If you’re like me, you love warm porridge on a cold Winter’s day. Since it’s been in the low 20’s where I live, I have been enjoying this porridge a lot.
Today I wanted to share my favorite porridge recipe, my Mom’s lugaw. It’s easy to make, incredibly comforting, creamy, and super delicious. If you do not know what lugaw is, it is a savory rice porridge loaded with ginger and garlic. This version is simple and plant based.
My Filipino Mom says lugaw has healing properties and says it’s great to eat if you are feeling under the weather. It’s especially good to eat during this pandemic. Whatever you can do to keep yourself healthy right?
For me, I always feel better after eating this porridge.
Few things to note: I have made this recipe with sweet rice (which is what my Mom uses) and Jasmine rice – both turned out amazing. You can definitely jazz it up however you’d like. Adding mushrooms would be delicious. Traditionally, lugaw has tripe or chicken and is topped with a hard boiled egg. However, since we are plant based we do not add those and do not miss them at all.
Hope you make this and enjoy it!
Vegan Lugaw
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil we use avocado oil
- 10 cloves Garlic minced
- 1/4 cup Ginger minced (can use less if you like. Ginger is strong)
- 1/2 medium white onion chopped
- 3 cups Sweet rice uncooked
- 10 cups Water
- 2 Tbsp No chicken bouillon we use the Better than Bouillon brand.
- 1 tsp Saffron
- 1/4 tsp Pepper
- Pinch of salt to taste
Optional toppings
- Green onions
- Fried garlic
- Hot sauce
- Lemon
Instructions
- Wash sweet rice a couple of times until water isnt too cloudy. Strain out water and set aside.
- To a pan over medium heat, add a little oil, minced garlic, ginger and onions. Cook until onions are translucent. Stir often, do not let garlic burn.
- Once onions are translucent add sweet rice to your pan. Toast rice slightly, about 2-3 minutes. Stir often so rice does not stick to pan.
- Add 10 cups of water and bouillon to the pan. Stir well to combine.
- Allow mixture to come to a slight boil.
- Once it boils, add saffron, pepper and salt. Stir to combine. Lower heat to keep a gentle simmer. Keep stirring.
- Cook until rice is cooked/soft. For us, that took about 15 – 20 minutes. Test your rice before turning off heat.
- Once rice is cooked, serve hot (be careful) and eat as is or use optional toppings
Notes
- If your porridge is too thick for your liking, just add one cup of water and stir. Keep adding water, one cup at a time until you get your desired consistency
- Ginger is strong tasting, you can use less if you like
- We love adding lemon and green onions to our porridge. It elevates the flavor!
- Please be careful when eating/serving this as it is very hot. You can serve when it is warm
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