Bulanglang Recipe is our family’s go to dish when we want some veggies in our meal. It is so easy to prepare plus it’s healthy. Basically, you just boil the water with garlic, onion and ginger and drop the vegetables and simmer unitl cooked.
This dish is probably my dad’s lazy recipe since it’s so easy to prepare. This dish is best paired with fried or grilled fish. If you want something healthy to go to with your pork, this is a go to dish.
Different provinces or even families have their own version of this recipe. Some would add bagoong isda instead of patis or salt to season the dish.
Another good thing about this recipe is you can actually use any local vegetables available in the market. I remembered my godmother who cooked this using malunggay fruit, thinly sliced green papaya and sitaw.
Probably one big difference with bulanglang in the Metro Manila and in the province is the taste of the vegetables. Vegetables in the province are freshly picked, hence, they have this nice subtle sweetness compared to the vegetables in the city.
Tips
Basically, there’s no rule on what vegetables to use in your bulanglang recipe. Any local vegetables will do. However, the most common are green papaya, okra, eggplant, malunggay, alugbati, squash, yard long beans or sitaw and bitter gourd or ampalaya.
For this recipe I added some leftover lechon kawali but you can totally omit this. My dad on the other hand loves to put dried anchovies to give it a nice umami taste. However, nowadays, dried fish is my dad’s number one enemy. If you don’t have any meat or dried fish, you can simply add a piece of bouillon cube.
For more vegetable dishes check out Vegetable Recipes.
Ingredients
| 4 cups | Water |
| 8 cloves | Garlic, chopped |
| 1 bulb | Onion, chopped |
| 1 piece | Thumb – sized Ginger, chopped |
| 4 pieces | Tomatoes |
| 1 cup | Chopped Lechon Kawali, Optional |
| 250 grams | Squash, cut into 1 inch cube |
| 8 pieces | Okras, cut into 3 parts |
| 10 pieces | Yard Long Beans or Sitaw, cut into 3 inch long |
| 2 cups | Malunggay Leaves |
| Fish Sauce | |
| Ground Black Pepper |
Procedure
In a pot, combine, water, garlic, onion, ginger, tomatoes and lechon kawali. Boil and simmer until tomatoes are tender. Mash the tomatoes and simmer for another three minutes.
Add squash and simmer until tender. Mash half or all the squash. Simmer for another three minutes.
Add the okras and yard long beans. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still crispy.
Lastly, add the malunggay leaves and season with fish sauce and ground black pepper.
Bulanglang Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups Water
- 8 cloves Garlic, chopped
- 1 bulb Onion, chopped
- 1 piece Thumb – sized Ginger, chopped
- 4 piecea Tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup Chopped Lechon Kawali
- 250 grams Squash, cut into 1 inch cube
- 8 pieces Okras, cut into 3 parts
- 10 pieces Yard Long Beans or Sitaw, cut into 3 inch long
- 2 cups Malunggay Leaves
- Fish Sauce
- Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- In a pot, combine, water, garlic, onion, ginger, tomatoes and lechon kawali. Boil and simmer until tomatoes are tender. Mash the tomatoes and simmer for another three minutes.
- Add squash and simmer until tender. Mash half or all the squash. Simmer for another three minutes.
- Add the okras and yard long beans. Simmer for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked but still crispy.
- Lastly, add the malunggay leaves and season with fish sauce and ground black pepper.
