This is a very rare treat, and in fact, I had never made it here in Canada before. It was not until a few days ago that I found fresh malunggay (also known as “moringa” in North America) while I was getting pancit noodles at one of the local Filipino stores. I grabbed the last bunch and hopped my merry way home because I get to cook one of my favourite childhood dishes!
I used to enjoy this with chicken, but I made it with vegan meat this time so that I can share it with my pescatarian partner. You may also use prawns.
Couldn’t find moringa? Substitute it with spinach leaves in a pinch.
You may have heard of moringa powder from health food stores, but it’s certainly not that common to find its leaves in the produce aisle. However, you may want to seek out this little-known superfood given all its health benefits:
The leaves contain more vitamin C than oranges, more magnesium than eggs, more vitamin B3 than peanuts and more vitamin B2 than bananas, more potassium than bananas and more vitamin A than carrots. Which means moringa can contribute to everything from better vision and immunity to bone health and skin radiance.
For the vegans and lactose intolerant, moringa leaves can provide much more calcium than milk, more protein than yogurt and more iron than spinach.
Moringa can give athletes a boost, too, due to its high content of iron and vitamins A and C, which are responsible for constant and sufficient supply of oxygen to blood and stabilized blood circulation. In addition, numerous amino acids and a high calcium content positively influence the growth of muscle mass, and the antioxidants provide additional protection to the cell tissue during increased physical activity.
[from Today.com]
If you haven’t seen it before, this is what moringa looks like:
Malunggay is usually sold as a bunch of long stems. I got this for about Cdn$4 for the package.
To prepare the moringa for cooking, it is important to note that the main woody stems are discarded. The leaves could be easily stripped from the stem by lightly pressing your fingers around the smaller steams and gliding through to detach the leaves.
Here’s a video of how to quickly remove it. It is such a throwback to my carefree childhood days. Prior to this long weekend, I was a pre-teen the last time I remember working on malunggay–that was my “job” and I was more than happy to volunteer for it.
Ginisang Malunggay at Mais (Filipino Moringa and Corn Soup)
Ingredients
- 1.5 cup moringa leaves stripped from woody stem (watch the video on how to do this) and rinsed
- 1 piece medium corn – shuck or grate from the cob. Grating makes a creamier soup.
- 350 grams chicken meat, cut into bite-sized strips (vegan option: chicken substitute like Yves Chick'n Tenders work well for this and is what I used in the photos; pescatarian option: prawns)
- 1 cube chicken bouillon (vegetarian bouillon works just as well as the meaty one)
- 3 cups boiling water for dissolving the chicken bouillon
- 1/4 cup chopped onion (white or yellow)
- 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon cooking oil
- freshly ground pepper to taste
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Place a medium sauce pan over medium heat.
- Heat the oil in the pan, then add the chopped onion. Saute for 2-3 minutes until it turns translucent.
- Add the chicken strips and cook for about 5 minutes, more or less depending on what type you are using. For vegan meat pieces, you can cook it for 2 minutes. Grind black pepper into the mixture as you please — 3 turns is good to start. 🙂
- Pour the chicken stock and fish sauce into the pan along with the corn and boil for 5-7 minutes. Check for the doneness of the corn, which will dictate how long this step will take.
- Stir in the malunggay/moringa leaves and let it wilt in the soup for 2 minutes.
- Give the soup a. taste and gauge whether you would like to add salt and/or pepper.
- Serve right away, preferably with steamed rice for an authentic Filipino meal.
