Monggo (Ginisang Munggo): Filipino Mung Bean Soup with Pork

A rainy-day evening, and the mung beans give way

In the pot, the skins of the mung beans begin to split, and when you press them with a wooden spoon they crumble softly. Add a teaspoon of patis and, beneath the sweet smell of garlic and tomato, the salty note of fish sauce rises cleanly. Filipino monggo is not a showy feast. It is a quietly powerful bean soup for the days when rice is scooped onto plates and the family gathers around the table.

Monggo (also spelled munggo) is a Filipino home dish of mung beans sautéed with garlic, onion and tomato and then simmered. In English it is described as ginisang munggo, mung bean soup or mung bean stew. Some families add pork, shrimp or dried fish; others build it around fish and vegetables, following the custom of eating less meat on Fridays and during Lent. What every version shares is that the beans are not simply boiled: sautéed aromatics and fish sauce give the soup its shape.

Outside the Philippines, the tricky part is less the beans themselves than the greens and the saltiness. Malunggay (moringa leaves) is ideal when you can get it, but most supermarkets don't carry it. Mustard spinach (komatsuna) on its own tastes too grassy, and spinach on its own falls apart easily. In this recipe we replace malunggay with a little moringa leaf plus spinach or komatsuna, keep the patis restrained, and aim for a monggo in which the sweetness of the beans comes first.

On a Filipino table, monggo offers a different way in from sinigang, which wakes up the appetite with sourness, bulalo (in Japanese), built on beef-bone broth, or adobo (in Japanese), which drives you to eat more rice with its soy sauce and vinegar. Monggo is more everyday. Keep a bag of dried beans in the pantry and it will carry you through rainy days and evenings when the fridge is nearly empty.

What is monggo? A home-style bowl of mung beans, fish sauce and greens

Many people know mung beans mainly as the raw material for glass noodles and bean sprouts, but in the Philippines the beans themselves are cooked and eaten. The basic method for ginisang munggo is to simmer the mung beans until soft and combine them with garlic, onion, tomato and meat or seafood sautéed separately. Panlasang Pinoy's pork monggo also shows the style that adds chicharon and malunggay.

The phrase "Friday monggo" you sometimes hear in the Philippines comes from its link with meatless meals. But as a home dish it has no single form. Some families make it rich with pork belly or chicharon; others use tinapa (smoked fish), dried shrimp, fresh shrimp or chili leaves. In a home kitchen, it's easiest to start with a little pork belly and greens, then move toward fish or meatless versions next time.

Think of monggo only as "stewed mung beans" and the flavor tends to turn vague. What matters is separating the step that softens the beans from the step that sautés the aromatics. Rather than simmering the beans with tomato and fish sauce from the start, cook them plainly in water until soft and add flavor afterward. That way both the sweetness of the beans and the Filipino-style saltiness come through.

Ingredients: pork monggo for a home kitchen

This serves 4, sized as a main dish to go with rice. You'll use 220 g of dried mung beans, and they swell considerably as they cook. The first time, don't scale up too much; it's easier to stop at an amount that leaves a little for the next day.

This dish uses pork and fish sauce. For a seafood allergy, leave out the patis and Thai fish sauce and supply the saltiness with 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tsp light soy sauce. The aroma moves away from the Filipino original, but it still works as a bean soup. Cook the pork thoroughly to the center, and don't reuse the cutting board or chopsticks that touched raw meat for serving.

Shopping: beans from the store, fish sauce and a pot if you need them

Dried mung beans can often be found at Asian grocers, natural food stores and supermarkets with a large selection of beans. Brand differences are small, so start by looking locally for beans of even size. If the bottom of the bag has a lot of powder and many broken beans, the soup will turn cloudy quickly. That's fine as long as it rinses off, but for your first time, a small bag is the safer start.

The item worth seeking out is patis, Filipino fish sauce. Monggo isn't a showy spice dish, so the quality and amount of fish sauce change its character a lot. Rather than adding a lot at the start, put just 1 tbsp in the pot and let everyone add more at the table; that's the way to avoid mistakes.

If you can't find patis, Thai fish sauce (nam pla) works as a substitute. It's a little less Filipino in character, but compared with salt and soy sauce alone, it keeps a fish-sauce depth between the beans and the pork. If you already have Thai fish sauce, feel free to try it before buying patis.

Mung beans cook without soaking, but if you'll make monggo often, a pressure cooker makes it easier to fit into weeknight dinners. With a pressure cooker, cook only the beans and water at high pressure for 6 minutes, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then return to a regular pot from the step where you combine them with the aromatics. This makes it easier to control the color of the greens and the thickness of the beans.

Method: soften the beans first, then layer the aromas

Monggo looks like a quick dish, but if you put everything in the pot at once, the beans stay hard while the tomato falls apart and the saltiness of the fish sauce takes over. Rinse the beans; sauté the pork and aromatics; simmer the beans; season and mash them a little; finish briefly with the greens. Follow this order and you won't get lost in the kitchen.

Decision table: getting close to the original in a home kitchen

Monggo has few ingredients, so every substitution shows in the flavor. Rather than sourcing everything from the Philippines, deciding what to keep and where to compromise is what makes it a dish you'll cook again.

Mung beans vary a lot from bag to bag in how they cook. Old beans can stay firm even after 30 minutes. In that case, don't cover it up with more fish sauce; add 100 ml water and simmer on low for another 10 minutes. If you make it salty early, the firmness of the beans becomes even more noticeable.

Common problems

The beans are hard

Either the simmering time was too short or the beans are old. Before adding more salt, fish sauce or sourness, add water and extend the simmering by 10 minutes on low. If a bean breaks into a powdery mash when pressed between your fingers, it's almost there. If the center is hard and translucent, it needs more time.

It's watery

You've hardly mashed any beans. Simmer for 5 minutes over medium-low while pressing beans against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Just cooking off liquid tends to scorch the bottom, so mashing to create body is the more reliable fix.

The fish sauce smells too strong

Either you added too much, or it boiled hard over high heat after the fish sauce went in. Next time, put no more than 1 tbsp in the pot and add the rest at the table. If it's already strong, add 100 ml water, serve it with rice, and squeeze in a little calamansi or sudachi to make it easier to eat.

The greens have turned dark

The greens cooked too long after going in. Think of monggo not as a dish where you stew the greens but one where you sink them in at the end, and you'll make fewer mistakes. Turn off the heat once spinach or komatsuna leaves have wilted and deepened in color.

Storage and make-ahead

Monggo keeps about 2 days in the refrigerator. Let it cool, then transfer it to a storage container without the chicharon mixed in. By the next day the beans absorb liquid and become quite thick, so add 100 to 150 ml of water or light chicken stock and bring it back slowly over low heat. To reheat in a microwave, put it in a deep bowl with the plastic wrap slightly open, heat for 2 minutes at 600 W, stir, and continue 1 minute at a time, checking as you go.

You can freeze it, but the greens lose their texture. If freezing, portion out only the bean soup before the greens go in, and finish with fresh greens after thawing for a cleaner result. Always serve chicharon separately. Stored mixed in, it loses its crunch and leaves only saltiness behind.

How to serve it and build a menu around it

Monggo changes character depending on whether you pour it over rice or set it alongside like a bowl of soup. On a Filipino table, the natural way is to lay out white rice, fish sauce, something sour and chiles, and let everyone adjust on their own plate. Not trying to perfect the flavor in the pot suits each family member's taste better.

With pork monggo, a light main dish is plenty. Add a little adobo (in Japanese), defined by vinegar and soy sauce, for a table that keeps the rice going. On days you want vegetable sourness, rather than adding another soup like sinigang, a simple salad of tomato, cucumber and onion keeps things from getting heavy. For a festive spread, small portions of sweet-savory embutido (in Japanese) or peanut-rich kare-kare (in Japanese) alongside it strike a good balance.

How you build the table depends on whether you see monggo as a soup or as a dish to eat with rice. For a true Filipino home-cooking feel, lay out small dishes on the table rather than settling the saltiness in the pot. On days when you want a clear, gingery chicken soup instead of thick beans, tinola (in Japanese), with green papaya and malunggay, is a good match.

Frequently asked questions

Do mung beans need to soak overnight?

No. Rinsing them and letting them sit for about 10 minutes is enough. Old or large beans cook more slowly, so in that case extend the simmering by 10 minutes. Soaking overnight makes them break down quickly and turn pasty.

Can I make it without meat?

Yes. If leaving out the pork, soak 10 g dried shrimp in 100 ml lukewarm water and add it with its soaking liquid in step 3 so the flavor doesn't turn thin. To avoid seafood completely as well, add 1 more clove of garlic and finish with an extra 1 tsp oil. If you also leave out the patis, though, it becomes closer to a vegetable bean soup than a Filipino-style dish.

I don't have malunggay. Is spinach alone okay?

Spinach alone works. Don't blanch it; chop it roughly and add it at the end. Mixing in half komatsuna helps keep the leaves from sinking too much. Avoid shungiku (chrysanthemum greens) the first time; its aroma is strong and easily masks the sweetness of the beans.

Is chicharon essential?

No. It's there to add a toasty note. If you don't have any, a little crisply cooked bacon will do. But too much bacon pushes its smokiness forward, so keep it to about 30 g. Substituting tempura crumbs or snack chips takes the oil aroma in a different direction.

Can I make the whole thing in a pressure cooker?

It's well suited only for softening the beans. Cook the mung beans and water at high pressure for 6 minutes, let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then combine with the separately sautéed pork and aromatics. We don't recommend pressure-cooking after the greens and fish sauce go in: the aroma turns muddy and the leaves lose their color.

Sources

Summary: don't rush the beans, and add the fish sauce at the table

Monggo is a modest dish made from dried mung beans, garlic, onion, tomato and a little pork. But three things take it from a plain bean soup to Filipino home cooking: soften the beans without rushing, don't put too much fish sauce in the pot, and add the greens briefly at the end.

You don't need perfect patis, greens and chicharon from the start. What to protect is the body of the beans, a saltiness that suits rice, and room for everyone to adjust at the table. To explore Filipino cooking further, move on to bulalo (in Japanese), which uses fish sauce the same way, or to sinigang for more sourness, and the ingredients in your kitchen will start to connect.