Nasi Goreng simply means “fried rice” in Indonesian (nasi = rice, goreng = fried). The dish originates from Indonesia, but it’s also deeply rooted in Malaysia, Singapore, and even the Netherlands. In Dutch supermarkets, you’ll find ready-made Nasi Goreng mixes, and in many households it’s an everyday meal. A Southeast Asian dish that, as a result of colonization, found a home in Europe — much like you’d see with Indian cuisine in the UK.
There is no one definitive version of Nasi Goreng, but there are some classic base ingredients. Everything else is up to your imagination and taste — meaning you can create delicious versions that are vegan, vegetarian, meat-based, or seafood-based.
The classic base consists of cooked rice (preferably from the day before), shallots or onions, garlic, chili or sambal oelek, belacan or shrimp paste, kecap manis, and soy sauce.
A sambal is an Indonesian chili sauce — we always keep one in the house. Oelek is the Dutch spelling of ulek, which means “mortar”, since this is how sambal is traditionally prepared. Belacan is a fermented Indonesian shrimp paste, which we don’t typically have on hand. Instead, we use Thai shrimp paste, which is easier to find where we live and comes in glass jars. It lasts almost indefinitely. Kecap manis is a sweet, thick Indonesian soy sauce. For Nasi Goreng, we mix it 1:1 with regular soy sauce.
What is actually always eaten with this dish is fresh raw vegetables, for example cucumber and tomato. We sprinkle our raw vegetables with a little lemon juice for flavor and to keep them fresh and crunchy. In Indonesia, they often also serve krupuk, deep-fried crab chips.
Everything else is optional. Often, Nasi Goreng is served with egg — either scrambled into the rice or as a fried egg on top. A mix of finely sliced vegetables is typical. For us, that usually means carrots, leeks, and spring onions. But white or red cabbage, bell peppers, or green beans also work beautifully. The best approach is to use whatever you already have at home — or what caught your eye at the market.
You’ll also often see tempeh, chicken, or shrimp in Nasi Goreng. We’re going with shrimp today because we happened to have a small amount left over.
Nasi Goreng isn’t a fixed recipe — it’s more of a culinary improvisation. Its signature flavour comes from the base ingredients, and we strongly recommend not skipping the shrimp paste. Yes, it smells intense — and you wouldn’t eat it on its own — but it delivers the defining aroma that makes the dish Nasi Goreng rather than fried rice. Just as important is the sweetness of the kecap manis.
We start by sautéing chopped onions in a wok with a little neutral oil over medium-high heat. Today, we’re adding our shrimp right away. If you’re using fresh chili, it goes in at this stage too.
After two minutes, we add chopped garlic and our sliced vegetables. Stir-fry just briefly — the veggies should stay crisp.
Next come the cooked rice and spring onions.
Give everything a good mix, then season with sambal oelek and shrimp paste. Stir-fry for another 3 minutes until the aroma becomes wonderfully intense.
Finally, stir in the kecap manis and soy sauce mixture — and that’s it. If everything’s prepped ahead of time, the whole dish comes together in minutes.
We serve with lots of raw vegetables, a fried egg on top, and some crispy fried onions for extra texture. Anything you like is fair game here.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (serves 2)
240 g (uncooked) jasmine rice, cooked and ideally chilled overnight
2 tbsp neutral cooking oil
1 medium onion
Optional: shrimp and/or (diced) chicken
4 garlic cloves
1 leek
2 carrots
4 spring onions
(or cabbage, bell pepper, green beans, etc.)
1–2 tsp sambal oelek (or fresh chili to taste)
½–1 tsp shrimp paste
1 tbsp kecap manis
1 tbsp soy sauce
Optional: 2 eggs
Fresh raw vegetables, such as cucumber and tomato
