Nilagang Baka Recipe or Filipino Beef Soup is super easy to prepare. It is probably a low brainer recipe. As the name implies, nilaga means to boil. Simply boil the beef until tender and drop in your vegetables and season it with patis or fish sauce and ground black pepper.
There are different vegetables you can add to this dish and even fruit. Sometimes we cook it with potatoes, cabbage, pechay Baguio or napa cabbage, Japanese corn, green beans and plantain. I love any combination of those vegetables and root crop, except, adding plantain or banana in it. The banana gives the dish a fruity sweetness which I really hates. It kind of remind me of pochero, which not to my liking. However, my dad loves adding it into this dish.
Today, my dad is the king of the kitchen. I’m totally tired this Saturday morning and all I want to do is sleep and rest. I woke up early and drink a mug of coffee and ate some pandesal. Then, I go back to bed to sleep. Coffee can’t beat my sleepy head.
When I woke up, again, my dad is almost done cooking. Luckily, he did not add any plantain or bananas into the nilagang baka recipe. He probably knew I will hate it.
Tips
The best cut of beef for Nilagang Baka Recipe is sirloin. You can opt with beef shanks if you want a bulalo dish. The process and vegetables are the same except the cut of beef you will use.
To thoroughly clean the beef, boil it for 15 minutes and discard the water. Then, rinse the beef and replace the water with a new one. This will remove the blood and scum when you simmer the beef.
Believe it or not, nilagang baka or even bulalo is best paired with crispy fried fish specially tawilis or any small kind of fish. In our case, we love it with tuyo or dried fish. The clean hearty broth of the beef soup balances the salty flavor of the dried fish. The crispy fried fish also adds texture when you combine the rice, soup and the fish.
Slowly simmering the beef would probably take 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours. However, feel free to use your very trusted pressure cooker to shorten the cooking time. It would probably take an hour in the pressure cooker.
For more bulalo recipe, check out my Bulalo Dishes.
Ingredients
| 500 grams | Beef Sirloin, cubed |
| 4- 6 cups | Water |
| 1 teapsoon | Whole Peppercorn |
| 2 pieces | Japanese Corn, halved |
| 2 pieces | Potatoes, quartered |
| 1/2 pieces | Pechay Baguio or Napa Cabbage |
| 1/4 teapsoon | Ground Black Pepper |
| Patis of Fish Sauce |
Procedure
Thoroughly clean the beef.
In a pot, combine beef and 4 cups of water. Boil and simmer until beef is fork tender. Add more water if needed.
Add Japanese corn and simmer until cook.
Drop in the potatoes and simmer until tender.
Add the pechay Baguio and season with ground black pepper and patis. Simmer for another 3 minutes.
Nilagang Baka Recipe
Ingredients
- 500 grams Beef Sirloin, cubed
- 4 – 6 cups Water
- 1 teaspoon Whole Peppercorn
- 2 pieces Japanese Corn, halved
- 2 pieces Potatoes, quartered
- 1/2 piece Pechay Baguio or Napa Cabbage
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
- Patis or Fish Sauce
Instructions
- Thoroughly clean the beef.
- In a pot, combine beef and 4 cups of water. Boil and simmer until beef is fork tender. Add more water if needed.
- Add Japanese corn and simmer until cook.
- Drop in the potatoes and simmer until tender.
- Add the pechay Baguio and season with ground black pepper and patis. Simmer for another 3 minutes.
