8 Vegan Filipinx Recipes, From Adobo to Sigig to Leche Flan

The food of the Philippines, a picturesque group of islands in the Pacific Ocean, varies from region to region and from island to island (all 7,640 of them, to be exact). But there are a few influences that run throughout many popular dishes (Spanish, Chinese, and Indigenous), as well as ingredients that consistently crop up from recipe to recipe. While the protein in many dishes tends to be meat, many of the ingredients used for seasoning are plant-based. This means that making Filipinx recipes vegan is easy, with a few simple swaps. 

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Can you make Filipinx dishes vegan?

Rice, for example, is a staple ingredient in the Philippines. “Every Filipino dish was meant to be eaten with rice,” food writer Elizabeth Ann Besa-Quirino told Serious Eats. “A lot of our dishes are saucy in nature and rice was meant to catch those sauces.” Soy sauce (or toyo) is also a common addition to many recipes, along with garlic, vinegar, onions, chili peppers, and coconut milk. These ingredients form the basis of many popular Filipinx dishes, including the national favorite, adobo. 

RELATED: 8 Vegan Ways to Get Your Filipinx Food Fix

Like many Filipinx recipes, adobo is often made with meat (pork, chicken, or both, usually), but there are many ways to make it plant-based. RG Enriquez-Diez, the Filipinx recipe developer behind the blog Astig Vegan, for example, makes adobo with ingredients like tempeh and mushrooms. Aside from adobo, many other Filipinx recipes can be made plant-based with a few easy tweaks, including meaty classics like sisig and stuffed crab.  

8 vegan Filipinx recipes

Try your hand at these mouthwatering, meatless Filipinx recipes. 

1 Vegan Filipinx Tofu and Mushroom Sisig

Traditionally, sisig is a combination of different meats, onions, and seasonings (including soy sauce and chili peppers) all presented on a sizzling, searing hot cast-iron plate. But you can get the full sisig experience without meat. This recipe from Enriquez-Diez, taken from the Filipino Vegan cookbook, will walk you through how to make this popular Indigenous dish with plant-based ingredients like tofu and mushrooms, instead.
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2 Filipinx-Inspired Vegan Peanut Vegetable Stew

Known as kare-kare in the Philippines, peanut stew is rich, savory, thick, and bursting with delicious nutty flavor. While it’s traditionally made with oxtail or tripe, it also includes plenty of vegetables, like banana blossoms and eggplant. In this recipe, learn how to get the same hearty texture and nourishing goodness using only plant-based ingredients, like artichoke hearts and baby bok choy.
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RG Enriquez-Diez

3 Caramelly Vegan Leche Flan

Similar to caramel custard, leche flan is a popular dessert on Filipinx tables. It’s indulgent, creamy, velvety, and is the perfect treat after you’ve enjoyed a hearty meal of stew or sisig. It’s usually made with ingredients like condensed milk and egg whites, but this recipe from Enriquez-Diez will show you how to create the same melt-in-your-mouth texture using ingredients like soy milk and agar agar powder.
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Chef Reina

4 Vegan Filipinx Adobo With Tangy Soy Curls and Potatoes

There are many different plant-based ingredients you can use to get that meaty texture in adobo, but soy curls have to be one of the best. In this recipe, Filipinx chef Reina Montenegro will show you how to make a flavor-packed, tangy, fragrant adobo using tender, slightly chewy soy curls, and ingredients like dark soy sauce, light brown sugar, and chopped green onions.
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Ashley Hankins

5 Filipinx-Inspired Spicy Vegan Chicken Adobo

Of course, another way to get that signature chicken texture in adobo is to opt for vegan chicken strips, just like this recipe from the Make It Vegan cookbook does. Combine it with ingredients like jalapeños, coconut milk, garlic, and bay leaves to get that delicious Filipinx flavor.
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Astig Vegan

6 Vegan Filipinx Crispy Fried Stuffed Crab

In many coastal areas, rellenong alimasag, or stuffed crab, is a popular dish. To make it, the crab meat is removed and combined with a mix of spices and vegetables, before it’s stuffed back into the shell. This Filipinx dish might sound impossible to make with only plant-based ingredients, but this recipe from Enriquez-Diez proves otherwise. In this tasty vegan dish, she swaps crab meat for artichoke hearts and jackfruit to give it that signature meaty texture.
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Reina Montenegro

7 Vegan Filipinx Rice Noodles With Gravy (Palabok)

Palabok often consists of thin rice noodles paired with shrimp or pork in a rich, savory sauce all topped off with pork crackling or boiled eggs. But in this recipe, Montenegro proves that tofu and mushrooms can bring all of the same delicious texture and umami to the Filipinx classic.
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Chef Reina

8 Vegan Battered Eggplant Filipinx Omelet

In the Philippines, omelets aren’t just made with eggs, but eggplant, too. The dish is called tortang talong, and as this recipe from Montenegro proves, it’s easy to make vegan. Simply swap out the eggs for chickpea flour and Himalayan black salt to get the same delicious texture and eggy flavor.
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