People who don’t eat offal will never understand the joys of batchoy soup. Flavored with chilies, ginger, garlic and shallots, the Filipino batchoy soup is cooked with pork blood, liver, tenderloin, spleen and kidneys.
The best batchoy soup I have ever tasted is Genia’s batchoy. And it took many, many visits to Genia’s to deconstruct her recipe. I think I got it.
I suggest that you let the butcher clean the kidneys for you to efficiently scrape the inedible centers.
Trim all visible fat from the tenderloin and spleen before cutting.
Ingredients
- batchoy consists of pork lomo, lapay and bato (pork tenderloin, spleen and kidneys), thinly sliced then cut into thin strips
- 200 grams pork liver thinly sliced and cut into thin strips
- 2 shallots finely sliced
- 6 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 thumb-sized pieces ginger peeled and julienned
- 3 to 4 finger chilies each cut into two pieces
- 2 to 3 cups bone broth preferably homemade
- 2 cups fresh pork blood
- 3 tablesoons cooking oil
- patis (fish sauce) to taste
- ground black pepper optional
- 1 large handful sili (chili) leaves
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a pot. Saute the ginger until fragrant. Add the pork tenderloin, spleen and kidney. Cook until the meat changes color. Add the garlic and shallots. Continue sautéing until the shallot slices appear translucent.
- Pour in the broth. Season with fish sauce. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 30 minutes.
- Add the pork liver. Pour in the pork blood. Bring to the boil. Add more fish sauce, if needed. If using pepper, add it now. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Add the sili leaves, pressing them down into the broth. Cover and leave to wilt the leaves for a few minutes.
- Serve the batchoy soup hot.
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Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
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This is the batchoy I grew up knowing until I found out that there is a totally different Batchoy from La Paz, Iloilo.
I was plagued with the malansa taste of the blood until my MIL taught me how to do this. Saute ginger, garlic and onions. Add the patis then the meat. Let cook until all the liquid that comes out dries up and you start to see some oil. then add the pork blood and stir. Let blood dry up again (she says so that it will not be malansa). taking care not to burn the blood. Then add water and lastly the sili leaves. It worked beautifully!
Yep, the blood has to be thoroughly cooked. And never underestimate the power of ginger to remove any malansa odor and taste. :)
Hi. I think the best batchoy I have tasted outside of Iloilo where it originates is in Cagayan de Oro at D’ La Paz Original Batchoy along Capistrano St. Nothing comes close specially those sold in Malls in Metro Manila. I noticed your recipes has one very important ingredient missing which is the secret of all La Paz batchoy recipes and that is shrimp paste which is sold in blocks in Iloilo. Try experimenting. I did and it worked.
The link is supplied. Batchoy soup and La Paz Batchoy are not the same things.
I’m allergic to shrimp paste (bagoong).
Hi Ms.Connie,
Your recipe for batchoy in this entry is exactly how my Lola use to cook it except my Lola adds misua.
BTW, I am totally intrigued by Genia’s of Marikina and I have been planning to visit there for about two years now. I have read about her not only on your blogsite but also in a local culinary magazine.
I can’t wait to try out her famous lechon kawali and now her batchoy. Will temper all that cholesterol with lumpiang sariwa- just to make my meal a bit healthier. :)
The lumpiang ubod is not served everyday. I think it’s by order.
this is how we cook batchoy. i miss it :)
I haven’t eaten this for a long time.
I will definitely try this.
Thanks.
This is the Batchoy that I’ve been looking for. It’s one of my favorite soup/dish na niluluto ng tita ko when I was a kid. Madaming di nakakakilala sa soup na ito. Tuwing ipagtatanong ko, ang akala La Paz Batchoy tinutukoy ko. Pag naman sinabi kong “hinde, merong halo yung na pork blood”, sasabihin naman na dinuguan daw yun. Until I ended up searching for it. Good thing I thought of visiting this blog today. I will definitely make this soon. Thanks!
Dear Connie,
Hi, I was surprised to find out that there is a batchoy soup in existence which, as you pointed out, is different from La Paz batchoy. I love La Paz batchoy and had also tried making my own. I have a good faith in your recipes so I’ll go ahead and try this.
-C
Yes this is the original Bachoy ng mga Pinoy – hindi yung La Paz Batchoy! but I would like to add something to the recipe – instead of ginger try uning a pack of sibot (nabibile yan sa palengke – a mixture of dried roots and seeds and other herbs) – mas ok siya pantanggal ng lansa may kasama na rin na dried luya and it has a very good taste pag hinalo sa Bachoy soup – mag-ingat lang because the taste is somehow strong – yung iba ginagawa binabalot sa net yung sibot para pwedeng tanggalin pag ayos na yung lasa..
wait! I noticed something again on the recipe – it has no MISUA! it has to have misua pero kaunti lang – hindi siya mag work as noodles to the soup pero parang pampaganda ng texture ng soup – try to add a 5 or 10 pesos misua pack to this recipe and it ahould be perfect!
So you’re saying that your standard of having misua is the defining factor that makes a soup batchoy? And your authority to set that standard is based on…??
not really the misua (it just gives a goos texture for the soup), but I can say that the sibot pack is definitely the defining factor for my kind of batchoy – it may be different from yours but this taste has been with me since I was a kid and a recipe that has been known by the Chinoys who live here in Paco, Manila and the carinderias surrounding it