Sinabawang gulay

A clear vegetable broth seasoned only with shrimp paste, with everything added by hardness.

Not vegetarian — contains shrimp paste.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons shrimp paste
• 1.5 litres water
• 400 g squash, in 3 cm chunks
• 200 g green beans, in lengths
• 200 g bitter gourd, sliced
• 1 aubergine, in thick coins
• 150 g moringa leaves
• 1 onion, sliced
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 40 g fresh ginger, sliced
• 2 tomatoes, in wedges
• 2 tablespoons oil

Method

1. SEASONED ONLY WITH SHRIMP PASTE, and it goes in early and gets fried. No stock cube, no fish sauce. The broth is meant to taste of the vegetables that are in it, and the paste provides the salt and the depth both.
2. Fry the garlic, onion and ginger in the oil, 4 minutes.
3. Shrimp paste in, pressed against the pan, 2 minutes, until it darkens and smells nutty rather than raw. Fried, it seasons the whole pot; stirred in at the end it tastes of itself only.
4. Tomatoes in, 3 minutes, pressed until they slump.
5. Water in and brought to a simmer.
6. ADDED BY HARDNESS, and the order is the recipe. Squash first, 10 minutes. Bitter gourd and aubergine, 6 minutes. Beans, 4 minutes. Moringa last, off the heat, 2 minutes under the lid.
7. Do not cover it while the squash cooks. Covered, the broth goes cloudy and the squash disintegrates.
8. Taste before adding anything. Shrimp paste varies a great deal between jars and this soup is easy to oversalt at the last minute.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes