Monggo Guisado with Shrimp! Using shrimp as meat for ginisang monggo instead of the usual pork gives it a different kind of flavor—mildly sweet and buttery. If you love seafood then this recipe is for you.
Monggo Guisado or mung bean stew is a staple dish in every Filipino household. It is delicious, hearty, and nutritious. You can eat it on its own, with rice of course, or pair it with other meat dishes. I personally love pairing it with fried fish and pork.
There are a few ways of cooking monggo. The simplest is boiling it until tender then adding your choice of meat and vegetable thereafter.
In this recipe, we are doing the saute or guisa (or ginisa) version. This entails, sauteing the meat and vegetables before finally adding in the cooked monggo.
Using shrimp as meat for ginisang monggo instead of the usual pork gives it a different kind of flavor—mildly sweet and buttery. If you love seafood then this recipe is for you.
How to cook shrimp with vegetables
- To make the shrimp easier to eat, peel off the shells but keep the head and tails intact. The flavor from the head will transfer to the stew making it flavorful and delicious.
- I personally don’t like my shrimp overcooked. To keep its tender juicy texture, lightly saute it for 1 to 2 minutes ONLY. Remove immediately from heat when the color turns to light pink then set aside in a bowl. Re-add it later on, just before you finish cooking.
For the seasoning, I used boneless bagoong-isda (anchovy sauce). Growing up in Pangasinan, it’s what we’ve always used when cooking monggo. If you don’t have bagoong-isda, you can use fish sauce as a substitute. They are equally good.
There are a lot of vegetables you can cook with monggo. Here I put bitter gourd (ampalaya) which is my favorite, long green beans (sitaw) and winged beans (sigarilyas). See recipe for lists of other vegetable variations.
More Filipino Vegetable dishes for you to try
- Ginataang Gulay with Hibe and Lechon Kawali
- Poqui Poqui (Ilokano dish)
- Lumpiang Gulay with Pork
- Stir-fried Chayote (Sayote Guisado)
Watch how to make Monggo Guisado with Shrimp
Monggo Guisado with Shrimp
Ingredients
- 1 cup mung beans / monggo
- 4 cups water (divided)
- 250 grams shrimp (skin removed, head and tails on)
- 1 small onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 plump tomatoes (sliced)
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce (or bagoong isda)
- salt (to taste)
Vegetables options (choose any)
- sitaw
- sigarilyas
- green chili (optional)
- ampalaya
Other variations
- eggplant
- spinach
- pakchoy
- okra
- malunggay leaves and stick
Instructions
- In a pot, boil monggo in 3 cups water for 20 to 25 minutes until tender. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside.
- Heat oil in the same pot over medium heat. Add shrimp. Cook, stirring frequently, until shrimp are bright pink and opaque, about 2 minutes. Remove from pot and transfer to a bowl.
- Add oil in the same pot, saute onion and garlic. Cook until soft but not browned then add the tomatoes, cook until skin softens.
- Add the vegetables. I suggest starting with the one that’s longest to cook. In this recipe, I added the ampalaya or bitter gourd first. Saute for 2 minutes then added the rest of the vegetables.
- Add the bagoong-isda sauce, cooked monggo, and remaining 1 cup of water. Simmer for 2 minutes then add leafy vegetables and shrimp. Cook for another minute and done!
Recipe Notes & Tips:
- To make the shrimp easier to eat, peel off the shells but keep the head and tails intact. Lightly saute it for 1 to 2 minutes ONLY to keep the texture tender and juicy.
- If you don’t have bagoong-isda, you can use fish sauce as a substitute.
- See recipe for lists of other vegetable variations.
- Cooking time will adjust depending on the vegetables you will use.
- Nutrition: vegetables are not included in the calculation.
