My parents love all sorts of vegetables. Not your typical vegetables you can find in a vegetable salad. What I mean is local vegetables like okra, string beans, eggplant, ampalaya or bitter gourd and leafy vegetables like saluyot and alugbati. They are healthy and comes in a very affordable price.
This recipe is one of their favorite and not a week will passed that this dish is not served on our table. The ever healthy bulanglang. This is our version of bulanglang. Some version adds bagoong or alamang to adds flavor but this version is just a simple salt to flavor the broth.
Bulanglang is a no brainer and a lazy method of enjoying your vegetables. Simply throw in everything, boil, season and served. This is best paired with fried fish or sinaing na isda. The best part, you can throw in every kind of vegetables that you want. For added flavor, you can use your rice wash and a bouillon cube.
Ingredients
2 cups Water or Rice Wash
6 cloves Garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1 piece Red Onion, chopped
1 thumb-sized Ginger, sliced
4 pieces Tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup Dried Anchovies
Bunch Alugbati, cleaned and stems removed
1 piece Shrimp Bouillon Cube
12 pieces String Beans, cut into 3 inches long
6 pieces Okra, cut in halves
12 pieces Squash blossom
Salt to taste
Procedure
Soak dried anchovies in hot water for 5 minutes. Remove head and wash thoroughly.
In a pot, combine water or rice wash, garlic, onion, ginger, tomatoes, cleaned anchovies, alugbati and bouillon cube. Boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add string beans and okra simmer for another 5 minutes or until okra is done. Add squash blossom and season with salt.
You can also add eggplants, squash and bitter gourd is you want. The thing is, you can add any vegetables that are available or in season. You can season it with bagoong, fish sauce or shrimp paste for flavor.
Served with fried fish.
