
Hi Chelvi, by brown fresh coconut I mean a whole coconut that is not a 'green' or young coconut (which has very soft flesh). I'm not actually sure if that's the right way to describe it, but I couldn't think of a better way! 😉
Chelvi S
Thanks Amber, got it.. In Sri Lanka when we say young ccoconut refers to the ones with where flesh is very soft. The word "Coconut" normally refers to the mature coconut since young coconut cannot be used for cooking (like making coconut milk or shredding).
Young coconut is used only to drink the coconut water and the soft flesh is eaten as well (hope you had a chance to try that in Bali)..
Sandra Niessen
Thank you, Chelvi, for asking that. I was a bit confused as well. It sounds like Indonesians use coconuts the same way as Sri Lankans. In my Sumatran village we have a 'grater machine' in the local shop and when we want to cook with coconut, we go to the shop and they grate it for us mechanically on the spot. We always use it fresh because we don't have a refrigerator and if it is a day old, chances are it is already 'off'. There is nothing more delicious than fresh grated coconut!
Stephen
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I had one clarifying question. When you cook the garlic, chilis and shallot do you add that to the blanched veggies, or do you add the blanched veggies into the wok?
Amber
Hi there, add the garlic, chilli and shallot mixture to the blanched veggies 🙂
Bri
This sounds A-mazing! Thanks for sharing such a cool experience:)
Amber
Thanks Bri, it was such a cool experience!!
Sandra Niessen
Hi Amber, I was so excited to find this recipe!!! Thank you for sharing it. I am an anthropologist and work a lot in Indonesia. As a vegetarian, I don't find (living in Sumatra) that it is always easy to get vegetarian food. I always prowl around looking for Urap! There are variations on the theme -- one is uncooked. I can't remember the names of the variations, but I can ask my friend if you are interested. So happy to be able to now make this recipe myself when in The Netherlands and feeling rindu (homesick for Indonesia). Cheers!
Amber
Thanks Sandra! Wow it sounds like you have an interesting life! Yes I'd love to hear about the different variations, I've tried one with the native fern (not sure of its name) and others with a wider variety of vegetables too. So yummy and healthy. And thank you for teaching me a new word, I'm feeling rindu now too 🙂
sally
The native fern's name is PAKIS and its one of my favourites also when made urap, yes, so healthy.
sally
please help list some of the other variations, i'd love to hear