A regular nasi lemak can get up to nearly 900 calories, especially if you add a piece of fried chicken. If you love nasi lemak but don’t want the calories, try this healthy version by chef Alexandra Prabaharan. This tasty 398-calorie nasi lemak recipe comes with clever substitutions for ingredients and cooking methods (i.e. to use less cooking oil), so you can still have your fragrant rice dish without the added calories.
Healthy Recipes
Healthy Nasi Lemak
May 8, 2020
Yield
Serves 1
Prep Time
10mins
Cook Time
20mins
Difficulty Level
2 / 5
Ingredients
- 30 grams Dried Red Chillies, soaked
- 1/2 Red Onion, chopped
- 1 Red Chilli
- 5 cloves of Garlic
- A golf ball-sized dollop of Thick Tamarind Juice (Asam Jawa)
- 1 Handful of Raw Peanuts
- 1/4 cup Ikan Bilis
- 1/4 Cucumber, sliced
- 1 Egg
- 1 cup Brown Rice
- 2 cm Ginger, sliced thinly
- 1 Pandan Leaf
- 1 tablespoon Virgin Coconut Oil
Steps
01.
In the blender, blend the dried chillies, red chillies, red onion, and garlic until it forms a paste.
02.
In a pan heat up some oil and fry the chili paste until the oil begins to separate.
03.
Add the tamarind juice, sugar and continue cooking for 15 minutes until the mixture turns a dark red. Taste and adjust salt if necessary.
04.
For the brown rice add crushed ginger and pandan and cook as normal. Ratio: 1 cup rice with 2 cups of water.
05.
When the rice is cooked, toss with a bit of virgin coconut oil to give it the coconut flavour.
06.
Microwave or dry fry the ikan bilis till crisp.
07.
Dry fry the peanuts in a pan until lightly browned.
08.
To serve, cut the egg in half, place it together with the ikan bilis, the rice, the peanuts and the sambal on a plate. Garnish with sliced cucumber.