Cooking with Cecilia: Chicken Malunggay or Moringa Soup

While I'm on the mend, I haven't gotten rid of my cold. The worst day was Day 3, but at Day 6, I'm not done. I continue to be vigilant and am resting and taking my medicines. I've added Aleve to my arsenal of treatments.



Here's what I learned about Aleve:

"The anti-inflammatory drug naproxen, best known by brand name Aleve, was actually able to keep influenza A virus from replicating, according to a French study conducted on mice."

(I am not a mouse, but I've giving this a try. I'm not sure which of my medicines is helping the most, but I feel the intensity of this cold has not been too bad. The nasal spray must be given credit, and I also feel the L-Lysine and Vitamin C have helped.)

A Forbes online article states that Aleve and Advil are the best perceived cold and flu drugs.

 I am posting my second favorite Comfort Food, which used to be given to me when I was a child and got sick.

I've written about the virtues of Malunggay or Moringa vegetables, an ordinary vegetable easily available in the Philippines and other tropical places.


This chicken soup dish with Malunggay is very easy to make. It's basically a chicken and ginger soup with malunggay leaves. Sometimes people add lemon grass, papaya, chayote, or mongo, but the Cebuanos keep it simple and cook chicken, onions, ginger, and add Malunggay leaves.

I could not find a simple recipe, but here's a recipe that includes papaya and hot pepper leaves, which you don't have to add. This is courtesy of panlasangpinoy.com:

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
• 36 ounces rice washing
• ½ pc small green papaya, cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 1 thumb ginger, cut into strips
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• Hot pepper leaves

Instructions

1. Sauté the garlic, onion, and ginger
2. Put-in the chicken and cook until color turns light brown
3. Add the fish sauce and mix well
4. Pour-in the rice washing and put to a boil. Simmer for 45 minutes.
5. Add the green papaya wedges and simmer for 5 minutes
6. Add the hot pepper leaves
7. Add salt and pepper to taste
8. Serve hot. Share and enjoy!

Read also:
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Cooking with Cecilia - Leche Flan (Vietnamese Style) 
Cooking with Cecilia - Beef Bourguignon 
Cooking with Cecilia - Chicken Soup for my Bad Cold 
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Cooking with Cecilia - Filipino Barbecue Pork 

Tags: food, Filipino, Philippines, Philippines, moringa. soup, chicken, malunggay, kamunggay

This is all for now,

Cecilia