Coconut and lemongrass mingle in the morning steam
On some mornings in the kitchen, as you rinse rice, your hand lines up the water with the usual mark on the rice cooker and it feels just a little lacking. Add coconut milk, crushed lemongrass and a pandan leaf, and plain white rice becomes a staple whose fragrance you eat. Nasi uduk is the Indonesian rice that lets you enjoy exactly that moment.
Nasi uduk is a coconut rice closely tied to the Betawi culture of Jakarta. Instead of cooking the rice in water alone, the aroma is built in with coconut milk, salt, lemongrass, pandan and salam leaf, and it is eaten with fried onions, sambal, cucumber, egg, tempeh and more. The name is often explained as nasi meaning rice and uduk carrying a nuance of mixing or making rich, and it is loved as a breakfast or a street-stall plate a little more luxurious than plain white rice.
The hard part of making it isn't gathering every unusual ingredient. It's the amount of liquid. Coconut milk is heavier than water and contains fat, so if you cook it with the same feeling as ordinary white rice, the bottom turns sticky or the grains split. This article takes the pot method as the basis and gets specific about how to rinse the rice, the time on low heat, steaming, and adjusting the liquid for a rice cooker.
Among other Indonesian rice dishes, there's nasi goreng (in Japanese), which stir-fries cold rice over high heat. Nasi uduk is its opposite: a dish in which rice is cooked plump with aroma and fat. Comparing grilled rice and cooked rice makes the Indonesian table look a little more three-dimensional.
In Indonesian it is written nasi uduk. In Japanese the spelling wavers among variants, but this article uses the one closest to the local sound. In English, "nasi uduk" is the standard form.
Nasi uduk as a Betawi breakfast
Nasi uduk is a dish you see from early morning in the alleys and markets of Jakarta. Some stalls wrap rice in banana leaf and add fried tempeh, egg, rice vermicelli, sambal and fried onions, while at home, on easier days, it may be just cucumber and egg. What matters is that the rice itself has aroma and saltiness.
Betawi cuisine grew out of the indigenous culture around Jakarta with the influences of Malay, Chinese, Arab, Dutch and other layers. Nasi uduk is a dish where that mixing is easy to see. The idea of cooking rice with coconut is widespread across Southeast Asia, and eating it with aroma raised by fried onions and sambal is characteristic of Indonesia. Egg, tempeh, chicken and cucumber are added, giving a form that works as breakfast or lunch in one plate.
A similar dish is Malaysia's nasi lemak. Both cook rice in coconut, but nasi lemak classically has sambal, ikan bilis, peanuts and a boiled egg, and has a strong impression as a wrapped rice. Nasi uduk, in Jakarta, tends to show a mixed-plate feel that varies by stall, with fried tempeh, omelet, rice vermicelli and chicken. When you make it at home, it's easier to handle if you don't fix the form as firmly as nasi lemak, and instead make the fragrant rice the star with small portions of accompaniments.
| What to compare | Nasi uduk | Nasi lemak |
|---|---|---|
| Main area | Jakarta, Betawi region | Around Malaysia and Singapore |
| Aroma of the rice | Coconut, lemongrass, pandan, salam | Coconut, pandan |
| Accompaniments | Egg, tempeh, chicken, rice vermicelli, sambal, fried onions | Sambal, ikan bilis, peanuts, egg, cucumber |
| Priority at home | Adjusting the liquid for the rice, and the herbs | Building the sambal and accompaniments |
In your own kitchen, there will be days you can't find pandan or salam leaf. Even then, with lemongrass and coconut milk you can get out of "just coconut rice." Conversely, if you have pandan but the coconut is thin, you won't get the round aroma characteristic of nasi uduk. Think of it in this order, rice and coconut first, then lemongrass, then pandan if you have room, and shopping gets lighter.
Ingredients (serves 4)
This dish may use rice, coconut, soy-containing seasonings, egg and peanuts. Some store-bought fried onions and sambal are made in facilities that handle wheat, shrimp, seafood and nuts. If there are allergies, check the ingredient label of each product.
Nasi uduk is tighter in flavor with sambal, but the rice itself isn't spicy. At a table where someone is sensitive to heat, don't mix sambal into the big platter; let each person add 1/2 tsp at a time.
Shopping priorities
What's worth buying for nasi uduk isn't ordinary meat or eggs but the ingredients that build aroma and the local feel. Look first at canned coconut milk, next sambal, and, if you'll keep cooking Indonesian food, kecap manis. You can make fried onions yourself, but if you're serving it for breakfast, having store-bought makes it much easier.
Kecap manis isn't an ingredient for cooking the rice, but used to make the accompanying tempeh sweet-savory, it pulls the whole table toward Indonesia. It also goes into sate ayam (in Japanese) and mie goreng (in Japanese), so if you'll keep cooking Indonesian food, a bottle is handy.
Sambal can be made at home. On a day with no time, serving a store-bought one on a separate plate and letting each person add the heat is easy to use even at a family table.
If you can't spare time in the morning to fry onions, having fried onions ready makes the result steady. They can be reused not just for nasi uduk but for Egyptian koshari (in Japanese) and Lebanese mujaddara (in Japanese).
Method: cook the rice with aroma and shape the outline with the accompaniments
Making it in a pot lets you adjust while watching how the liquid decreases. For a first try, a pot is better than a rice cooker for learning the weight of coconut milk. Use a heavy pot, and don't rush once the heat is down to low. It's a dish where you wait until the aroma rises.
Put in 2 cups rice, 200 ml coconut milk, 260 ml water, 2/3 tsp salt and the herbs, and cook normally. After cooking, steam 10 minutes and turn from the bottom in big strokes. For short-grain rice, reduce the water to 230 ml, and if the rice comes out soft, reduce it by another 2 tbsp next time.
A decision table for getting closer to the local version in a home kitchen
| Where you hesitate | Closer to local | Realistic home solution | Direction to avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rice | Jasmine rice or Indonesian long-grain rice | Jasmine rice. With short-grain rice, reduce the water | Cooking short-grain rice with the normal amount of water |
| Coconut | Rich coconut milk | Canned coconut milk for cooking, mixed well | Coconut water, thin beverages |
| Pandan | Frozen pandan leaf | If you have none, omit it and keep the lemongrass | Substituting vanilla essence |
| Salam leaf | daun salam | One bay leaf to supply only the direction of the aroma | Using many bay leaves and moving toward Western flavors |
| Accompaniments | Tempeh, egg, sambal, fried onions | Thick fried tofu, thin omelet, cucumber, store-bought sambal | Mixing everything into the rice |
The core of nasi uduk is rice cooked in coconut. Even without tempeh or chicken, if the rice is fragrant, it works as a dish. Conversely, even with lavish accompaniments, if the rice turns sticky the impression is weak.
When you use short-grain rice, you don't need to try to eliminate the stickiness completely. It turns out a little chewy, as a different rice dish. But too much coconut milk moves it toward porridge, so for a first try it's safer not to go past 250 ml of milk. On days you want lightness, use jasmine rice; on days you want to use the rice you have at home, use short-grain with less water. Make that clear-cut choice.
Why it fails: watery, weak aroma, scorched bottom
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Sticky bottom | Too much liquid, not enough steaming | Take off the lid, 2 minutes on low heat, turn off the heat and steam 5 minutes |
| Grains split | Stirred hard, heat too high | After it boils, keep to low heat. Only turn over the bottom |
| Weak aroma | Used coconut beverage, too few herbs | Switch to canned coconut milk for cooking. Bruise the lemongrass before using |
| Greasy | Coconut milk too rich | Next time 200 ml milk and 310 ml water |
| Scorched bottom | Pot too thin, "low heat" too strong | Switch to a heavy pot and drop to the lowest heat once it boils |
The most common failure is adding too much water out of white-rice habit. Coconut milk doesn't just add aroma; its fat coats the rice. Because the speed at which the grains absorb water also changes, it's less likely to fail if you start with slightly less liquid than usual and make up any shortfall after steaming with a spray bottle or a little hot water.
If the aroma feels weak, next time bruise the lemongrass thoroughly rather than adding more pandan. With herbs, the state matters more than the quantity. Lemongrass put in without cutting or bruising gives little aroma and tends to be just a stick in the pot.
Storage and eating it the next day
Once nasi uduk has cooled slightly, spread it in a shallow container and refrigerate. The storage guideline is 2 days. Always keep the sambal, cucumber and fried onions in separate containers. If you refrigerate fried onions on top of the rice, they absorb moisture and lose aroma.
To reheat, put one portion of rice on a heatproof plate, sprinkle on 2 tsp water, cover loosely with plastic wrap and heat in a 600 W microwave for 1 minute 20 seconds. If the rice is still hard, add 10 seconds at a time. To bring it back in a skillet, warm 1 tsp oil over low heat, add the rice and cover for 30 seconds, then uncover for 1 minute. Tossing it over high heat like fried rice drives off the aroma, so only warm it.
The next day, adding the heat of sambal substitute takes away the fridge smell. Serve it with chicken soup and it becomes a breakfast in the spirit of soto ayam (in Japanese), and with a rich stew it connects well with coconut-based dishes such as rendang (in Japanese).
FAQ
Can I make it without pandan leaf?
Yes. Pandan adds a sweet green aroma, but the center of nasi uduk is coconut milk and saltiness. If you bruise lemongrass and add it, with just one salam leaf or bay leaf, it comes together well enough as a home version.
How much water should I use with short-grain rice?
For 2 cups of rice, start with 250 ml coconut milk and 230 ml water. Short-grain rice tends to turn sticky, so if you make it in a pot, set the low-heat time to 12 minutes and check the state after steaming. If it's soft, reduce the water by 2 tbsp next time.
I can't find tempeh.
Cut thick fried tofu 1 cm (1/2 inch) wide, pan-fry both sides in 2 tsp oil and coat with 1 tbsp kecap manis, 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp lemon juice, and you get a close accompaniment. You don't get tempeh's beany aroma, but it fulfills the role of sweet-savory food that catches the rice.
Isn't it heavy to make everything in the morning?
Cooking the rice that day is best, but the accompaniments can be prepared the day before. Cook the egg and cut it in strips, refrigerate the cucumber whole and uncut, and put the fried onions in an airtight container. In the morning, cook the rice and warm only the tempeh or fried tofu, and you can have it on the table in under an hour.
Is it good as nasi goreng?
You can stir-fry the next day's nasi uduk, but the fat from the coconut makes it scorch easily, and it becomes something different from nasi goreng (in Japanese). If you fry it, 2 minutes over medium-low heat and just 1 tsp kecap manis. It's easier to eat if you don't add too much sweetness and finish with sambal and lime.
Local sources consulted
- Indonesia Travel, "A Scrumptious Experience: An Exquisite Jakarta Dining Guide" (viewed 17 May 2026) https://www.indonesia.travel/gb/en/trip-ideas/a-scrumptious-experience-an-exquisite-jakarta-dining-guide
- The Jakarta Post, "Making Betawi food great again" (viewed 17 May 2026) https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/02/22/making-betawi-food-great-again.html
- Epicurious, "Lemongrass-Scented Coconut Rice" (viewed 17 May 2026) https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/lemongrass-scented-coconut-rice-237067
- Wikivoyage, "Jakarta/East" (viewed 17 May 2026) https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Jakarta/East
What to cook next
To widen your Indonesian rice dishes, nasi goreng (in Japanese), stir-fried with sweet soy sauce, is right next door. For noodles, mie goreng (in Japanese), and for skewers, sate ayam (in Japanese). Once you're used to coconut aroma from nasi uduk, moving on to the stewed rendang (in Japanese) shows the difference between "cooking" and "reducing" with the same coconut.
