Law-Uy ( Visayan Soup )

      Today, I have the privilege of sharing a super simple, super delicious, filling, nutrient-laden and treasured comfort food, popular only in the Visayas and Mindanao Regions. If you ask me, I think people in Luzon are missing out on a lot, here.

        Honestly, I think this soup should be featured more on local recipes, since it has a local flavor and appeals to young and old alike. No other soup says Philippines, more than Law-uy. ( law-pronounced with a short /a/ sound , like 'bow' or 'how' and uy, pronounced like the ui  in feng shui.

Law-Uy Soup

        The reason this soup is seen in all small-scale restos is the fact that it is the epitome of home cooking, plus the the fact that the nutrient-laden horseradish, known locally as Malunggay ( Moringa oleifera) is its primary vegetable. Mom's serve it up several times a week to fortify their children's health. It is therefore not uncommon to hear of local folk saying, they don't need a lot of vitamins, because they eat Malunggay weekly.

        The lowly, but hardy vegetable grows in everybody's backyard. It can be sown into the soil as a seed, or as a cutting from the trunk or any older branch. The great thing about this super vegetable is that virtually every part of the plant is edible; The roots of young Malunggay can be used as a hot base for soups, or as a radish. The seed pods are an excellent vegetable to add to beef soups. The leaves and branches can produce vegetable oil. And of course, the leaves and flowers! are chock full of nutrients,it may be eaten fresh, blanched for a salad, dried and powdered as a supplement, or added in soups. Hardy, because it will thrive in any soil, even with little water. When cut down for any reason, expect the new shoots to come up and replace the cut ones in a week's time. One tree can supply five families with all the Malunggay they need.

        Malunggay surprised everyone in the Philippines in recent years, when research has found it to be Nature's medicine cabinet. Among its many health benefits include: having three times the potassium in bananas, four times the vitamin A in carrots, seven times the vitamin C in oranges and 2 times the calcium in a glass of milk. These substances are potent antioxidants that protect the cells of the body from getting damaged by free radicals. 

        If you want to read more of Malunggay's many health benefits, get more information here.




        As for me, for the longest time, I just knew Malunggay to be a breast milk enhancer for nursing mothers  and as a poultice for wounds, aside from being a truly delicious vegetable to add to fish, chicken and meat soups. But, aside from Chicken Tinola, Law-uy  soup is the best showcase for the multifaceted Malunggay.

Let's Cook!

INGREDIENTS:

3-4 stalks Malunggay or Horseradish leaves, washed and stemmed
1 cup sliced pumpkins or kalabasa
1 pc. eggplant or talong, sliced 
1 bundle or 1 cup pole beans or sitaw, cut into 2 inch pieces
1 stalk lemon grass or tanglad
1 thumb-sized ginger or luya, sliced
1-2 cups leftover fried or grilled fish, flaked and deboned
1 small tomato or kamatis, sliced into quarters, but not sliced through
1 small red onion or sibuyas, quartered
1 young corn or mais, scraped
salt or asin and pepper or paminta to taste
1 tsp. lemon juice and 2 T. soy sauce as enhancers/dipping sauce
1 5 g. Maggi Magic Sarap

sitaw and kalabasa

malunggay leaves

talong

flaked, cooked fish

tanglad and spices

Seasoning

PROCEDURE:

1. Boil 2-3 cups water in a deep pot. Drop the lemon grass, tomato, onions and ginger and scraped young corn. Allow to boil until the stock is fragrant with ginger and lemon grass, and the corn is tender.

extracting the flavors

 2. Add the flaked fish and pole beans and season to taste. When the pole beans are half-cooked, drop the pumpkins and continue to cook until tender. Add the eggplants.

cooking the veggies

3. This dish is one I have to use one 5 g. Maggi Magic Sarap pouch. The soup is delicious in itself but, it comes alive with the addition of this all-in one seasoning.This is available in Asian food stores. If the above is unavailable in your country, simply put a few drops of all-purpose seasoning mix into the soup for an explosive burst of umami goodness. ( MSG use is regulated or prohibited in most Western countries, though Easterners have used it for hundreds of years without much trouble ) If using, do so at this point, and then add the horseradish. Turn off the heat quickly and remove the pot from the fire. The heat of the soup will cook the horseradish leaves. 

4. Serve hot with grilled or fried fish and steamed rice. For the enhancer or 'dipping' sauce, simply place soy sauce in a tiny saucer, add the lemon juice and serve with the soup. This 'sauce' compliments the soup really well.

Law-uy Soup

NOTE:
         Yes, this is a fairly simple dish, but the taste is amazingly satisfying, and one you will keep coming back to again and again.

        Those of us who would like to stock up on nutrition, but want to keep the weight off, can eat bowls of these, many times over without worry. This is an all-around dish for the sick, the healthy, the babies, the elderly and even those tired of saucy and fat-laden food. The taste is refreshingly down-home good, that the tongue feels like it had a spring-cleaning!

Go ahead, try this dish. I promise it will be nice break from the usual greasy stuff. During the holiday season, when people have had enough party food, this is the go-to dish to feel less guilty and to get rid of fatty-food fatigue.