How to Make Ketumbar Sambal

Welcome to another sambal recipe! This time it’s on sambal ketumbar, a great fresh and spicy sambal thanks to the added ketumbar. Ketumbar is simply translated as coriander in english!

To make sambal ketumbar, simply grind a bunch of ingredients in a foodprocessor. Fry the paste with some spices, turn off the heat after 10 minutes and add the finely chopped ketumbar. Stir and enjoy!

Let’s get started on how to make this great ketumbar dish!

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Step 1: Collect the ingredients

What to consider when choosing the ingredients

Like with any sambal, you don’t have too much room for experiment. Play around with the amounts of chillies, remove seeds or keep them to play with spiciness. I always remove seeds especially with these amount of chillies, the ketumbar sambal will be already quite spicy!

I chose to play around with different colors of chillies to make a nice colorful sambal, think about this when you make it yourself! Consider as well that green, yellow or orange chillies are less spicy then the red ones.

Adding the ketumbar is of course the whole point in this recipe, it adds a very nice fresh taste to balance the palate. Very nice to combine the ketumbar with fish or chicken dishes. It also leaves very nice coloring!

The spices are just very commonly used in sambal, creating the very flavorful palate of the sambals. Swap out any spices you don’t like for the ones you like and see what happens. I can definitely see a version with kaffir leaves instead of salam!

If you make your own version, don’t forget to share! Let’s see what I did:

Step 2: Grind the chillies, onion and garlic

This is quite an easy recipe, just adding ketumbar to a common sambal is basically what you do! Begin by peeling the onion and garlic and roughly chop them.

Roll the chillies between your fingers and hands to break up the seeds inside. This will make them easily wash away after chopping! Chop the roughly, remove stem and wash thoroughly.

Add the chillies, onion and garlic to a foodprocessor and grind to a consistency you prefer. If you don’t have a foodprocessor, definitely get one. I use this equipment very regular in my recipes so I highly recommend investing in one! Click here to order the one I have.

Step 3: Fry the ground ingredients

Add a bit of (sunflower) oil to a frying pan on medium heat and let it heat up. After a minute, add the ground ingredients and the spices. Leave the dissolved tamarind paste for later.

Stir well and let it fry for a few minutes. Add the dissolved tamarind paste and stir again, let it simmer for about 10 minutes or until the water is evaporated.

Step 4: Add the ketumbar

In the meantime, wash and finely chop the ketumbar (remove stems).

Once the water has dissolved from the pan, add the ketumbar, stir well and turn off the heat.

That’s it! Give the sambal time to cool down and serve or conserve, remember to remove the salam and lemongrass first! Serve with a dish you prefer, fish or chicken go especially well here.

Some recipes I can recommend to serve this sambal with:

• Garlic turmeric rice
• Roasted spicy vegetables
• Mi hun goreng
• Nasi goreng ayam
• Terong balado
• Nasi uduk

If you enjoy this sambal, definitely check out my other sambal recipes:

• Sambal udang
• Sambal bajak
• Sambal matah
• Sambal terasi

If you want to conserve the sambal, use glass containers cleansed with boiling water. Seal airtight and only remove the ketumbar sambal with clean utensils! It should stay good for a couple of weeks. If you prefer to store it longer freeze it!

I hope you enjoyed this sambal made with ketumber as much as I did, let me know what you think and leave a rating! Enjoy.

Yum