As we travel around the world when we come across meals that we enjoy and are low FODMAP (or close to being low FODMAP) we will share these to provide some inspiration for different cuisines.
You can read our experience of 5 weeks travelling around the Philippines on a low FODMAP diet here. As for our most loved Filipino meals, check out some options below.
Best Filipino low FODMAP meals
Chunky Chicken Sotanghon Soup
Filipinos are mental for soup, they love it! Which might seem odd for such a hot country but after sweating out loads of electrolytes all day a nice salty soup is rehydrating and replenishing. What we didn’t realise is when you order a soup it is massive! It is actually a sharing meal but it never says that on the menu that’s just the culture.
When we stayed in Kalibo city for one night the hotel owner said to go to Latte Coffee Cafe for good food. It didn’t disappoint. Here we had the Sotanghon soup and also the Chicken Wraped in Pandan Leaves which is the next meal on this list.
Sotanghon soup – a simple and delicious soup
Ingredients:
Chunks of chicken breast
Rice noodles
Chicken broth – salty, light with simple ingredients such as pepper, lemongrass and bay leaf
Cabbage leaves
So as you see from the ingredients above a complete low FODMAP meal! It wasn’t until we got down to the bottom (of a very large bowl) that we tasted garlic and found a few slices sitting in the bottom.
Other traditional Filipino soups include Bulalo a rich beef bone marrow soup which is lovely. Another similar soup is called Kansi which uses beef shank.
Chicken Wraped in Pandan Leaves
Yum! The chicken is cooked in the pandan leaves which release their flavour and keep the chicken moist. It was served with a garlic and chilli sauce on the side which we avoided and just used the chilli sauce from the bottle on the table.
Ingredients:
Chicken breast, cut into large chunks
Pandan Leaves
Marinade:
Typically the marinade ingredients consist of
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
2-3 cloves garlic, minced (replace with garlic infused oil)
1 thumb-size piece ginger, minced
1 tablespoon lemon or calamansi (lime) juice
Here you can find a full traditional Filipino recipe.
Ensaladang Talong (Eggplant/aubergine Salad)
Our favourite Filipino dish and one you can get everywhere. In fact our best one was made fresh on the boat by the crew when we were on an island hopping tour in El Nido! They set up a BBQ on the back of the boat and cooked the fish, meat and aubergines.
The smokyness from the barbecued aubergine flesh mixed with fresh sweet finely diced tomatoes, a bit of fresh chilli, and onion (remove or use green part of spring onions) drizzled with sesame oil and soy sauce is amazing. Oh how I miss this dish!
For a traditional version of the recipe take a look here or here.
Shasuka with Tofu
Okay this isn’t a Filipino dish but it was one of our favourite meals at one of our favourite restaurants The Sunny Side Cafe on Boracay Island.
It had a slightly Asian twist as it contained tofu and extra chilli but no garlic or other high FODMAP foods. It also looked pretty cool served in a skillet.
It was basically eggs baked with sautéed tofu, spicy tomatoes sauce, feta cheese and coriander.
Other dishes we enjoyed were the chicken and pineapple fried rice. The pineapples in the Philippines were just amazing so sweet and juicy. A Filipino classic is Chicken Adobo which is even served at breakfast and I had one morning in Manila. I liked this dish with it’s lovely sticky soy sauce and vinegar reduction coating the chicken with lots of pepper – however it is usually made with garlic.
We also had a version of Kinilaw Talong at the Buzz cafe Bohol Bee Farm which is a famous salad. The dish we ordered had barbecued aubergine flesh in coconut milk and lots of ginger sweetened with a bit of honey.
Want more information on the low FODMAP diet and IBS? Click here for the latest changes and important updates.
We are currently travelling around the world and plan to bring you‘Around The World In 80 Low FODMAP Dishes’ – a collection of the best low FODMAP foods and recipes as we travel the globe. See more on our low FODMAP diet travel section.
Good news! The first ever book dedicated to reintroducing FODMAPs is now available to purchase on Amazon Kindle. The book is titled ‘Re-challenging and Reintroducing FODMAPs – A self-help guide to the entire reintroduction phase of the low FODMAP diet’. Click on the logo for more details.
More information on Reintroducing FODMAPs here.
Low FODMAP recipes here.
We are offering very reduced rates for Skype consultations while we are travelling the world. For more information and for contacting R&MDietetics you can enquire here or email info@rmdietetics.com
LeeMartinRD
Lee is a UK Registered Dietitian who worked as a researcher at King’s College London University researching the low FODMAP diet for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Previously Lee worked for the NHS with many years’ experience of treating IBS. Lee has run a popular blog www.rmdietetic.com on the low FODMAP diet since 2013 where you can learn all about his experiences of following the low FODMAP diet, find information on the research behind the diet, the practicalities of implementing the diet along with low FODMAP meal and baking recipes. This year Lee has published the first ever book dedicated to the reintroduction phase of the low FODMAP diet. More information on the book entitled ‘Re-challenging and Reintroducing FODMAPS: A self-help guide to the entire reintroduction phase of the low FODMAP diet’ can be found on the website www.reintroducingfodmaps.com
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