Lawar Recipe — Balinese Ceremonial Salad (Vegetarian Option)

Foreign travellers meet lawar on babi guling plates and ceremonial feasts — a finely chopped, coconut-heavy “salad” that tastes nothing like Western salad. It is herbal, spicy, and built on base genep. Here is how to understand it, order it, and make a home version.

What is Balinese lawar?

Lawar mixes grated coconut, aromatics, and finely chopped vegetables or fruit (often green beans or young jackfruit) with spice paste. Meat versions add minced pork or chicken. Lawar merah (red) traditionally includes a small amount of fresh blood for colour and depth; lawar putih (white) skips blood and is the safer first try for visitors.

Vegetarian lawar (lawar sayur)

For vegetarians and many foreigners, lawar sayur is the move: young jackfruit or long beans, roasted grated coconut, fried shallots, and a plant-based spice paste (skip shrimp paste / terasi or use a mushroom alternative). We cook this style in our vegetarian cooking class in Ubud.

Home recipe — lawar putih style (serves 4 as a side)

• 200g long beans or thinly sliced young jackfruit, blanched
• 150g freshly grated coconut (or unsweetened desiccated, lightly toasted)
• 3–4 tbsp cooked base genep / bumbu Bali
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
• Fried shallots, lime juice, salt, palm sugar to taste
• Optional: minced cooked chicken for a non-veg version

Method

1. Blanch vegetables until just tender; drain and chop finely.
2. Mix with coconut, warm spice paste, lime leaf, salt and a pinch of palm sugar.
3. Adjust with lime juice — lawar should taste bright, not heavy.
4. Serve immediately at room temperature beside rice. Do not make it hours ahead — coconut and aromatics fade.

Where foreigners taste lawar in Ubud

It appears as a scoop on babi guling plates and as a side with nasi campur. If a server asks “lawar?”, and you are unsure about blood or meat, say “lawar putih, sayur”.

Spice paste first

Without good paste, lawar is just chopped coconut. Learn base genep and bumbu Bali before you chase perfection at home.

Make lawar in our kitchen

Hands-on lawar (including vegetarian) is part of the spread guests cook with us. Book your cooking class — or read the full Ubud food guide for what to eat around town.