Classic Filipino Recipes

Salty, sweet, and sour?  This list of traditional Filipino recipes is for you — a mix of easy Filipino recipes for beginners and experienced home cooks.

Cooking Filipino food is relatively easy.  Just make sure you have soy sauce and fish sauce in your pantry, and you’ll be all set.

But are you still trying to decide what Filipino food to cook?  Start with pandesal (Filipino bread rolls) and Pancit Bihon — a classic combo that every Filipino enjoys!

Filipino Breakfast Recipes

Authentic Filipino Recipes

These are typical lunch and dinner dishes, but some are also popular Filipino food for snacks, like the lumpiang gulay or pancit sotanghon guisado.

Oh! During the rainy season, chicken sotanghon soup is excellent any time of the day. Yum!

Filipino Dessert Recipes

Common Filipino Food Ingredients

• Vegetable oil – primarily used for frying and sautéing. Olive oil is never used in traditional Filipino dishes; neither is peanut oil.  

• Shrimp Paste (Bagoong) – you either love it or hate it.  I understand why some people cannot stand the smell (and taste) of this, but hey, live and let live. It’s funky; it’s salty, it’s an acquired taste — Nah, it’s still delicious.

• White Rice – Steamed white rice is generally prepared for lunch and dinner, pairing it with at least one meat, fish, or vegetable dish.  Any leftover is then used for making garlic fried rice or sinangag, which is typically served for breakfast. 

• Glutinous Rice – used for savory dishes and a handful of local delicacies. Filipinos love this special type of rice because it is deliciously filling, easy to cook, and reasonably priced.

• Chili Peppers – Bird’s eye chili and the long green one is commonly used. Bird’s eye chili is generally added into a dipping sauce if you want some additional heat, while the long green one is used for some classic Filipino dishes, like sinigang (sour soup).

• Soy Sauce – while identical to the Chinese dark soy sauce’s color, is not as thick, and there is not an ounce of sweetness in this one, just saltiness, with a hint of umami.

• Vinegar – sugarcane vinegar is the most common that you can find in supermarkets. However, palm vinegar and coconut vinegar are also available nowadays. 

These types of vinegar are not as acidic as the western ones like white wine vinegar.

So, if you are thinking of substituting them, you need to make sure you dilute it — three parts of white wine vinegar to one-part water.

• Fish Sauce – this is what Filipinos used to season their dishes, not salt.  I think it smells worse than the shrimp paste, but it still makes every dish flavorful. Ticks that box for ‘extra oomph.’ 🙂

• Garlic – not just for cooking, this vegetable is oftentimes used for dipping sauce as well. Mixed with vinegar, it’s great with vegetable spring rolls and some other street food.

• Banana Catsup – sweeter than your normal catsup, locals use this generally for fried or grilled meat; plus, it’s a crucial ingredient in making Filipino-style spaghetti!

So there you go! You’re all set to start — try one (or all) of these authentic Filipino dishes and let me know!

OR YOU CAN GET MORE IDEAS FROM THIS LIST OF WORLD COOKING RECIPES BY COUNTRY!