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Nasi lemak – Malaysian coconut milk rice, served with crispy anchovies, sambal, hard-boiled eggs, roasted peanuts, and cucumber. This is the best and most authentic nasi lemak recipe!
Nasi Lemak is the de facto national dish of Malaysia. Literally means fat rice, It’s one of the most popular dishes, consumed and loved by all Malaysians regardless of their ethnicities, race, or origins. It’s such an iconic dish that even the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States recently took note of it, as reported by The Star newspaper in Malaysia.
A good nasi lemak recipe is not to be taken lightly; it should have amazing quality, texture, flavors, and the right ingredients. The main ingredient is sambal. Sambal is the soul of the dish; it brings together all the various components and complete the dish.
Traditionally, nasi lemak is wrapped with banana leaf and shaped into a triangular cone, called “bungkus” in Malay language. At home, you may serve it on a sheet of cut banana leaf. Make sure the rice is placed atop the banana leaf. The warmth of the steamed rice allows the banana leaf to impart its earthy aroma to the rice, making the nasi lemak even more scrumptious and inviting.
What Goes Into This Recipe
Nasi lemak typically includes fragrant coconut rice, served with a variety of accompaniments. Here’s a basic list of what goes into the recipe.
- Coconut Rice: Rice cooked with coconut milk, water, and pandan leaves, resulting in the sweet aroma of the nasi (rice).
- Sambal. Spice paste made from dried red chilies, shallots, garlic, and belacan (Malaysian prawn paste). Sambal is usually stir-fried with oil, along with onions and tamarind juice added for tanginess. Salt and sugar are used to balance the flavors.
- Dried anchovies or ikan bilis. Small dried anchovies fried until crispy, adding a salty crunch to the dish. In my recipe, I made sambal anchovies.
- Peanuts: Roasted peanuts, providing a nutty flavor and crunchy texture to the overall dish.
- Hard-boiled eggs.
- Cucumber: Sliced cucumber for a refreshing contrast to the spiciness of the sambal.
- Fish: Small fish such as mackerel or sardines are fried and served as an accompaniment to nasi lemak.
For full information on all ingredients, remember to check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Secret Ingredients Of Nasi Lemak
Pandan leaves or screwpine leaves is the secret ingredient. The leaves are highly fragrant with floral smell. They are used in many Malaysian recipes. Another ingredient is coconut milk, which is used to make the coconut rice.
This dish will not be authentic without the pandan leaves and coconut milk. In fact, you can’t serve it with plain steamed rice.
How To Make Nasi Lemak
Step 1: Coconut Rice. Rinse the rice with running tap water, repeating the process a few times until the water turns clear. Drain the water completely. Add 1 ½ cups of water to the washed rice, followed by the coconut milk and a pinch of salt. Add the pandan leaves into the rice and cook your rice. Discard the pandan leaves after rice is cooked.
Step 2: Spice Paste. Pound the shallots, garlic, dried chilies, and prawn paste with a mortar and pestle. Alternatively, you can grind them with a food processor.
Step 3: Tamarind Water. Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 15 minutes. Constantly squeeze the tamarind to extract its flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.
Step 4: Fried Anchovies. Rinse the dried anchovies with tap water a few times and let them drain. Heat 2 cups of oil in a pan, fry the anchovies until they’ve become light brown and crispy. Remove from oil with a strainer and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. You can serve them as is, or add them into sambal to make sambal anchovies.
Step 5: Sambal Ikan Bilis (Sambal Anchovies). On medium to low heat, heat 2 tablespoons of frying oil in a pan. Stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant, turning reddish in color. Add the onion rings and fried anchovies, stirring well. Pour in the tamarind juice, salt, and sugar. Simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens. Set it aside.
Step 6: Fried Fish. Clean the small fish and season them with salt. Deep fry with the remaining frying oil.
Step 7: Assembling Nasi Lemak. To serve, scope out a small bowl of rice and place onto the center of a plate lined with banana leaf (optional). Arrange the fried fish, 2 tablespoons of sambal, roasted peanuts, cucumber and hard boiled egg around the rice. You may add some You may also add the sambal on top of the rice. Serve immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, absolutely. The coconut rice is made of rice, coconut milk and water. For the side dishes and accompaniments, you can serve it with vegetarian version of sambal (without belacan), hard-boiled eggs, vegetable acar and tempeh!
Nasi Lemak is a Malaysian dish. It’s the de-facto national dish of Malaysia. The dish can be found in Singapore, but with different side dishes such as fried ham and sausages, which are certainly not the authentic version of the dish.
A serving of nasi lemak is only 338 calories. Fat rice is not that fat after all.
Side Dishes
There are a variety of side dishes or extras that pair well with nasi lemak: beef rendang, chicken rendang or Malaysian chicken curry, making it a substantial meal.
Assemble your favorite sides on top or around the coconut milk rice; the pipping hot steamed coconut milk rice should be served in on top of a sheet of cut banana leaf. If you want an extra spicy kick, add sambal belacan as a condiment. Enjoy!
What To Serve With Nasi Lemak
Serve them with the following Malaysian dishes for the best and most authentic nasi lemak. These recipes are personally developed by me; they are my favorites!
I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do. If you try my recipe, please leave a comment and consider giving it a 5-star rating. For more easy and delicious recipes, explore my Recipe Index, and stay updated by subscribing to my newsletter and following me on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for new updates.
Other Recipes You Might Like
Nasi Lemak Recipe
Ingredients
Coconut Milk Steamed Rice
- 2 cups rice
- 1 ½ cups water, cut down to 1 1⁄4 cups if using ¾ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup coconut milk , use ¾ cup for creamier rice
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3 pandan leaves, tie them into a knot
Spice Paste
- 4 shallots, peeled
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- 8 medium length dried red chilies, seeded
- 1 teaspoon belacan, prawn paste
Tamarind Water
- 1 cup water
- tamarind pulp, size of a small ping pong ball
- salt, to taste
- 2 tablespoons sugar, or more to taste
Fried Anchovies
- 1 cup ikan bilis, dried anchovies, peeled
- 2 cups oil, for frying
- 1 red onion, peeled, sliced into rings
Other ingredients
- 3 small fish , sardines or mackerel, cut into halves
- 2 hard boiled eggs, cut into halves
- 1 cup roasted peanuts
- 1 small cucumber, cut into slices and then quartered
Instructions
- Coconut Rice. Rinse the rice with running tap water, repeating the process a few times until the water turns clear. Drain the water completely. Add 1 ½ cups of water to the washed rice, followed by the coconut milk and a pinch of salt. Add the pandan leaves into the rice and cook your rice. Discard the pandan leaves after rice is cooked.
- Spice Paste. Pound the shallots, garlic, dried chilies, and prawn paste with a mortar and pestle. Alternatively, you can grind them with a food processor.
- Tamarind Water. Soak the tamarind pulp in water for 15 minutes. Constantly squeeze the tamarind to extract its flavor into the water. Drain the pulp and save the tamarind juice.
- Fried Anchovies. Rinse the dried anchovies with tap water a few times and let them drain. Heat 2 cups of oil in a pan, fry the anchovies until they've become light brown and crispy. Remove from oil with a strainer and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. You can serve them as is, or add them into sambal to make sambal anchovies.
- Sambal Ikan Bilis (Sambal Anchovies). On medium to low heat, heat 2 tablespoons of frying oil in a pan. Stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant, turning reddish in color. Add the onion rings and fried anchovies, stirring well. Pour in the tamarind juice, salt, and sugar. Simmer on low heat until the sauce thickens. Set it aside.
- Fried Fish. Clean the small fish and season them with salt. Deep fry with the remaining frying oil.
- Assembling Nasi Lemak. To serve, scope out a small bowl of rice and place onto the center of a plate. Arrange the fried fish, hard boiled egg, roasted peanuts, and cucumber around the rice. Add 2 spoons of the sambal on top of the rice. Serve immediately.
Notes
- I used a rice cooker to make the coconut milk steamed rice. Caution: Note that some high-tech rice cookers do not allow oily contents in the rice bowl, and the rice cooker might break if coconut milk is added to the rice.
- You can increase the coconut milk in the steamed rice to 3/4 cup. If so, reduce the water to 1 1/4 cup. The total water you need to cook the rice is 2 cups.
- In Malaysia, you can find roasted peanuts with skin at supermarkets. If you are outside of Malaysia, you may use salted roasted peanuts, such as Planters brand salted peanuts.
- You may serve your nasi lemak with the fried anchovies and sambal separately. In this case, just cook the sambal with the onion rings.
- Traditionally, nasi lemak is wrapped with banana leaf and shaped into a triangular cone. At home, you may serve it on a sheet of cut banana leaf. Make sure the rice is placed atop the banana leaf. The warmth of the steamed rice allows the banana leaf to impart its earthy aroma to the rice, making the nasi lemak even more scrumptious. If you are outside of Malaysia, you can find frozen banana leaves in Asian stores, in the frozen food section.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can i reduce the amount of dried chilli scared it might be to hot!
Yes.
Hi There, how do I substitute the tamarind pulp for my tamarind concentrate. Mine is like a syrupy liquid so I’m not sure how much to use to make the tamarind juice. (https://smile.amazon.com/Tamicon-Tamarind-Paste-7oz/dp/B000JSQKL6/ref=sr_1_5?crid=1M8HQXN6D2CPQ&dchild=1&keywords=tamarind%2Bpaste&qid=1617005100&s=grocery&sprefix=tamarind%2Cgrocery%2C316&sr=1-5&th=1)
I have a question on making Sambal (and other Rempahs). I make HUGE batches of Sambal, Laksa Paste, Tom Yum Paste, etc., for my Asian restaurant and I normally buy dried Kashmiri chilis and then painstakingly de-seed, soak, and blend them before adding them in a big bowl of watery paste (mixed with all the other ingredients). Then it all just gets fried (after toasting the belacan). SO… if I were to able to substitute Kashmiri POWDER, I would be able to save a great deal of time and effort. But what is your opinion on that? Will it effect the overall flavour? Because (for example) in the case of fresh tumeric vs. powdered it would make a huge difference.
I know it will affect the texture of my rempahs slightly, but with all the other fibrous ingredients (like fresh chili, ground galangal, lemon grass, dry shrimp, etc), I don’t mind a minimal change in texture. But I just need the flavour and colour of the dry chili, because it really does make a difference. So, this time around, I’m weighing whether to purchase 5 kilos of dried chili vs 2-3 kilos of powdered (of the exact same variety).
I won’t use powder.
I would do a small batch & try the powder & see the difference.
Hi,
Do you soak the de-seeded dried chillies before blitzing them?
Yes.
Hello again! I’m not sure if I asked this already, but when making the coconut rice, does using a rice cooker change the recipe in anyway, in terms of ingredients or anything? Thank you.
It should be the same.
Would there be any way to substitute the dried chillies for chilli flakes?
Chili flakes are not ideal.
Thank you so much for this recipe Estelle, much love from Toronto, Canada! I’ve always come back to this recipe and it’s such a hit. I’m a bit lazy so sometimes I use 1 full red onion instead of shallots and not added belacan (I don’t always have some on hand) and it still tastes amazing! I’ve made it with shrimp too, so good!
Thanks for trying my recipe!!
Hi Estelle, I got my belacan from Amazon. Product is from Penang, Malaysia @ $7.99. Expensive here but make my sambal taste good.
Hi Bee, do you where can I find screwpine leaves/pandan in LA, US. Any alternative if cannot find one?
You can find in Vietnamese market.
Hi Bee,
Where to find Belacan in US. I couldn’t find it in Texas
You can find in some Vietnamese store but I am not sure about Texas.
Ranch 99 has frozen leaves
I got it off Amazon
Look for the belachan in the indonesian section, also from Ranch 99 store.