Guide
A guide to Filipino soups.
Sour, gingery or slow-simmered and clear: the 14 Filipino soups worth knowing, and why they're spooned over rice.
By Roberto Sabanal · Updated
What makes Filipino soups different?
In the Philippines soup isn't a starter. Sabaw, the broth, comes to the table with everything else and is spooned over rice throughout the meal, which is why even a hot day can call for a hot soup.
Most Filipino soups are a whole meal in one pot: meat or seafood simmered with vegetables in a broth that is sour, gingery, or simply clean and peppery.
The main kinds of Filipino soup
Most Filipino soups belong to one of these families.
Sour soups
Tamarind, tamarind leaves or batwan sour the broth. Sinigang is the best known, made with pork, beef or shrimp.
Ginger broths
A clear broth built on ginger, with chicken, green papaya and leafy greens, like tinola.
Clear and slow
Beef simmered for hours with potatoes, corn and cabbage, seasoned with little more than salt, pepper and fish sauce: nilaga and bulalo.
Rich and filling
Milky sopas, pochero with saba bananas and thick lomi, closer to a stew and made for cool or rainy days.
Filipino soups to try
14 soups, each linked to a full recipe with ingredients, timed steps and calories per serving.
Sour soups
The tamarind-soured broths Filipinos crave most.
Pork Sinigang
Pork ribs in a tamarind and tomato broth with radish, string beans and greens: bright, sour and the national favorite.
Sinigang na Baka
Beef short ribs or shank in tamarind broth with radish and taro; the richer broth stands up to the sourness.
Sinigang na Hipon
The quickest sinigang: shrimp cooked in minutes in a tangy broth with vegetables.
Sinampalukang Manok
Chicken in a broth soured with young tamarind leaves and ginger, lighter and brighter than tinola.
Kadyos, Baboy at Langka
KBL, the Ilonggo soup of pork hock, pigeon peas and young jackfruit, soured with batwan fruit.
Ginger and clear broths
Gentle, clean soups for every day and for when you're unwell.
Chicken Tinola
Chicken in a ginger broth with green papaya and moringa or chili leaves, the classic soup for rainy days and colds.
Nilagang Baka
Beef simmered with potatoes, corn and cabbage in a clear, peppery broth: simple and deeply comforting.
Bulalo
Beef shank and marrow bones simmered for hours, a cool-weather specialty of Batangas. Scoop the marrow onto your rice.
Hearty soups
Thicker, richer soups with fruit, milk or noodles.
Chicken Pochero
Chicken in a savory tomato broth with saba bananas, cabbage and potatoes, sweet and salty at once.
Ilonggo's Pork Pochero
The Ilonggo pochero, cooked without tomato: pork in a clear broth with saba bananas and vegetables.
Chicken Sopas
Elbow macaroni, chicken and vegetables in a milky broth, the comfort soup of Filipino childhoods.
Lomi
Thick egg noodles in a glossy, thickened broth with pork, liver and quail eggs, a rainy-day dish from Batangas.
Rice porridge
Soup and rice cooked together in one pot.
Arroz Caldo
Rice porridge with chicken and lots of ginger, topped with fried garlic and a boiled egg.
Goto
Rice porridge with beef tripe in a ginger broth, a favorite at roadside stalls.
How Filipino soups are eaten
Over rice
Spoon the broth over a mound of rice and eat soup and ulam together, a little of each in every bite.
With a dipping sauce
Fish sauce with chili or calamansi on the side, for the meat and vegetables of nilaga, bulalo and sinigang.
In any weather
The rainy season is soup season, but sinigang and tinola are eaten all year, heat or not.
For the sick
Tinola, arroz caldo and lugaw are what a Filipino family cooks when someone is unwell.
Questions about Filipino soups
What is the most popular Filipino soup?
Sinigang, the sour tamarind soup, usually made with pork. Tinola and bulalo are close behind.
What makes sinigang sour?
Usually tamarind, either fresh pods boiled and mashed or a powdered mix. Other versions use green mango, guava, calamansi or kamias.
What is the difference between nilaga and bulalo?
Both are clear beef soups with vegetables. Bulalo uses beef shank with the marrow bone and simmers longer for a richer broth; nilaga can use any stewing cut.
Do Filipinos eat soup with rice?
Yes. Soup is part of the main meal, not a starter, and the broth is spooned over rice.
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