How to Cook Vegetarian Batchoy

A round of applause to my partner Issa Quintos who made it to the Top 6 among the 14 contenders of Electrolux #Wokaholic Kitchen Star Boot Camp.

She was tasked to cook a Filipino dish na may sabaw. She thought of cooking vegetarian kare-kare but later on she decided to cook vegetarian batchoy, as suggested by her hubby Allen.

Vegetarian batchoy was her personal favorite when she was still a meat eater, but when she learned the vegetarian way of cooking she also learned cooking this kind of dish.

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Batchoy is a noodle soup recipe originated and became popular in the district of La Paz, Iloilo City. It is originally composed of  broth mixture, noodles, beef and pork. So how did my partner Issa made it's vegetarian version?

Here's the recipe which got her into the Top 6 of Electrolux #Wokaholic Kitchen Star 2012.

Vegetarian Batchoy
Recipe by Issa Sarza-Quintos

Broth:
1 Cabbage
2 large red onions
1 carrot
1/2 cup (or about 4-5 pcs) dried shitake mushrooms
1/2 cup mushroom muttons
1.5 liters of water
1/2 tsp sugar
Salt
Pepper
Vegetarian Patis
*****
Egg noodles
1 bulb minced garlic
1 bunch spring onions
1 cup shredded mushroom muttons
3 pieces of rehydrated veggie meat, diced and marinated in vegetarian patis
Vegetarian patis
Salt
Pepper
Vegetable Oil

Procedure:

1. Add all broth ingredients together in a pot. Season with salt, pepper and vegetarian patis as desired. Let it boil then simmer for 25 minutes with a cover.


2. Deep fry diced rehydrated veggie meat until crispy. Season with iodized salt and set aside.


3. Deep fry shredded mushroom muttons until crispy. Set aside. This will be your alternative to chicharon.


4. Fry minced garlic until golden brown and crispy. Set aside.


5. Boil some water and add the egg noodles and cook until it's almost tender. Don't cook it until it's very tender as it will still cook by itself when you add the hot broth.


6. Remove almost tender noodles and place in a bowl.


7. In your broth, remove the shitake mushrooms and cut into strips. Place mushroom strips on top of your noodles.


8. Add crispy shredded mushroom muttons on top of shitake mushrooms. Then use a laddle to slowly transfer broth to bowl.


9. Top with veggie chicharon, crispy garlic and spring onions. Serve hot.