Sayur Lontong Zucchini - Zucchini and Vegetables Coconut Milk Stew

When I have plenty of vegetables that need to be cooked, I love turning them into sayur lontong. Sayur lontong is essentially a medley of vegetables and meat cooked in a spiced coconut milk broth. Since summer is the season when zucchini looks its best, I decided to prepare sayur lontong with zucchini.

Ebi = not vegetarian friendly

Although you can substitute the meat (typically beef, or chicken) with tofu, you cannot turn sayur lontong into vegetarian friendly dish. The broth for sayur lontong definitely needs to have ebi (toasted ground shrimp) in it, or it just won’t be the same. Dried shrimps can be easily found in almost any Asian market. You can also use shrimp powder (same amount) to cut prep time. I actually prefer the shrimp powder since the quality is much more consistent. Sometimes I go to my local Asian market and walk away disappointed with the inferior quality compared to the ones sold in Indonesia.

Choice of vegetables

You can use all sort of vegetables for this dish. The more common and popular ones include chayote, snake beans, stink beans, cabbage, and eggplant. Since some of the more commonly used vegetables can be hard to find in the United States, I also use zucchini, or other squashes, carrots, and green beans.

Here is my tips on how to cook the vegetables. Since different vegetables need different cooking time, I add the ones that need longer cooking time first before adding the broth. And once the meat is cooked, then I add the remaining vegetables that only needs short cooking time and cook only until those vegetables are tender but still retains its crispiness.