Sinigang Soup - Authentic Filipino Recipe

Warm up with a bowl of authentic Filipino Sinigang Soup! This traditional recipe combines tender pork, eggplant, okra, daikon and kang kong in a tangy tamarind broth that's light, comforting and packed with flavour. Sinigang is one of the Philippines' most beloved dishes and surprisingly easy to make at home. Save this authentic sinigang recipe for a cosy family meal!

About This Sinigang Soup Recipe

Sinigang is a delicious Filipino soup dish combining meat or seafood with vegetables and a lightly sour tamarind flavoured broth. Often considered one of the national dishes of the Philippines it is a wonderful comfort dish served with rice. Sinigang translates to "stewed" in Tagalog. And I'm sharing an authentic Filipino recipe thanks to my parents' live in helper Del who is from the Philippines and is a fantastic cook!

What is sinigang made of? This wonderfully versatile Filipino dish is made with a meat or seafood base with vegetables like eggplant, okra, spinach (usually water spinach like kang kong) and daikon radish. The broth is flavoured with tamarind and fish sauce.

Is Sinigang soup healthy? Yes! Very healthy as the broth is light and it is packed with vegetables. It becomes even healthier if you choose a lean meat or fish.

Del has taught me how to make some delicious Filipino recipes like Leche Flan, Cassava Cake, Chicken Adobo, Kare Kare stew and Pancit noodles. I love her recipes because they're so delicious and authentic!

Video How To Make Sinigang Soup

Video: How to Make an Authentic Sinigang Soup

Ingredients For Sinigang Soup

Pork - Pork is usually used and commonly pork belly, pork shoulder or pork ribs are used. If you love cooking with it, I've got lots more pork recipes too.

Onion - You only need a small red onion.

Tomato - Use one large fresh tomato.

Tamarind - This is the key ingredient to making the signature sour taste. You can buy a sinigang mix which is mainly tamarind powder or you can also use tamarind paste which is easily available at supermarkets nowadays. Other subs for tamarind are rice vinegar which is a mild vinegar (not white vinegar, too strong!).

Stock cube - Use a chicken or pork stock cube (pork stock cubes can be found at Asian grocery stores).

Fish sauce - You can use either fish sauce or salt to season the broth (along with chicken powder).

Eggplant - We use slender Japanese or finger eggplant as these don't need to be salted before using.

Okra - Usually Del would use smaller okra but the shop only had larger ones.

Kang kong or water spinach - You'll have to go to the Asian market or greengrocer's for kangkong. Other subs for kangkong are spinach, sweet potato leaves, kale (Tuscan or cavolo nero) or Swiss chard.

Daikon radish - Also called white radish, this may also be an Asian market item depending on your supermarket. Other subs are jicama or turnips.

Chilli - Del specifies that only long green chilli is used (sometimes a small green chilli but never red!).

Tips For Making Sinigang Soup

1 - As I mentioned, sinigang is super versatile. Normally pork is used (cubed pork belly, pork ribs, cubed pork shoulder) but you can also use beef (brisket or chuck), salmon or prawns.

2 - If you use beef, Del advises to cook it in the pressure cooker in broth until soft. Then use the broth for the sinigang soup. And if you use salmon or prawns, they need around 5 minutes max to cook in the soup so add the vegetables first.

3 - According to Del, kang kong is good for diabetics. She also discards kangkong leaves where insects have taken bites out of them.

4 - When prepping okra, if you can snap off the pointy end of the okra, it is fresh.

5 - Other vegetables you can use in sinigang are string or yardlong beans, potato and taro.

6 - It's important to taste the sinigang so that it is the level of sourness or salt that you like as everyone differs on how strongly sour they like food.

7 - Sinigang is often served with steamed white rice but you can also serve it with rice noodles or noodles. It makes such a cosy dinner on a cold night.

Sinigang Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes

Makes: 4 serves when accompanied by rice

Ingredients Needed

• 300g/10.6oz pork belly, trimmed weight
• 1 small red onion
• 1 large tomato
• 1 long green chilli
• 1 litre/4 cups/1 quart water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon Sinigang mix or tamarind paste
• 1 chicken or pork stock cube
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 slender Japanese eggplant (around 175g/8ozs)
• 5 okra (around 50g/1.7oz)
• Half bunch kang kong or water spinach
• 300g/10.6oz or around 1/3 large daikon radish
• Steamed rice or rice noodles to serve

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 SIMMER - Cut pork belly into 1.5 inch chunks. Peel onion and cut into six pieces and cut tomato into eight pieces removing the calyx. Add the pork belly pieces, onion, tomato and whole green chilli to a large pot along with water, salt, Sinigang mix or tamarind paste, stock cube and fish sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer 30-40 mins with the lid on. Skim the scum from around the edge (the amount of scum depends on how clean the pork is).

Step 2 PREPARE - While the pork is cooking, prepare the rest of the vegetables. Trim the ends from the eggplant and cut into 1.5 inch diagonal pieces and then slice in half vertically. Place in water to prevent browning. Peel and then cut the radish into cubes and trim the ends from the okra and cut in half on the diagonal. Separate the kangkong into individual leaves and then separate the stems from the leaves.

Step 3 VEGETABLES - When the pork is soft add the radish and simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the eggplant and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the daikon is tender and the eggplant is getting soft. Lastly add the okra and kangkong and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Taste broth for flavour if it's sour to your liking or if it's salty enough. Del's tips for seasoning perfection: add more tamarind to add sourness or conversely add water or a teaspoon of sugar if it is too sour. Or add more fish sauce if it needs more saltiness. Serve with steamed rice.

Personal Note

I had two very eager "helpers" when I made sinigang this week. It was a cold week of winter and this delicious soup was perfect to warm us up. And Teddy and Milo definitely agreed (although they didn't get to try any).

Call me paranoid but for the last few months I've been worried about Teddy and Milo being dognapped. I am part of my suburb's facebook group and while I don't tend to look at it much, I did see a couple of dogs in our neighbourhood have gone missing and Teddy and Milo are small and are very easily picked up. "We need to build another gate on the side of the house" I told Mr NQN. We actually have a gate and it's a fairly tall one. But Teddy and Milo like to go outside and investigate and if someone pokes their head down the side you can bet that our two little guard dogs will be on their way and if they had something to eat, they could coax Teddy and Milo towards them.

"It's impossible, unless they have really long arms" said Mr NQN.

"No, it's difficult but not impossible, and can you imagine if we lost our babies?" I told him.

I think Mr NQN just gave up arguing with me and agreed to get a gate to block off more of the side so that the two dogs can run all the way down. Because sometimes the path of least resistance also gives you the most peace!

So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried Sinigang? And do you agree with the path of least resistance?