Vegan Cooking Class in Ubud – An Organic Farm to Plate Experience

Our day started at one of the bigger fresh markets outside of central Ubud where we met our guide and cooking instructor for the day. He showed us around the market pointing out different vegetables and letting us try exotic fruits. Many of these fruits we had never even heard of despite all the years we've traveled in Southeast Asia.

The market also sold tofu and tempeh. Our guide explained that tofu and tempeh are popular meat substitutes among the local people because they're healthy and cheap.

Traditional Balinese Offerings

Another lady was selling flowers for the daily offerings to the Gods, also known as Canang Sari. You could also buy pre-made offerings from her. If you’ve ever been to Bali you already know how important these daily rituals are to everyone. The offerings play a huge a role in everyday life. You can find them placed at entrances to restaurants, shops, houses, small shrines, and temples.

Even though these traditions are practiced all over Bali, they are the most prominent in Ubud. In fact, the two ladies selling offerings were clearly the busiest in the whole market.

Unfortunately, the market was not a vegetable market which meant that they also sold live animals here. As we were preparing to leave the market we witnessed two piglets being put in sacks and thrown onto the back of a truck. To witness this brutality and hear their screams broke our hearts.

Our guide explained to us that the piglets would be taken to someone’s backyard to grow into full-size pigs before they were killed. Obviously, it didn't make us feel better. It hurt us deeply. And, we can’t pretend it didn’t affect our experience at the market in a negative way.

Sadly what you see is what you get. In this part of the world sights such as these are out there in the open instead of being far removed in the distance the way they are in the Western world.

Harvesting Vegetables From the Organic Garden

After touring the garden we returned to our cooking stations where we drank fresh organic Balinese coffee (kopi) straight from the garden. We also learned more about the vegan food we would be preparing.

The meal plan of the day consisted of the following:

• Base Gede/Bumbu Bali (traditional spice paste)
• Gado Gado (steamed vegetables with peanut sauce)
• Opor Tofu (Balinese tofu curry)
• Bergedel (corn fritters with local spices)
• Tempe Asam Manis (sweet and sour tempeh)
• Tum Bambu (young bambu wrapped in banana leaves)
• Black Rice Pudding

Since the class is a full day affair we go to eat at several different times which is perfect for us. We started off with gado gado and sweet and sour tempeh before we cooked the curry, dumplings in banana leaves, and corn fritters.

Note that there are two versions of the cooking course, one vegan/vegetarian version and another version for people cooking meat. One of the couples cooking meat became very disappointed that they wouldn't be making peanut sauce because that was reserved for the vegan version of the class.

Base Gede/Bumbu Bali

Before we could start cooking anything we had to prepare the bumbu bali. It's a Balinese spice paste made from chili, garlic, shallots, turmeric, galangal, black peppercorns, white peppercorns, candlenuts, and bay leaf. Bumbu bali is used as a base for many dishes throughout Bali and can be prepared in many different ways. Some people add fish sauce to their spice paste so we recommend that you always ask to have your food made without it when ordering in restaurants in Bali.

Making the bumbu bali proved to be an extremely fun and strenuous process! So strenuous in fact, that the guide had to call out what he referred to as ”the Blender,” a tiny Balinese lady that could pound the bumbu bali into the perfect consistency with a mortar and pestle.

Surely, it would be easier to use an actual blender or food processor but we loved that we got to learn it the way the Balinese people prepare it. We’re sure it tastes better and it lets you work up an appetite.

Once we were done taking turns and sweating away at making bumbu bali we moved on to making the famous Balinese dish gado gado with deep fried tempeh, tofu, and peanut sauce!

Gado Gado

Gado gado is a traditional dish made from steamed vegetables and peanut sauce. Sometimes the dish is served with deep fried tofu and tempeh. But we were most excited to learn how to make the peanut sauce which goes with the gado gado. It has become one of our newest addictions (apparently we have a lot of those!) that we ate daily. Obviously, we had to learn how to prepare it so we could eat it anywhere, anytime.

The peanut sauce was surprisingly easy to make. It's a creamy sauce that pairs well with anything but especially tempeh. The peanut sauce is highly addictive, and when we're in Bali we can't stop eating it!

Sweet and Sour Tempeh

The sweet and sour fried tempeh was probably the easiest dish we cooked that day. We fried small pieces of tempeh with the bumbu bali, garlic, and chili pepper until the tempeh was golden.

Then we added juice from one lemon and one lime as well as two tablespoons of ketjap manis - a sweetened soy sauce that’s used across Indonesian and Malaysia. We cooked the tempeh until most of the fluid had vaporized and it was ready to be served.

Balinese Curry

The curry we prepared at the cooking class was a tofu and vegetable curry served with rice. It was prepared by frying the bumbu bali with assorted vegetables before adding coconut milk. Then, we let it simmer until finished.

The curry was unfortunately not our favorite because it tasted too “Thai like” for our taste and less like a typical Balinese curry. The problem is that we really can’t handle all the lemongrass, sugar, and lime kefir that was used in this type of curry. We are savory lovin' folk.

Corn Fritters