Nourish your health with these Filipino favorites

Does a healthy, yummy and budget-friendly dish exist? For Filipino dishes, there are many. While it can be easier to make an unhealthy choice with food because of convenience and cost, many of our Filipino favorites are actually easy-to-prepare, tasty and nutrient-dense.

Filipino food has many influences, but a huge aspect of it is that it was prepared with what was available in a certain area. Hence, our ancestors created dishes that had a combination of readily sourced meat and vegetables in their locality. Here are some common Filipino dishes which are undeniable hits not only to the palate, but also on the nutrient scale:

Sinigang
Adobo may be our unofficial national dish, but sinigang is putting up a close fight for the title. A name that literally means “to stew”, sinigang is a one dish meal, with all its ingredients cooked in a single pot from the meat to the vegetables. Pork is used most often, but beef and seafood can also serve as the dish’s protein. Local vegetables like string beans, kangkong, labanos (radish) and okra, are also present, providing sources of vitamins and fiber. To give the dish its signature acidity and an added dose of vitamin C, is sampalok or tamarind. Other local fruits like kamias, bayabas or santol can also be used to lend the dish its asim-kilig effect.

Monggo
Friday is “monggo day”, but truthfully, ginisang monggo can fill you up any day of the week. Mung beans or monggo are packed with protein. Together with pork slices and greens such as malunggay (moringa) or ampalaya (bitter gourd) leaves, this dish is a filling source of vitamins A and B6, iron and magnesium. It can also stretch the budget as mung beans are relatively inexpensive and just a cup of it, cooked with the other ingredients is enough to feed a family.

Tinola
The Filipino version of chicken soup, tinola, is a soup dish that involves cooking chicken in a broth infused with ginger. Young papaya or chayote, along with leafy greens like malunggay or sili (chili) leaves round it up into a complete dish. Pair this with rice and you’ve got a hearty comfort meal full of protein, carbohydrates, vitamins A and C, calcium and potassium.

When it comes to ensuring the nutritional value of the food we eat, one need not go farther than our own roster of local dishes. Healthy, yummy, and budget-friendly can certainly be found in one dish as long as it has the right combination of ingredients and flavor. Nowadays, even convenient seasoning packages are fortified with vitamins and minerals. For instance, Knorr Sinigang Mix contains vitamin C, while Knorr Chicken Broth cubes have iron. This innovation makes dishes not only tastier but also more nutritious.

As Unilever’s biggest food brand, Knorr is dedicated to fighting undernutrition by inspiring people to make healthier food choices every day. This decades-long commitment was underscored by their recent partnership with Zero Hunger Alliance. This agreement was formally inked at the Zero Hunger Summit held in July.

Zero Hunger Alliance (ZHA) is a network of individuals and organizations who share the common vision of eradicating world hunger by the year 2030. Knorr comes in as the Magpakalusog champion, focusing on its Nutri-Sarap program as part of ZHA’s holistic 5M strategy to address hunger: Magtulungan, Magpakain, Magpakalusog, Magtanim, and Mag-connect (Help, Feed, Be Healthy, Plant and Connect).

As its maiden initiative under the ZHA framework, Knorr sponsored 600 beneficiaries in Paradise Heights, Tondo by providing access to interactive and practical nutrition education sessions. Volunteers started the work in cleaning, preparing, and decorating the community farm where program beneficiaries can grow supplemental food resources. Unilever’s Nutrition business unit deployed volunteers to help the moms prepare meals for the community and school children.

Knorr truly goes beyond making nutritious and delicious meals for Filipino families. Through partnerships and programs such as this, Knorr empowers consumers with knowledge on meal planning techniques and sustainable eating for a healthier future.

For nutritious and budget-friendly recipes, visit Knorr on Facebook.