Fall Filipino Cuisine – Sinigang Soup
Now that Fall is upon us, it’s time to cook up a big pot of warm Filipino sinigang soup (a sour soup made from tamarind fruit). Yummm!!!
Filipino Food!
You’ve probably at least had one Filipino friend who has brightened your day by cooking pancit (fried noodles), lumpia (fried egg rolls), or the most common Filipino dish, adobo (pork with soy sauce and vinegar). Those are the typical token foods that most people associate with Filipino cuisine.
You might also be interested in How to Make Filipino Adobo
It wasn’t until I lived in the Philippines for over three years that I was able to gain a full array of dishes and specialties that Filipino cuisine really has to offer.
Today I want to share with you a recipe for a Filipino dish called sinigang. It is one of those dishes that is as comforting to me on a cool Fall day as mac and cheese or chicken soup.
Ulam – the Tagalog word for a main dish
What is Sinigang?
Sinigang is a sour soup broth made from tamarind fruit. It usually has several types of veggies including white radish, eggplant, green beans, kangkong or water spinach, gabi (a type of root similar to a potato) and tomatoes.
This popular Filipino dish sounds like a strange combination, but it’s one of my favorite dishes.
Sinigang Soup for a Cool Fall Day
Now that the cool Fall weather is upon us, it’s time to cook up a big pot of warm sinigang soup. Here’s a recipe that I use and have found to be fairly easy. I adapted some veggies to what was available at the market as well as my own personal preferences. Let me know what you think!
Recipe for Filipino Sinigang Soup
Ingredients:
2 lbs pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
1 large russet potato, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 cup green beans
1 white radish, cut into 1 inch slices
1 cup green leafy vegetable (spinach or bok choy greens work great)
1 tomato, chopped into small pieces
2 green chiles (anaheim)
1 packet Sinigang mix (found at your local asian grocery store)
4 cups water
2 TBSP sliced ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 TBSP Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Heat up the olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped tomatoes. Sauté for 1-2 minutes, then add the garlic, onion, and ginger. Continue to sauté until garlic and onions are lightly browned.
Add the pork and continue to sauté. Pork should be seared on all sides but does not need to be fully cooked. Salt the pork while cooking (I don’t measure but 1 tsp should be good).
Transfer everything to a large pot and add the water and sinigang packet. Bring to a boil then turn heat to low, add the chiles, and let the soup simmer for 1 hour (I like the meat to be very tender).
After an hour, add the potatoes, white radish, and green beans and cook for about 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are almost tender. Add in the spinach or other leafy greens and cook an additional 5 minutes.
And that’s it!
Don’t forget that Filipino dishes are ALWAYS served with tons of rice. Eat up!
Have you been to a Filipino restaurant before? What kinds of dishes have you tried? Share your thoughts below.
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