Nasi Lemak Vegan; A slight twist to Malaysian National Dish

Hawa’s Artisan Kitchen is happy to introduce a slight twist to our Malaysian National Dish – Nasi Lemak Vegan. Yes, our version of “authentically unauthentic” but needed the tweak to be enjoyed by vegans, shellfish intolerant community and also to those who at their own will wishes to eat plant-based meals once in a while.  

Our Nasi Lemak Vegan was also inspired by Simon’s and my 2 months trial on vegan journey earlier this year and in line with #veganuary 2021. During these 2 months vegan journey, we had a few “off days” to enjoy birthday cakes and such. Anyways, most of our vegan meals during this time was inspired by the Malay kitchen and with local produce available. Initially during our two months vegan journey we bought some of those dried oats that is shaped into chicken claw, sliced beef or Bolognese textured oats+soya (if you wish to make vegan Bolognese sauce or vegan Pad Kra Pao). However, these ingredients that we got from a vegetarian grocery store, came without any labels. We don’t really know what the content was. We were only told that we needed to soak it before cooking and add in flavor. The first time I made Bolognese sauce using the textured oats and soya protein was a disaster. The protein texture absorbed lots of liquid and needed lots of seasoning to get a good flavor. Till today, I still feel it tasted like cardboard. This has left a bitter experience that I gave away all my dried oats/soya vegetable protein to those who can take it. Anyways, this was a lesson learnt during our vegan journey. Should I ever turn vegan – the food that I consume should be from real food. I also learnt from my non vegan friend Anne not to fake it! Seriously, if the food comes plant based real food, it should be named as it is and not to represent an animal protein food. Example: Nangka muda or young jackfruit should be Young Jackfruit and not “Vegan Chicken”, or Salted Tempeh should not be named “Vegan Salted Fish” , or Mushroom / Beetroot should not be named “Vegan Beef”. Makes a lot of sense Anne. If one wishes to be vegan why name a plant based ingredient to an animal? That defeats the purpose of being a vegan in the first place isn’t it?    

Nasi Lemak Vegan at Hawa’s Artisan Kitchen’s menu was carefully curated to celebrate the deliciousness of plant based real/whole food from the Malay Kitchen. We ran a few trials and asked some friends and regular customers to try. The constructive feedback were taken into consideration and as a result we have the following menu for our Nasi Lemak Vegan: 

• Jasmine and Parboiled Basmathi coconut rice cooked with pure pandan (screwpine leaves), ginger and lemongrass extract, virgin coconut oil and milk. The Pandan leaves are fresh from our very own garden and if we run out of stock our friend Linda happily supplies us with her pandan leaves from her farm. The pandan leaves gives the natural flavor and color to the rice. Having said that when it is mixed with coconut milk, the color of the rice is of real light shade of green.

• Rendang Nangka (Young jackfruit rendang) – young jackfruit is God sent and the marriage with all the rendang herbs and spices is simply a celebration of flavors from the Malay Kitchen. A multitude of fragrant spices and aromatics such as lemongrass, kafir lime, turmeric roots, galangal, ginger, ginger torch (in replacement of shallots and garlic as majority of vegetarian in Lahad Datu do not eat shallots/onion and garlic due to religious beliefs) all slow cooked with rich coconut milk. Rendang is Malaysian version of thick textured stew – it is not meant to be presented as crispy. The young jackfruit needs to be cooked in the rendang gravy till tender and absorbs all those wonderful Asian spices and aromatics! This is the star of the dish in our humble opinion and culinary experience.

• Sambal Tempeh – what would Nasi Lemak be without sambal. And what would sambal be without belacan? A vegan Sambal of course. Hawa’s Artisan Kitchen sambal is made using homemade chili boh sautéed over extensive hours of stirring all other Asian aromatics and vegan belacan to produce this explosion of spicy, tangy and umami condiment. This sambal is then topped with turmeric and salt marinated shallow fried tempeh.

• Mushroom Fritters – shiitake mushroom coated with Hawa’s Artisan Kitchen special vegan and gluten free batter. Packed separately for added crunch and texture to the whole meal.

• Cashew Nuts – another slight twist Nasi Lemak’s peanuts. We opted for home roasted cashew so that those with peanut allergies could still enjoy our nasi lemak

• Blanched kangkong (water spinach) – my family’s home recipe always incorporated blanched kangkong with our Nasi Lemak. So, this nutrient packed vegetable is definitely an element that is included for our nasi lemak not just because it is in line with family’s recipe but also because traditionally nasi lemak is always eaten with blanched kangkong.

• Cucumber – the freshness of kampung cucumber adds freshness to this nasi lemak vegan meal 

We hope you enjoy Hawa’s Artisan Kitchen’s Vegan Nasi Lemak as much as we enjoyed preparing and cooking this beautiful Malay heritage dish with a slight twist for you.

Selamat Menjamu Selera!