Bulanglang : Batangas Vegetable Soup

Bulanglang is a healthy dish consisting of different types of vegetables. There are different versions of Bulanglang; this particular recipe is the version from the province of Batangas. It's actually very simple and easy to make. All you need to do is boil water or rice washing (water used to clean rice) and put-in the vegetables according to their cooking time. Thick and hard vegetables such as squash (kalabasa) and green papaya should be boiled first, while soft green vegetables like malunggay should be added last.

This is probably the healthiest Filipino soup because of the combination of different kinds of vegetables. For this recipe I used a 16-bean mix I found in the grocery consisting of various colorful beans including lima beans, red beans, pinto, chickpea, green split peas, etc. 

 Having a serving of Bulanglang can supply most of your body’s daily needed vitamins and minerals. As for the taste, this dish has a very mild and simple taste. The flavors are derived from the vegetables alone. You can try adding a little salt to enhance the flavor.

Procedure:

1. Wash and prepare all the vegetables. Take malunggay leaves out of their stems (my kids love helping me out with this task!).
2. Boil the water/rice washings in a medium pot.

3. Add in the garlic, ginger and lemongrass. Boil for another 10 minutes just to get the flavors out.

4. Remove the lemongrass. Add the squash and boil for about 5 minutes before adding in the rest of the vegetables (except for malunngay leaves).

5. Season with salt and add in malunggay. 

6. Turn off the heat and transfer to a serving bowl.

7. Enjoy!