Nasi lemak
Nasi lemak
Coconut rice, sambal, anchovies, egg, cucumber, peanuts — Malaysia's national breakfast plate.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: Nasi lemak.
0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Rest
- None
- Total
- 55 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- Hot
- Cost
- Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Nasi lemak is coconut-pandan rice with a chilli sambal, fried ikan bilis (anchovies), roasted peanuts, cucumber, and a boiled or fried egg, often wrapped in banana leaf. This home plate uses coconut rice and a quick sambal. The sambal should be sweet-hot and oily. It is breakfast and also lunch and also midnight. Rinse jasmine rice and cook it in coconut milk and water with pandan if you have a knot, and salt. The sambal should be chilli, onion, a little sugar, and often belacan or dried shrimp, fried until oily and sweet-hot. Ikan bilis and peanuts get their own dry toast. Cucumber cools the plate; egg is boiled or fried. Banana leaf is perfume and packaging, not a garnish you photograph and throw away.
Ingredients
- Rice300 g
- Coconut milk250 ml
- Fresh chilli, soaked, for sambal8 dried
- Garlic3 clove
- Tamarind4.9 ml
- Sugar15 ml
- Dried anchovy, fried, optional if you need it vegetarian40 g
- Peanuts50 g
- Egg4 large
- Salt4.9 ml
- Water200 ml
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Cook rice in coconut milk, water and salt until done. Rest.
20 minStep 2
Blend chilli, shallot and garlic. Fry in oil 8–10 minutes, add tamarind, sugar and salt. The sambal should look dark and oily.
12 minStep 3
Fry anchovies and peanuts. Eggs. Plate rice with sambal, cucumber, egg, nuts, ikan bilis.
12 min
Adapt this recipe
The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 10 October.
Substitutions
Ikan bilis → Crispy fried shallots
Vegetarian plate. Still nasi lemak-ish.
Tips
- Pandan leaf in the rice is the perfume if you find it.
- A piece of fried chicken on the side is a hawker upgrade.
History & culture
Malay breakfast that the whole country eats. Hawker stalls assemble it in 30 seconds because the parts were made at dawn. Malay breakfast that the whole country eats, including people who will argue about whose sambal is too sweet. Hawker stalls assemble it in seconds because the rice and sambal were made at dawn. It is also lunch and a midnight plate. Wrapped parcels travel. A home plate with supermarket anchovies is still nasi lemak if the coconut rice and sambal are there.
Coconut rice is older than the named plate. The assembled nasi lemak is modern Malaysian identity food. Coconut rice is older than the named, assembled nasi lemak. The set of sambal, ikan bilis, peanut, cucumber and egg as a national breakfast identity is modern Malaysian plating. Pandan and banana leaf are local perfume, not decoration invented for tourists. You are assembling a composed breakfast, not inventing coconut rice.
Traditional
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips — not a chatbot.
How long does Nasi lemak take?
55 min all in — 20 min prep, 35 min cook. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 4 plates. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Medium.
How spicy is it?
Hot.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Fish, Peanuts, Eggs. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Dairy-free, Gluten-free.
What does it cost to cook?
Weeknight budget — about $8–16 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Saucepan, Frying pan.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 1 tsp.
How much sugar?
1 tbsp of Sugar.
What can I use instead?
Ikan bilis → Crispy fried shallots. Vegetarian plate. Still nasi lemak-ish.
Any tips from this recipe?
Pandan leaf in the rice is the perfume if you find it. A piece of fried chicken on the side is a hawker upgrade.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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