Dinner · 40 min · filipino

Garden Pinakbet

Weeknight-friendly Filipino cooking: Garden Pinakbet comes together in 40 minutes with bitter melon, eggplant, and not much else. The macros do the talking: 4g protein, 15g carbs, and 1g fat in every 85-calorie serving. Leftovers keep well, so it doubles as next-day lunch without any extra work.

✓ USDA-verified nutrition data

Ingredients

• 1 Bitter melon
• 1 Eggplant
• 8 Okra
• 1/2 bunch Long beans
• 2 cups Squash
• 3 Tomatoes
• 1 Onion
• 3 tbsp Bagoong
• 1 cup Water

Steps

1. Layer the vegetables in a wide pot in order of density: squash and tomatoes at the bottom, then eggplant and okra, beans and bitter melon on top.
2. Dollop the bagoong over the top and pour in the water — then cover and do not stir. The steam does the work; stirring turns pinakbet to mush.
3. Simmer 15 minutes, until the squash yields and the bitter melon is tender but still green.
4. Now, and only now, give it one gentle fold to distribute the bagoong.
5. Taste for salt; the bagoong varies wildly by brand, so season at the end, never the start.
6. Serve over rice. Every vegetable should still be identifiable — pinakbet is a celebration of the garden, not a stew of it.

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