Prep These 3 Indonesian Spice Pastes for Effortless Cooking With Big Flavor

Forget meal prep. Do flavor prep.
Peppery Turmeric Soup in a bowl being served with rice.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich

I used to think that Indonesian spice pastes were difficult to make. When I was growing up, I would watch my mother laboriously pound herbs and spices with her trusty mortar and pestle in order to create these flavorful mixtures, which are the foundation of a multitude of Indonesian dishes—including several of my childhood favorites. There are many types of these bumbu-bumbu (meaning “spice pastes” in Indonesian) and each contain varying blends of spices and aromatics that are intended for specific kinds of dishes.

And in truth, bumbu-bumbu can be time-consuming to make—but I’ve discovered that they don’t have to be.

By sticking to an easy-to-use bumbu dasar (literally “basic spice paste”) or two (or three!), and streamlining the process, I can quickly re-create delicious Indonesian meals that taste like home, without a laundry list of ingredients. Plus, I now know there’s no shame in using a food processor! As a busy working mom, there’s just no way I’m going to pound ingredients by hand like my Ma and Oma did.

My life changed when I realized you can make rendang in an Instant Pot.

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Rebecca Jurkevich

While there are dozens of different Indonesian bumbu dasar preparations, the three most basic spice pastes are named for their colors: putih (white), kuning (yellow), and merah (red). Traditionally, each paste starts with garlic and shallots, but the road splits from there. A plethora of other ingredients—including cumin, cardamom, peanuts (bumbu kacang), and an oily black nut called kluwak (bumbu hitam)—can also be included.

These bumbu-bumbu each have a different flavor profile and are versatile in their own ways. Packed with flavor, each paste is more complex than the sum of its parts and forms the foundation for a wide range of dishes; for example, red for rendang and yellow for turmeric fried chicken.

Let’s start with bumbu dasar putih, or white basic spice paste. This non-spicy paste includes garlic, shallots, candlenuts, galangal, and sometimes coriander seed. Putih is used to prepare dishes such as opor ayam (white curry chicken), gudeg (jackfruit curry), soto babat (tripe soup), sayur lodeh (vegetables in white curry), and vegetable stir-fries. You may want to add a few fresh or dried herbs while cooking for additional flavor and aroma, but don’t be fooled by this bumbu’s pale color. While mellow, it’s far from boring or bland.

Bumbu dasar kuning, or yellow basic spice paste, is so named because of the liberal amount of turmeric that goes into it. Turmeric not only adds an earthy taste and aroma, but also a bright, golden hue. Other ingredients include the requisite garlic and shallots as well as white pepper. This bold, musky bumbu lends its magic to soto ayam (chicken soup—though, I also make a vegetarian version), acar kuning (yellow pickles), nasi kuning (yellow coconut rice), and ayam goreng kunyit (turmeric fried chicken).

Bumbu dasar merah, red basic spice paste, gets its color and heat because of—you guessed it—red chiles. Traditionally, long red curly chiles (cabe keriting) and as many of the spicier bird’s eye chiles as you dare are used to make this spice paste, in addition to garlic, shallots, and sometimes tomatoes. If you like, you can also add coriander, shrimp paste, or candlenuts (also known as kukui nuts, which you can replace with macadamia nuts or hazelnuts). In North America, Holland chiles, red Fresnos, or red Korean chiles will do the trick. Fiery merah is the most assertive of the three spice pastes and infuses zing into Indonesia’s national dish, rendang, as well as ayam rica rica (Manado chicken), nasi goreng (fried rice), and my favorite, telor balado (twice-cooked egg).

Instead of making bumbu-bumbu on demand, I find it most practical to prep spice pastes in bulk and store them in the refrigerator for easy cooking later.

How to prep bumbu-bumbu in advance

It's a simple process: First, just blitz all the ingredients into a fine paste in a food processor. Then fry the paste in vegetable oil over a medium-high flame until fragrant. (If frying chiles, be sure to turn up your fan to its highest setting and open your windows!) You’ll then add salt and sugar, and continue frying until most of the liquid has evaporated—around 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Once the paste has cooled completely, transfer your bumbu dasar to a clean glass jar, seal tightly, and refrigerate for up to two weeks. To store for longer, you can freeze it. Use at will!

Before adding your bumbu to a recipe, remove it from the refrigerator and allow it to come up to room temperature first. This allows the ingredients to relax and reintegrate and ensures that the spice paste doesn’t splatter when you add it to a hot pan.

Make-ahead spice pastes save me a lot of time, especially during the week when I’m juggling deadlines (and my son’s tae kwon do practice). With this shortcut, I can reclaim Ma’s recipes and cook the same delicious meals that I grew up with for my family.