Vegetarian and vegan Indonesia: tempeh, tofu and hidden shrimp paste

How meat-free eating works in Indonesia

Start with what is already on the table. Tempe (tempeh, fermented soybean cake) and tahu (tofu) are everyday foods across Java, fried, simmered in palm sugar or battered, and they appear as side dishes on many plates whether or not anyone thinks of them as vegetarian. Around them sits a family of vegetable dishes — gado-gado, pecel, karedok, ketoprak — built on boiled or raw vegetables and a peanut sauce. If you eat these with rice, lontong or ketupat (compressed rice cakes), you can eat local food at every meal rather than relying on cafés.

The catch is seafood used as seasoning. The Ministry of Tourism's own descriptions of Lombok's plecing and beberuk list terasi (shrimp paste) in the sambal, Bali's jukut urab is seasoned with terasi, and Central and East Java's petis is a thick paste made from shrimp or fish. None of these is visible on the plate, and a cook who hears 'no meat' may not think of them. Treat sambal and sauces, not the vegetables, as the part to ask about.

Halal does not mean vegetarian. Much of Indonesia is Muslim-majority, and a halal kitchen avoids pork but still cooks with chicken, beef, fish and shrimp. Lombok, which the ministry promotes as a halal destination, is a good example: its signature dishes are grilled chicken, beef satay and rib soup, and its vegetable sides are dressed with shrimp-paste sambal.

Dishes that are meat-free by design, and what to strip off

Gado-gado is the easiest dish to find in Jakarta and beyond. The ministry describes the Betawi version as fresh vegetables with ketupat, tofu and tempeh under a thick, slightly sweet peanut sauce. It often also comes with hard-boiled egg and krupuk (crackers), and recipes for the peanut sauce can include terasi, so vegans should ask for it without egg, without crackers and without shrimp paste. Ketoprak is similar — lontong, tofu, rice noodles and bean sprouts with peanut sauce, sweet soy sauce and crackers — and is sold by street vendors for breakfast or dinner.

Pecel is the Javanese version: boiled vegetables with a peanut sauce, eaten with rice or rice cakes, often with fried tempeh or tofu and crackers such as rempeyek. Karedok, from West Java, uses raw long beans, cabbage and bean sprouts with a peanut sauce of garlic, kencur and a little tamarind. In Magelang near Borobudur, the ministry calls kupat tahu — rice cakes, noodles, fritters, cabbage and tofu under a thin, sweet peanut sauce — the town's most iconic dish, and Tasikmalaya has its own kupat tahu Singaparna.

For protein on the side, look for tempe mendoan (thin tempeh fried half-cooked in seasoned batter), tahu bacem (tofu simmered in spices and brown sugar, then fried) and tempe bacem. Above Yogyakarta, the province's tourism office highlights jadah tempe — sticky rice with tempeh — at Kaliurang on the slopes of Merapi. Yogyakarta's gudeg is young jackfruit slow-cooked in coconut milk, but a full gudeg plate traditionally adds beef-skin krecek, chicken in coconut milk and egg; order the jackfruit with rice and tempe or tahu bacem instead.

Shrimp paste, petis and fish: where they hide

These are the dishes and sauces where meat-free on the menu does not always mean meat-free in the kitchen. Ask each time; recipes vary from stall to stall.

Lombok's tourism pages are a useful warning and a reassurance at the same time: the ministry's article on plecing kangkung lists shrimp paste in the sambal but notes that it is optional and can be left out, which makes the dish a good vegetarian choice if you ask before it is made. Its Manado porridge tinutuan, a vegetable rice porridge that the ministry calls vegetarian, is normally served with ricaroa, a fish-flavoured chilli sauce, and salted fish — order the porridge with the plain tomato sambal only.

• Sambal: Lombok's plecing and beberuk sambals and Bali's jukut urab use terasi; Bali's sambal matah is made with shallots, chilli, lemongrass and lime leaf, but variants add terasi.
• Petis: a thick shrimp or fish paste. Tahu petis is fried tofu filled with it, and Semarang's tahu gimbal combines tofu with a prawn fritter, egg and a prawn-petis peanut sauce.
• Ebi (dried shrimp): Jakarta's sayur godog, a coconut-milk stew of chayote, long beans and tempeh, is seasoned with it.
• Krupuk: crackers come in cassava and rice versions, but many are made with prawn or fish, and krupuk kulit is made from cattle skin.
• Side dishes: a gudeg or nasi campur plate may arrive with meat, egg or fish even when the main item is vegetables.

The phrases that get you a meat-free plate

Indonesian is written in the Latin alphabet and is easy to read aloud, which makes a few short phrases realistic even on a first trip. Negation is simple: tidak comes before a verb ('saya tidak makan…', I do not eat…), and tanpa means without. Name the exact ingredients rather than relying on the word vegetarian alone, and say it before the cook starts, since sambal is often ground fresh for each order.

• Saya vegetarian — I am vegetarian. In Bali's café districts, *vegan* is understood as well.
• Saya tidak makan daging, ayam, ikan atau udang — I do not eat meat, chicken, fish or shrimp.
• Tanpa terasi / tanpa petis — without shrimp paste / without petis.
• Tanpa telur, tanpa kerupuk — without egg, without crackers (useful for vegans on gado-gado and ketoprak).
• Sambalnya pakai terasi? — does the sambal have shrimp paste in it?
• Tidak pedas — not spicy, if the fresh chilli sambal is too much.

Where meat-free travel is easiest

Bali has the widest choice of dedicated restaurants, concentrated in two places. The ministry's Ubud page recommends starting the day with yoga and a healthy breakfast, and its list of vegetarian restaurants names a raw-food café in central Ubud and a vegan fine-dining room at a wellness retreat on the Ayung River at Mambal. Canggu, which the ministry describes as a place for beach yoga and healthy-food cafés, has several plant-based cafés in the Berawa and Tanah Barak area. Away from these districts, Balinese warung food is built around pork, duck and chicken, so carry your phrases.

Yogyakarta is the best base on Java: gudeg comes with tempe or tahu bacem, pecel is a Javanese staple, Kaliurang's jadah tempe and Magelang's kupat tahu are within reach, and the ministry's list includes a vegan-friendly café near Malioboro. In Jakarta, gado-gado and ketoprak are on every street, and the same list names Dharma Kitchen in Pluit, a vegetarian restaurant with Indonesian, Asian and Western menus, and Loving Hut in Jatinegara. In Medan, it lists Socrates, a vegan restaurant serving mock 'goat' satay and fried 'chicken'.

The ministry's restaurant lists are several years old, and small cafés change hands quickly. Use them to know which neighbourhoods to search, and check a restaurant's own current page or listing before crossing a city to eat there. When we checked on 2026-10-03, the ministry's Bali list still showed opening hours for each café; we have not repeated them here because they could not be confirmed with the businesses.

Holidays that change what you can eat

Nyepi, Bali's Day of Silence, falls in March or April. For 24 hours the airport and all transport close, and everyone, visitors included, is expected to stay inside. The ministry advises preparing food and other supplies before it starts and staying inside your accommodation; if you are in a guesthouse or villa without a kitchen, buy enough meat-free food the day before.

During Ramadan, daytime eating is quieter in Muslim-majority areas, but the late afternoon break-fast markets are a gift for vegetarians: the ministry's Jakarta Ramadan guide describes Pasar Benhil filling with takjil — sweet porridges, kolak with banana or sweet potato, iced desserts and fried snacks — before sunset. Ask about fillings in savoury fried snacks.

The ministry's vegetarian page also notes that some Chinese Indonesians eat vegetarian on two days during the lunar new year. Its restaurant list includes mock-meat dishes, such as the vegetarian 'goat' satay at Socrates in Medan.