Light and healthy Pesang Isda

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December 1, 2025 | 6:15pm

MANILA, Philippines — There is nothing lighter and healthier than fresh fish cooked in ginger stew with lots of vegetables, particularly cabbage, potatoes, and bokchoy.

This is what the traditional Filipino dish, Pesang Isda, is all about. It extracts the flavors and nutrients of all the ingredients so that when you eat it, you get all the nutrients to help you grow healthier and stronger.

This recipe of Mama Sita’s marketing executive and weekend kitchen warrior Ces Nepomuceno-Gamad should come in handy when you are in your fit-and-light zone.

Pesang Isda

Ingredients:

1kg fish (Lapu-Lapu or Pampano, sliced)

2.5 liters water

50 grams ginger, crushed

2 pcs. red onion, quartered

2 stalks leeks, sliced, whites and greens separated

1 pc. medium-sized carrot

500 grams marble potatoes, scrubbed, and halved

2 stalks Pechay Tagalog, trimmed

1 bunch Pechay Baguio, trimmed and sliced to 3 or 4 inches

6 pcs. Kalamansi

Patis (fish sauce) to taste

Procedure:

1. In a 2.5- to 3-liter pot, combine water, ginger, onion and white part of leeks. Boil and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the broth becomes tasty.

2. Add in the marble potatoes and carrots, and boil for 15 minutes or until tender.

3. Lower heat and arrange slices of fish evenly in the broth, boil, and cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season with about a tablespoon of patis. 

4. Layer the pechay on top of the fish, cover, and cook for 2 more minutes. 

5. Serve with steamed rice, with patis and kalamansi on the side for sawsawan.

*Makes 8 to 10 servings.

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