RRI.CO.ID, Jakarta - Pecel and ketoprak have been named among the top 10 in TasteAtlas’ Top 90 Best Asian Salads, according to data published on September 15, 2026. Both traditional Indonesian dishes feature vegetables and peanut sauce, but they differ in their ingredients and flavors.
Ketoprak is a Betawi dish that is popular as a street food in Jakarta. It usually consists of rice vermicelli, rice cakes, tofu, and bean sprouts mixed together and topped with peanut sauce.
The peanut sauce for ketoprak is usually prepared by grinding peanuts with garlic and other seasonings. The dish is then topped with sweet soy sauce, fried shallots, and crackers. Some vendors also add a boiled egg as an extra topping.
Meanwhile, pecel is a traditional dish from Java, particularly associated with Madiun in East Java. Unlike ketoprak, pecel uses a variety of boiled vegetables, such as water spinach, long beans, cassava leaves, papaya leaves, and sesbania flowers.
Another distinctive feature is its peanut sauce. Pecel sauce is made from peanuts and various spices, including chili peppers, palm sugar, garlic, tamarind, kaffir lime leaves, salt, and kencur, an aromatic type of ginger. The combination creates a savory, sweet, and spicy flavor with a noticeable kaffir lime aroma.
Pecel is often served with rempeyek kacang, a thin and crispy cracker made from flour and peanuts. When served with rice, the dish is known as nasi pecel and is a popular meal in Java.
Although both dishes use peanut sauce, ketoprak and pecel have distinct characteristics. Ketoprak relies more on rice vermicelli, tofu, rice cakes, and bean sprouts, while pecel highlights a variety of boiled vegetables with a richly seasoned peanut sauce.
Both dishes show the variety of vegetable-based foods found in Indonesia. So, if you enjoy dishes with peanut sauce, would you be more interested in trying ketoprak or pecel?
News Recomendation
Loading latest news.....