Vegetable stir fry with aligue, fatty pork, dried shrimp, cauliflower, carrots, and string beans. Filipino umami-packed dish. A humble vegetable stir fry turned into an absolute umami monster with crab fat, dried shrimp, and pork rendered until every bite tastes rich and savoury. #ginisanggulay #aligue #filipinofood #vegetables #comfortfood
One thing I quickly realised after opening a jar of aligue is that once you start cooking with it, you suddenly want to put it in everything.
Most people probably would have made a simple ginisang gulay.
Instead, I made this.
Ginisang Gulay sa Aligue.
Another accidental Ang Sarap original born from leftovers, cravings, and curiosity.
A Dish Built From Familiar Filipino Ideas
What makes this dish interesting is that it feels familiar even though it is not really a standard Filipino recipe. It borrows ideas from several dishes we already know and love, then combines them into something new.
Filipino cuisine has always embraced strong savoury flavours. Fish sauce, bagoong, dried fish, shrimp paste, fermented ingredients (buro), and rich broths all play major roles across regional cooking.
Then comes hibe, those tiny dried shrimps that quietly carry massive flavour. Toasted in rendered pork fat, they become intensely aromatic and slightly nutty, adding another layer of complexity underneath the aligue.
This is the kind of dish where nearly every ingredient contributes umami.
Fatty Pork Makes Everything Better
I specifically used fatty minced pork here because I wanted the rendered fat to become part of the sauce itself. As the pork browns, it releases flavourful oil that becomes the cooking base for everything else.
That rendered fat mixes with the aligue and hibe, creating something dangerously good.
The vegetables then absorb all of it.
Cauliflower becomes especially good in this dish because it catches all those little bits of sauce and pork. String beans keep some crunch and freshness, while carrots bring sweetness that balances the richness.
It is a vegetable dish, technically. But it definitely does not taste like one.
Modern Filipino Home Cooking
I think dishes like this represent what modern Filipino home cooking looks like today. It is deeply rooted in traditional flavours but also highly flexible and improvisational.
Filipino cooks are experts at freestyle cooking.
Open the fridge, look at leftovers, combine flavours that make sense, and somehow create something comforting and satisfying. That instinctive style of cooking is honestly one of my favourite things about our food culture.
This dish would probably never appear in a traditional cookbook. It is not tied to a specific province or historical recipe.
But it feels Filipino.  Very Filipino.
The Influence of Leftovers and Creativity
Some of the best dishes happen accidentally. You start with leftovers and no expectations, then suddenly end up with something you want to make again intentionally.
That was exactly what happened here.
The leftover vegetables gave the dish structure. The remaining aligue gave it identity. The hibe amplified everything. The fatty pork tied the whole thing together.
What I ended up with was one of the most flavour-packed vegetable dishes I have made in a while.
And honestly, this is exactly why I enjoy freestyle cooking so much.
Best Served the Filipino Way
This dish absolutely demands steamed rice. The sauce alone makes that obvious. Those little aligue-coated pork bits mixed with rice are probably the best part.
It is savoury, rich, slightly sweet from the vegetables, briny from the seafood elements, and deeply comforting in the way only Filipino ulam can be.
For me, it perfectly represents how Filipino food continues to evolve naturally inside home kitchens.
Not forced fusion. Not trendy fusion. Just flavours that make sense together.
You have made a simple dish which would make many a kitchen vegetarian for the night into a homely Filipino one with two ingredients particularly belonging to you > the dried shrimp and roe paste > the result looks very much belonging to your roots and appetizing . . . I guess, from wherever any of us come, if we love food and the creating thereof, we go along somewhat the same path . . .
I did not even noticed that, probably its a part of how we eat, we love textures and flavours then sometimes tempreture variety as well like hot fried chicken and cold caviar
You have made a simple dish which would make many a kitchen vegetarian for the night into a homely Filipino one with two ingredients particularly belonging to you > the dried shrimp and roe paste > the result looks very much belonging to your roots and appetizing . . . I guess, from wherever any of us come, if we love food and the creating thereof, we go along somewhat the same path . . .
I guess most if not all foodies like us are built similarly
That looks like something my mom would cook for our lunch too, only she would use sliced pork or fish paste.
Typical moms, cant beat that cooking
I love taking inspiration from leftover vegetables. It’s often a great way to a tasty and healthy dish–like this!
Always a wonderful discovery with leftovers
I really appreciate how much goes into a recipe like this — not just the flavors but all the textures, too.
I did not even noticed that, probably its a part of how we eat, we love textures and flavours then sometimes tempreture variety as well like hot fried chicken and cold caviar
That looks like an mami bomb, and using cauliflower is a brilliant way to catch all that rich aligue and rendered pork fat.
Thats the idea!
What an unusual but intriguing combination, Raymund! The crab fat and dried shrimp with all those vegetables sound rich, hearty, and full of flavour.
Yes they are rich which pairs well with a copious amounts of rice