Sinigang na Hipon (Sour Tamarind Shrimp Soup)

Photo: Yvette Tan · CC BY 2.0 · source

A bright, puckery tamarind broth loaded with shrimp, green beans, okra, tomatoes and greens. It's the Filipino comfort soup everyone grows up on, best ladled over rice.

Ingredients

• 1½ lb large shrimp (shell-on is best)
• 3 tbsp tamarind concentrate
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 Roma tomatoes, quartered
• 8 oz green beans, in 2-inch pieces
• 6 oz frozen okra
• 2 jalapeños or long green chiles, whole
• 5 oz baby spinach
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 cups jasmine rice

From your pantry: ½ tsp black pepper, salt.

Instructions

1. Start the rice. Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot with the onion and tomatoes, then cover and boil for 8 minutes until the tomatoes slump.
2. Whisk in the tamarind concentrate, starting with 2 tbsp, and simmer 2 minutes. Taste: it should be pleasantly sour. Add more tamarind a spoonful at a time if you like it sharper.
3. Add the green beans, okra and whole chiles and simmer until the beans are just tender, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the shrimp and cook just until pink and curled, 2 to 3 minutes. Don't let it boil hard or the shrimp toughen.
5. Season with the fish sauce and pepper, stir in the spinach to wilt for 30 seconds, and serve right away in big bowls with rice on the side.

Tip: Shell-on, head-on shrimp give the sweetest broth. Kangkong (water spinach) and daikon are traditional; if you find a packet of Knorr or Mama Sita's sinigang mix at an Asian store, one 44 g packet replaces the tamarind.

Nutrition per serving

Good for

Adapted from Panlasang Pinoy.

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