Sayur Asem: Sour Tamarind Soup With Vegetables and Beef Trimmings

 by: Nur Syairah

First of all, Sayur asem is basically a mix of vegetables cooked in a sour tamarind soup, giving it a refreshing, slightly-acidic flavour. According to legend, this dish originated in the Jakarta area during the Dutch colonial period. The story goes: during the Dutch Occupation, people in Batavia (the old name for Jakarta) were poor, and had to eat anything on hand. As asem (tamarind) trees were thriving on their land, they created a tamarind-flavoured soup and added vegetables from their garden to it, creating sayur asem. 

In Indonesia, especially in Jakarta, a sayur asem mix can be bought at the market or vegetable stall, containing everything you need to make the dish. Most of the time, the vegetables in the pack will be based on availability, such that even now, sayur asem ingredients are never fixed. There are always one or two vegetables missing, and that’s perfectly acceptable. The most common vegetables used are: young jackfruit, chayote, long beans, corn and the leaves and fruit of a special local plant known as melinjo (gnetum gnemon). Melinjo is native to Indonesia and can hardly be found outside the country.

In this recipe, I used a vegetable mix I bought from a neighbourhood vegetable stall. In the package were: melinjo leaves and fruits, long beans, corn, chayote and young tamarind fruit. However,  I’ve modified this recipe to use different vegetables as some of them, such as melinjo, are very difficult to obtain outside Indonesia. I also added young jackfruit (which is optional, because it can be hard to find as well), and raw peanuts. If long beans are unavailable, you can substitute them with french beans or green beans.