Malaysian food is one of the most popular cuisines in the entire world. This amazingly fragrant food is filled with flavour and deliciousness. The main ingredients that are indispensable to Malaysian cuisine are coconut milk, lemongrass, ginger, shallots and curry powder. Nasi Lemak is the national dish of Malaysia, without which a typical Malaysian day never starts. These traditional recipes have been followed by many generations and inspite of many versions coming up to suit the international palette, Malaysian recipes still have the same flavour profile. Malaysian food is spicy, but not pungent. The use of many spices in the dishes make it one of the most preferred cuisine in the world.

Best Malaysian Food Recipes With Pictures:

Check out some of the Malaysian food names and their recipes in this article.

Top  Malaysian Vegetarian Recipes:

1. Malaysian Hot Noodles:

Recipe Speciality: This is one of the most delicious and flavour some noodle recipes. It is very spicy and is quite popular as street food recipes. Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients:

  • Noodles – 1Pack
  • Ginger, garlic paste – 2 tbsp
  • Mixed Vegetables – 1 cup
  • Tofu – 1 cup
  • Sesame Oil
  • Salt
  • Bean Shoots

How to Make:

  • Boil the noodles with some oil
  • In a wok, heat up some sesame oil
  • Add ginger garlic paste and toss vegetables
  • Stir fry them and add tofu
  • Add noodles and stir
  • Garnish with bean shoots

2. Five Spiced Stir Fry Vegetables:

Recipe Speciality: This is a very flavour some and healthy dish. It is quite nutritious dish that is enriched with the goodness of vegetables. It is best eaten on its own or can be eaten with fried rice.

Ingredients:

  • Sesame Oil
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Mixed Vegetables
  • Five Spices Powder
  • Soy Sauce
  • Salt

How to Make:

  • In a large wok, heat some sesame oil
  • Sauté some garlic and ginger
  • Add some vegetables and stir fry them
  • Add five spice powder and soy sauce
  • Serve hot

3. Oseng-Oseng Wortel:

Recipe Speciality: This recipe is basically stir-fried carrots that is mainly eaten with rice. It is high on taste and flavour. This easy recipe is a must try for vegetarians. Check out the recipe below:

Ingredients:

  • Garlic
  • Shallots
  • Oil
  • Carrots
  • Dark Soy Sauce
  • Chilli Powder
  • Water

How to Make:

  • In a large wok, heat some vegetable oil
  • Sauté garlic, shallots
  • Add carrots and stir until they become soft
  • Add dark soy sauce, water and chilli powder
  • Simmer until it becomes a nice gravy
  • Serve hot with rice

4. Bubur or Porridges:

Recipe Speciality: The filling of these is coconut milk-based, from time to time sugary soups can wrap a mixture of vegetables plus meats, with even colored sphere of flour moreover coconut milk. Not at all any normal recipe is required to prepare Bubur as dissimilar area boasts their area of expertise.

Ingredients Used:

  • Javanese Sugar – 100gm
  • Coconut Cream – 1/4th block
  • Salt – Pinch
  • Sweet Potatoes – ½ kg

How To Make:

  • Peel and cut the sweet potatoes.
  • Boil them in water, mixed with a pinch of salt
  • Add sugar to boiling water and add the half cooked sweet potatoes
  • Now, add the santen and cook until the sweet potato is well cooked and soft.

5. Banana Leaf Rice:

Recipe Speciality: In this, white rice is give out on a banana leaf by an mixture of curried meat or fish, vegetables, pickles, plus the wonderful addictive papadum seem like huge, encircling, flat crisps. Ordinarily simply the gravy of the curry resolve be dish up and no meat is hand out as it is destined to be a customary. This is one of the healthy Malaysian food recipes.

Ingredients:

  • Banana Leaves
  • Rice

How to Make:

  • Take a banana leaf and cut into half
  • Place some 3/4th-cooked rice and place it in the leaf
  • Roll it and place in steamer
  • Steam for 5 minutes

Top Malaysian Non-veg Recipes:

1. Nasi Biryani:

Recipe Speciality: Nasi Biryani is a popular dish in many weddings and special occasions. It is a non-veg dish which is mainly made with lamb or chicken. It is very similar to the biryani made in India.

Ingredients:

  • Lamb Pieces
  • Yoghurt
  • Onions
  • Spices
  • Aromatics
  • Rice
  • Saffron Milk

How to Make:

  • Marinate meat in yoghurt
  • In some oil, fry onions and aromatics and spices
  • Add the marinated meat
  • Add half cooked rice in layers with meat
  • Between layers add saffron milk
  • Seal the vessel and cook till done

2. Black Pepper Chicken:

Recipe Speciality: This is a spicy, chicken recipe that is eaten as a starter. It is great for those who love chicken. It is quite flavour some and can be made very easily at home.

Ingredients:

  • Chicken
  • Onions
  • Capsicums
  • Shallots
  • Oil
  • Sweet Soy Sauce

How to Make:

  • Marinate chicken pieces with some salt and pepper
  • Fry the chicken pieces in some oil and keep it aside
  • In the same pan, fry some onions, capsicums, shallots
  • Add chicken pieces and stir
  • Drizzle some sweet soy sauce and serve hot

3. Coconut Crab Curry:

Recipe Speciality: This curry is for all sea food lovers. Infused with the flavors of coconut milk, this curry is one of the best sought after dishes of Malaysian cuisine. It is quite mild, but the spice level can be adjusted.

Ingredients:

  • Crabs
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • Ginger
  • Turmeric
  • Chilli Powder
  • Salt
  • Coconut Milk

How to Make:

  • Wash crabs and cut them
  • Make a paste out of onions, garlic and ginger
  • Fry the paste in oil
  • Add turmeric, chilli powder, salt in the mixture
  • Add coconut milk and water
  • Now add crab and simmer for few minutes
  • Serve hot

4. Murtabak:

Recipe Speciality: This is pan-fried bread overstuffed with crushed meat with onions and dished in peppery sauce is a food and a half, simply optional to the truly starving. An ideal Murtabak is ready with a healthy quantity of crushed meat therefore; the taste comes throughout on the initial chew.

Ingredients:

  • Plain flour – 2 Cups
  • Salt – 1 tbsp
  • Ghee – 1 tbsp
  • Evaporated Milk – ½ Cup
  • Warm Water – 1 Cup
  • Oil – ½ Cup
  • Small Egg – 1
  • Chicken Breast – 250 gms
  • Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
  • Turmeric powder – Pinch
  • Chilli powder – 1 tbsp
  • Garam masala – 1 tbsp
  • Salt – To taste
  • Oil – 2 tbsp

How to Make:

  • Take a bowl and add flour, egg, oil, salt, ghee, milk and mix together
  • Add water and form a soft dough
  • Divide the dough into balls
  • Prepare filling by taking a large wok and heating some oil
  • Add ginger garlic paste and saute for a while
  • Add chicken breast and cook with salt, turmeric and chilli powders
  • Take the flour balls, flatten it a little and fill with the chicken mix
  • Roll it into a ball and seal the edges with water
  • Fry them in oil and serve hot.

5. Malaysian Satay:

Recipe Speciality: Typically completed with beef otherwise chicken, Malay satay’s are gently marinated and evenly grill. They are enjoying greatest with a spicy peanut sauce, rice cake, slivers of onions plus cucumbers which factually dissolve in your mouth. After eating this you will get a fair meal of carbo, fats, protein and vegetables. Satay is the popular among Malaysian food dishes.

Ingredients:

  • Onions – 3
  • Lemon Grass – 1 stalk
  • Garlic – 4 Cloves
  • Ginger – 1 piece
  • Chicken Thighs – 500 gm
  • Ground Masala Powder – 2 tbsp
  • Brown Sugar – 2tbsp
  • Salt- to taste
  • Oil – 2 tbsp

How To Make:

  • Make a paste out of lemon grass, shallots, garlic, ginger
  • Coat the chicken in turmeric, salt, masala powder and the lemongrass paste
  • Marinate for 1 hour
  • Take bamboo skewers and soak them in water
  • Prick the chicken pieces into the skewers
  • Grill on fire or coal
  • Serve with onions

6. Nasi Dagang:

Recipe Speciality: Every Malaysian food involves Nasi Dagang without this the food is incomplete. It is a famous breakfast food in the state on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, like Kelantan and Terengganu. This delicious dish contains rice boiled in fish curry and coconut milk, in addition to additional element like, soloklada, fried shaved coconut, vegetable pickles and hard-boiled eggs.

Ingredients:

  • Nasi Dagang – 4 Cups
  • Thick Coconut Milk – 11/2 Cups
  • Thin Coconut Milk – 11/2 Cup
  • Shallots – 10
  • Ginger – 2 pieces
  • Fenugreek – 1 tbsp
  • Salt- 1 tbsp

How to Make:

  • Wash the rice and soak it overnight
  • Drain the water and steam for 30 minutes
  • Add thin coconut milk and get it back into steam for 15 minutes
  • Now mix thick coconut milk, ginger, fenugreek, salt and mix into the well cooked rice
  • Steam it again for 15 minutes
  • Serve with nice chicken curry

7. Curry Laksa:

Recipe Speciality: Malaysian curry laksa has volcanic kind of taste and contains all the aromas that are prepared from slim rice noodles enclosed in an affluent coconut cream curry. Its toppings comprise shredded chicken, fried tofu, shrimp, juicy squeeze of lime, and a handful of cilantro!

Ingredients:

  • Onions – 3
  • Garlic – 3 cloves
  • Lemongrass- 1 stalk
  • Ginger – 2 pieces
  • Curry Powder – 2 tbsp
  • Vegetable Oil – 2 tbsp
  • Chicken pieces – 250 gm
  • Pandan Leaves – 2
  • Water
  • Bean Sprouts – 100 gms
  • Tofu –1 block
  • Salt – to taste
  • Sambal paste – 4 tbsp

How to Make:

  • Make a paste out of onions, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, curry powder
  • Heat oil and fry the paste until the raw taste subsides
  • Add Pandan leaves and pour water
  • Once it starts boiling add chicken and cook it well
  • Add yellow noodles, tofu, sambal paste and bean sprouts
  • Serve hot with rice.

8. Nasi Kandar:

Recipe Speciality:Particularly well-known in Penang, Malaysia. It is a dish which contains rice and a variety of dissimilar Indian style curries or fried meats. It is plain or kindly flavoured and dish up with a variety of side dishes like fried chicken, curried mutton, gizzards, cubed beef, fried prawns, fried squid or fish roe. Many people eat this by bare hands.

Ingredients:

  • Chicken pieces – ½ kg
  • Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp
  • Oil For frying
  • Tomatoes – 2
  • Curry Leaves – bunch
  • Pandan leaves – 1
  • Cinnamon stick – 1 stick
  • Star anise – 2
  • Cardamom – 2
  • Onions – 2
  • Soya sauce – ½ tbsp
  • Tomato Puree – ½ tbsp
  • Palm sugar – 2tbsp
  • Oil

How to Make:

  • Marinate chicken in turmeric and salt for one hour
  • Deep fry in oil until brown
  • Heat up oil and cook onions and tomatoes
  • Add the aromatics, curry leaves, pandan leaf, soya sauce, tomato puree and palm sugar
  • Simmer until it thickens

See More: How To Make Arabic Food

Top Malaysian Snack Recipes:

1. Cucur Udang:

Recipe Speciality: These crispy prawn fritters are one of the most popular snacks in Malaysian cuisine. They are very crunchy on the outside, but soft and delicious on the inside. Check out this simple recipe below:

Ingredients:

  • Flour
  • Salt
  • Baking Soda
  • Onions
  • Prawns
  • Water

How to Make:

  • Take some flour, add salt, baking soda, onions, prawns
  • Mix with water to form a tight paste
  • Fry them in oil by dropping small spoons of the mixture
  • Serve with ketchup

2. Pisang Goreng:

Recipe Speciality: These high on taste, delicious banana fritters are to die for. They are very popular in Malaysian and are preferred as evening snacks. These are mildly sweet in taste and are best served with ice cream:

Ingredients:

  • Flour
  • Bananas
  • Sugar
  • Vanilla Powder
  • Milk
  • Egg
  • Butter

How to Make:

  • Combine flour, sugar, vanilla powder
  • Add some milk, egg and melted butter
  • Dip bananas in the batter and fry in oil
  • Serve hot with cold ice cream

3. Vadai:

Recipe Speciality: These hot and spicy fritters are very popular snacks, particularly with the Indian community. These can be easily made at home and there are many versions to it. The popular one is the savoury doughnut vada.

Ingredients:

  • Lentils
  • Water
  • Salt
  • Cumin
  • Oil

How to Make:

  • Grind Lentils with little water and add salt, cumin
  • Fry them in oil by taking little spoons of batter
  • Serve hot

4. Roti Canai:

Recipe Speciality: This roti canai is prepared as of thin dough, cooked taken with a white like bread, plus dished into an aromatic curry sauce for giving flavor. This Malaysian food offers an appetizing treat anytime of the daytime; however it is usually eaten for mealtime beside by a mug of milky tea.

Ingredients:

  • Maida – 2 cups
  • Salt – 1 tbsp
  • Water – 1Cup
  • Oil – 1 Cup

How To Make:

  • Make a dough out of maida, salt, water and oil.
  • Knead it well until the dough is soft and elastic
  • Roll it flat and circular
  • Grease a pan and cook it till golden brown by adding a few drops of oil

See More: Japanese Foods Recipes

Top Malaysian Party Food Recipes

1. Sambal Fish:

Recipe Speciality: This is one the most preferred party food recipes of Malaysian. It is taken as a main course and is quite high on spice levels. It makes for a delicious meal which is appreciated buy all the guests.

Ingredients:

  • Fish
  • Salt
  • Turmeric
  • Sambal Sauce

How to Make:

  • Prepare fish by slashing midway
  • Rub salt and turmeric on the fish
  • Cook on pan gently on both sides
  • Smear Sambal sauce on the fish and cook for two more minutes
  • Serve hot

2. Chicken Teriyaki:

Recipe Speciality: This is another preferred dishes for party food. It is quite popular in parties, as it is easy to make, has less ingredients and also satisfies the hunger levels of the guests. Party hard with this awesome recipe:

Ingredients:

  • Chicken
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Teriyaki Sauce

How to Make:

  • Season chicken with salt and pepper
  • Fry in a pan gently
  • Add teriyaki sauce and cook for sometime
  • Serve hot

3. Garlic Butter Sauteed Asparagus:

Recipe Speciality: This super fresh, healthy salad is one of the best party recipes. It makes your guests feel light yet satisfy their hunger levels. This recipe is quite easy to make. Check this recipe to know how:

Ingredients:

  • Asparagus
  • Butter
  • Garlic
  • Salt

How to Make:

  • Wash and prepare tender asparagus
  • Add some butter, garlic and salt in a wok
  • Toss the asparagus till cooked
  • Serve hot

See More: Spanish Food Recipes

Top Street Food Recipes:

1. Otak Otak:

Recipe Speciality: Otak Otak are grilled fish cakes made in plantain leaf. They are easily one of the best sought-after street food dishes of Malaysia. No trip to Malaysia is complete without tasting these.

Ingredients:

  • Fish
  • Spicy Sambal Sauce
  • Plantain leaves

How to Make:

  • Coat fish with spicy Sambal paste, made with shallots, kaffir lime and lemongrass
  • Parcel this fish in plantain leaves
  • Steam them till done

2. Pad Thai Noodles:

Recipe Speciality: This is one of the most popular street food recipes of Malaysia. It is a dish that contains every single element needed to satisfy your palette. It certainly cures your spicy cravings.

Ingredients:

  • Sea food
  • Vegetables
  • Garlic
  • Boiled Pad Thai Noodles
  • Red Chillies
  • Bean Shoot
  • Soy Sauce
  • Palm sugar
  • Roasted peanuts

How to Make:

  • Heat some peanut oil in a wok
  • Fry some sea food, vegetables in garlic
  • Add boiled pad Thai noodles
  • Add some red chillies, bean shoot, soy sauce and palm sugar
  • Sprinkle with roasted peanuts

3. Char Kuey Teow:

Recipe Speciality: This Malaysian street food recipe is essentially flat nice noodles that is cooked in spicy sauce along with vegetables or sea food. It is made from flat noodles and is high on flavour profile.

Ingredients:

  • Sea food
  • Vegetables
  • Noodles
  • Soy Sauce
  • Caramel Sauce
  • Garlic
  • Oil
  • Sambal Paste

How to Make:

  • Heat oil in a wok and add garlic
  • Add sambal paste, sea food and vegetables
  • Add noodles, soy sauce and caramel sauce
  • Beat up an egg and fry it alongside in the pan
  • Serve hot

4. Tepung Pelita:

Recipe Speciality:This is a sweet dish and a type of Malay-style pastry. The tepungpelita simply take the cake at what time compare to its post-dinner links because this is a double-layered coconut milk-based dessert. Lying on the top layer, broad coconut milk by salt and resting on the bottom, a comparable cloudy liquid diverse with pandan leaves and sugar to twist it green. Give out in bite-sized pandan leaf dishes, the wrapping of tepungpelita construct for simply satisfying greedy desires.

Ingredients:

  • Banana Leaves – 5
  • Brown Sugar – 100gm
  • Water – 1 litre
  • Rice Flour – 50gm for top layer, 30gm for bottom layer
  • Thick coconut milk – 250ml
  • Salt – to taste

How to Make:

  • Cut banana leaves into small pieces and fold into boats.
  • Arrange them in steamer rack and put 1gm sugar in each
  • Pour mixture of rice flour, Pandan leaf juice on the sugar layer
  • Steam for 30 minutes
  • Add a top layer of rice flour and coconut milk, salt cooked into smooth paste
  • Spread it on the steamed boat and steam for 10 minutes.

Malaysia is truly Asia. It is a melting pot of cultures and cuisines. Predominant with the population of Indian origin, Malaysian cuisine is all about embracing various cultures and flavours. They are very fragrant food and is irresistible in terms of deliciousness. Malaysian street food is a part of every tourist’s itinerary. They are mostly savoury dishes, but the sweet versions are plenty. Most of Malaysian food is served piping hot and comprises of soups, stir fries and curries. We hope we made your mouth water by introducing some of the less known Malaysian food names and their easy to make recipes.

Sireesha

About Sireesha

Sireesha is a nutritionist and passionate content writer. She has a Professional Certificate in Food, Nutrition, and Health. She helped to realize how diet and health go hand-in-hand. Her writings have now become very basic, precise, and holistic. Check out her profiles to know more.
ADVERTISEMENT