Meatless Recipes: Guinataang Monggos

Guinataang Monggo was considered as poor man's food but packed with lots of nutrition. I learned appreciate this dish back when I was in college at the university cafeteria where serve this at the end of the school week as an observance of Meatless Fridays (a practice where Christians are to be reminded that Jesus died on that day). It was the beginning of my Friday love affair with the lowly monggo. The nuns who ran the commissary make one delicious monggo soup!

I'm glad my kids love to eat this today. When I was their age, I use to make faces whenever it was served.This is one of the popular dish during lenten season. This recipe is taught by our yaya several years back and she uses shredded Red Sal dried salted fish or bulad. But I prefer Katambak or Lapu-lapu since it has more meat in it. I use Knorr Ginataang Gulay Mix because it's pre seasoned and saves me time and effort in extracting coconut milk the traditional way.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves 4


Ingredients

• 1/2 cup dried monggo beans washed and rinsed
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp. onion, chopped
• Shredded meat from one medium sized salted fish (buwad) 
• or 1/4 cup of fried fish meat, bones removed
• 1 tomato chopped
• A handful of malunggay leaves
• Patis to taste (not to be confused with toyo) optional
• 1 cup gata (coconut milk) or
• 1 packet Knorr Guinataang Mix (use according to directions).

Boil the monggo beans in water until tender. Do not drain. Set aside. Sauté the garlic and onions in a little oil. Add the dried fish and cook for 2 minutes then add the tomatoes. Sauté a little more until tomatoes are soft. Add the monggo and stir in the gata, then the malunggay leaves. Season with white pepper and patis to taste. Adjust the consistency by adding more water if you like your monggo soup to be thinner.