Plant-based bagoong? Here's how you can make one

Pinoy meals are hardly complete without sawsawan, and bagoong? It's almost as necessary as rice on the table.

While there is a limit to how much you can enjoy your sawsawan, there are, thankfully healthier alternatives that you can also make at home, ensuring you don't go over the recommended daily amount. 

In an episode of PinoyMD, Lifestyle Medicine Specialist Dr. Linda Varona introduced plant-based version of bagoong, a.k.a. vegetarian bagoong.

"It tastes like bagoong, but the sources or yung pinanggagalingan ay galing sa halaman. Siyempre yung mga halaman na 'yan 'yung mga common na pagkain natin na gulay," she said.

"We don’t use cooking oil kaya wala ding cholesterol, mga saturated fat, kaya very healthy din yung pag-prepare nitong vegetarian bagoong na ‘to. Guilt-free and yet kung gusto mo ng sawsawan, yan ang ating gagamitin," she added.

To make one you can just blend the following ingredients in a blender:

• 1/2 kilo of tomatoes
• 2 tablespoon of black beans
• 3 pieces of garlic
• 2 shiitake mushrooms
• 1 tsp of salt

— Jannielyn Ann Bigtas/LA, GMA News