8 Best Recipes With Pechay: Delicious Filipino Dishes
Check out these amazing recipes that all use pechay, an easy-to-find vegetable perfect for any dish.
Pechay is Filipino bok choy and has a slightly peppery flavor that goes well with many different ingredients.
These recipes are not only tasty but also healthy and easy to make. You can have a fantastic homecooked meal on the table in no time at all – without spending hours in the kitchen.
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Best 8 recipes with pechay
Beef pochero
In terms of ingredients, the tomato-sauce gives this Beef Pochero recipe it’s tasty and decadent taste, the bananas (saging na saba) give it its sweetness, the chickpeas give a visual dissonance to the dish, the potatoes add body and the pechay add balance to all of these flavors.
A possible dish to be served at parties, this Beef Pochero recipe can also be whipped up as a viand in your everyday meal partnered with rice and patis as a side dip.
Nilagang baboy
The nilagang baboy recipe is the newer version of boiled beef soup (made with pork here instead) associated with the peasant class back in the day.
It’s locally called nilagang baka (cow’s meat) and has seen several adaptations. This pork version uses the same ingredients, but you can cook it much faster.
It’s the right dish to prepare if you’re pressed for time. It gives as many nutrients as the beef version does!
Kare-kare Filipino beef curry
Do you like to eat curry? Then you’re sure to like kare-kare, or Filipino beef curry!
Kare-kare is a well-known dish from Pampanga, aptly hailed as the culinary capital of the Philippines. Its name is derived from the word “kari”, meaning “curry”.
However, kare-kare has a far different background from Indian curry. It has a similar flavor to satay because of the use of peanuts in the sauce.
Sinugno
Tilapia is one of those many fish species that just oozes with flavor whenever it is grilled; what with its fragrant aroma and tenderness.
Add this thought with stewing this grilled Tilapia into coconut milk and you’re in for a treat. Sinugno recipe is simply that; grilled Tilapia in coconut milk stew.
It is tasty and nutritious.
Bulalo ng Batangas
During the rainy days in the Philippines, when the wind produces cool breeze, there is this one dish that people long for to soothe the chilly rainy weather, and that is the delicious Bulalo.
In Leyte, it is called “pakdol,” while it is referred to as “Kansi” in Iloilo and Bacolod.
The secret to the hearty flavor of a Bulalo recipe is slow cooking the beef bones with yellow corn on the cob, pechay leaves, peppercorns, onion, and cabbage.
Some old folks in the Philippines still use wood-fired pots when simmering and tenderizing beef bones, but a large stock pot will do fine for this recipe :)
Pesang manok
Pesang manok recipe is similar to chicken broth-based dishes such as Tinola (which uses sayote or papaya and chili leaves in its recipe) and Nilagang Baka (which has cabbages and saging na saba) and it is possible that you could interchange the three dishes.
However, what distinguishes pesang manok from the others is the recipe’s extensive use of ginger, cabbage, napa cabbage, and potatoes.
These, if we talk about the vegetables thrown into the mix, make this dish a heavy and healthy meal.
Pancit habhab
Pancit Habhab is just one of the many variations of Pancit.
Pancit, as we all know, is a recipe that we have adopted from the Chinese, and owing to Filipino creativity, we were able to come up with different varieties of pancit depending on where that particular version of pancit comes from.
Sinanglay na tilapia
Sinanglay na Tilapia Recipe is a fish-based dish coming from the Bicol region and it coming from Bicol region; one can already assume that the recipe will have coconut milk in it as part of the stew.
With its main ingredients being Tilapia and the coconut milk, at first look, you will think that sinanglay is just Ginataang Tilapia.
However, the preparation for Sinanglay is miles different.
8 Best Recipes With Pechay
Ingredients
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 medium onion
- 4 Pechay
- Peppercorn
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Add onions, garlic, pork broth cubes, salt, and peppercorn to water and cook you main protein, like meat or fish.
- Add harder vegetables like corn and carrots and wait until cooked or soft.
- Adjust according to taste; add some salt or patis instead if you want.
- Then add the pechay last and cook for another 5 minutes so it remains tender but crispy.
Video
Nutrition
How do you cook pechay so it’s not bitter?
To remove some of the pechay’s bitterness you can blanche it before cooking. Cut the stems in halve or cut them up and cook them together with the leaves for 45 seconds. If it’s still too bitter, you can add the cut pechay to a bath of salt water for 10 minutes before rinsing them off and cooking them.
Is pechay better raw or cooked?
The level of nutrients in bok choy significantly decreases when the vegetable is cooked. For this reason, it is best to consume pechay raw or only lightly cooked. It’s also delicious and crunchy when raw and goes well directly added to salads.
How do you chop Pechay?
Pechay is usually chopped into small pieces before being used in cooking. To chop pechay, first remove the leaves from the stem. then, wash the leaves and dry them with a clean towel.
Next, stack a few leaves on top of each other and roll them up tightly. Finally, use a sharp knife to slice the leaves into thin strips. Then cut the stems in small pieces.
What is the taste of Pechay?
Pechay has a mildly bitter taste, especially from the leaves. The stem is slightly less bitter and has a firm texture.
The leafy vegetable is a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisine and is widely used in the Philippines in soups, stews, and stir-fries.
Is Pechay a vegetable?
Pechay is a vegetable. It’s the same vegetable as Chinese bok choy and is also a Chinese cabbage. You can eat both the leaves and stems of the pechay.
Conclusion
Pechay is delicious raw or in simmering dishes like soups or stews, but can be a great addition to stir-fries too! It’s a very versatile vegetable.
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Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.
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Joost Nusselder, the founder of Bite My Bun is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with Japanese food at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.
