Sambal Hijau
My girls and I love going to Batam. It's just a short ferry ride from Singapore, but somehow it still feels like a proper island escape. Which is funny because technically we already live on an island, but anyway.
We have this favourite spa there that we keep going back to. Honestly, the treatments themselves are fine, but the real magic is the atmosphere. Everything is lush and green and very Balinese-inspired. Lots of plants, open spaces, water features, soft light. The kind of place where your nervous system unclenches a little without asking permission.
And the food. The food is so good. I think at this point we mostly go for the company, the food, and maybe third place is the spa.
One thing they always serve is sambal hijau, Indonesian green chilli sambal. Indonesia has a million sambals, obviously, but I've always loved the green version because it feels fresher and brighter than the deep red ones. It still has heat, but it's softer somehow. More alive.
It also became our default safe sambal because one of my friends is allergic to shellfish, and a surprising number of sambals have hidden dried shrimp or shrimp paste in them somewhere. This one doesn't.
The funny thing is I only ended up making this because I randomly found green grape tomatoes at the supermarket one day. Proper green tomatoes. Not unripe ones pretending to be something else. I got irrationally excited because I immediately remembered sambal hijau uses green tomatoes and suddenly I had a mission.
And yes, the oil matters. Use a neutral oil, not olive oil. The trick with sambal hijau is that you need to cook the rawness out of the chillies without fully destroying the fresh green flavour. You want the colour softened slightly, but not dull and tired looking. There's a very specific middle ground.
Ingredients
- 5 large green chillies
- 2–3 green bird's eye chillies
- 1–2 green tomatoes or green grape tomatoes
- 2 shallots
- 1 clove garlic
- ½ tsp salt, or to taste
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp lime juice or calamansi juice
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- Optional: ¼ tsp chicken powder or MSG
Method
- Roughly chop the green chillies, bird's eye chillies, green tomatoes, shallots and garlic.
- Add everything to a food processor and pulse into a rough paste. Do not blend it completely smooth — sambal should still have texture.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Add the sambal paste along with the kaffir lime leaves.
- Stir fry slowly, letting the chillies soften and cook down gently. The colour should soften slightly from bright green to a more mellow green, but do not overcook it into dull olive territory.
- Add salt, sugar, and chicken powder if using. Continue cooking until the oil smells fragrant and the raw chilli smell disappears.
- Turn off the heat and stir through the lime or calamansi juice. Remove the kaffir lime leaves before serving.
Green grape tomatoes work beautifully here. If you cannot find green tomatoes, you can still make this without them.
Calamansi gives a softer, more floral citrus flavour compared to regular lime.
Do not skimp on the oil. Truly.
Weigh your chillies and scale the recipe accordingly — chilli sizes are never consistent and everyone's heat tolerance is different.
Green chillies have a fresher, grassier flavour compared to red chillies. The green tomatoes add acidity and body without making the sambal overly sour. Shallots soften the sharpness and give the sambal sweetness as it cooks.
The oil is not optional here. It carries flavour, softens the chillies, and creates that glossy spoonable texture that makes good sambal feel luxurious instead of harsh. Use a neutral oil — canola, sunflower, anything fairly neutral. Olive oil has too much personality.
Kaffir lime leaves add fragrance quietly in the background, while lime or calamansi at the end brightens everything back up after cooking.
With basically everything: fried eggs, rice, grilled chicken, crispy tofu, spooned over avocado toast, alongside Indonesian-style fried fish, straight from the fridge while pretending I was just tasting it.
I might char the green tomatoes slightly first next time for a little smokiness. Or maybe add a few green onions into the blend.
Though honestly, this version already tastes very close to the sambal hijau I associate with lazy afternoons in Batam with my girls, post-spa, slightly sleepy, ordering way too much food because everything smells good.
New recipes in your inbox
Subscribe and I'll let you know when a new recipe goes up.
