Vegetable soups in Filipino cuisine

Filipino vegetable soup

Alternative names	utan, utan bisaya, law-oy, laswa, sinabawang gulay
Type	Soup
Place of origin	Philippines
Associated national cuisine	Filipino cuisine
Serving temperature	hot
Main ingredients	various leafy vegetables
Similar dishes	Okra soup
Cookbook: Filipino vegetable soup   Media: Filipino vegetable soup

Vegetable soups in Filipino cuisine, called utan, utan bisaya, sinabawang gulay, law-oy or laswa^[1] in various regional Philippine languages, are vegetable soups usually served with steamed rice.

Ingredients

The dish usually consists of leaves of Moringa oleifera (known in the Philippines as kamunggay, marunggay, balunggay and malunggay), okra, pumpkin or squash (kalabasa or calabasa), leaves of Basella alba (alugbati), the long, slender oriental variety of eggplant (talong or tawong), ginger root (luya or luy-a), tomatoes (kamatis), yard long beans (sitaw, batong or balatong), taro root (gabi), scallion (sibuyas dahon) and may contain Chinese cabbage or headed cabbage (repolyo), lemon grass (tanglad), Momordica charantia (ampalaya), young luffa (patola), unripe papaya (kapayas), and chayote (sayote).

It may also be seasoned with pork, beef, chicken, fish stock and salt. Variations of this dish may contain coconut milk. Other variations may contain fresh or dried fish (bulad or uga), shrimp, mussels or clams. In the United States where Moringa oleifera may be hard to find, clover leaves may serve as a substitute.

References