Filipinos Whole30 Eats: Skinless Longanisa with Egg “Rice”

Longanisa (sausages) with eggs and atchara, and a slice of papaya on the side

It’s difficult to overstate how large a space rice occupies in the Filipino food tradition. It’s barely an exaggeration to say that it fills half our plates at every meal, half of every spoonful that we put in our mouths. Almost all of our other dishes are designed to complement rice (we tend to make them really spicy or sour or sweet to balance the blandness of rice). When we want to know what’s for lunch or dinner, we ask, “Anong ulam?” Meaning: “What’s the ulam?” Meaning: “What’s the other food that will go with the rice (because of course it goes without saying that we’ll be having rice)?”

I knew from the start, therefore, that the major challenge of trying to convert Filipino food to Whole30 would not be the relatively simple task of replacing the unhealthy ingredients of various dishes with compliant versions; rather, it would be finding strategies to replace rice, sideline rice, and otherwise remove it from its central place in Philippine cuisine. (Yeah, good luck, right?) I expect I will never even come close to succeeding, given the outsize role it plays and how deeply rooted it is in our tradition and even our self-identity. But part of the fun of this food project is in the trying.

One strategy is to use cauliflower rice as a substitute, as I’ve done in a couple of recipes so far. And it works perfectly fine in that role – every now and then. However, I can’t imagine it being a permanent solution. Cauliflower is simply too strong to replace the fluffy, starchy blandness of rice very often. Besides which cauliflower, being a cruciferous vegetable, has the unfortunate tendency of leaving one with certain gassy aftereffects when eaten too much.

A spoonful of longanisa and egg “rice”

However, I could try to find other relatively bland foods that can go with the tasty ulams of Filipino cuisine. And that’s when it hit me. Eggs are fairly bland and tasteless, as long as you don’t season them with salt or other spices, and you can cook them scrambled so they come out airy and fluffy. So why not try eggs as a rice substitute?

The perfect venue for this experiment was breakfast, when we Filipinos typically eat rice and eggs, along with some fish or meat. Just increase the egg portion (and hold off on the salt and spices), banish rice from the trio, and see how the new combination works.

I gotta say, it worked perfectly fine for me when I paired homemade skinless longanisa with fluffy, chopped egg “rice.” I had them three days in a row and liked them each time. And I look forward to trying this formula again with other Filipino breakfast meats and fish. Again, this is probably not an all-encompassing solution to the problem of replacing rice, but it can certainly be added to the toolkit. 

Translations

Longanisa (long-gah-nee-sah – second “g” is a hard “g”): sausages, of which there are a number of regional variations

Ulam (ooh-lahm): dishes that accompany rice in Philippine cuisine

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 lbs. ground pork
• 6 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup puréed Asian pear (you can use other sweet fruit like mango, apple, or pear)
• 3/4 tablespoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut aminos (soy sauce substitute)
• 3/4 teaspoon red beet powder (optional); or you can use annatto powder (also optional)
• 3 large eggs per person
• 1 tablespoon coconut milk per 3 eggs (optional)

Instructions

1. To prepare the longanisa: Mix the pork, garlic, Asian pear purée, salt and pepper, vinegar, coconut aminos, and red beet powder thoroughly in a large bowl. Pinch small handfuls at a time and roll the meat mixture into sausage shapes about 1 inch in diameter and about 3-4 inches long. (You can use 4-inch square pieces of wax paper or parchment paper to assist with the rolling if you want: put the meat in the square and roll the paper like a large joint, err, cigar.)
2. Fry the longanisa in small batches in oil in low heat, turning every now and then to cook all sides. They’re ready when they’re brown all over with caramelized dark spots and heated through and through. (Cut one open if you want to make sure there’s no pink left in the center.)
3. To prepare the egg “rice”: Beat the eggs and coconut milk in a bowl. Fry in low heat, constantly turning and chopping the eggs with a spatula until they are cooked and in small pieces.
4. Plate several longanisa with each 3-egg portion of egg “rice,” add some veggies, and eat up!

The longanisa recipe makes about 12-18 small sausages, depending on their size. You can freeze any that are unused (raw or cooked).

How this is Whole30
The sugar in the longanisa was replaced with the Asian pear purée, and the usual soy sauce with coconut aminos. Red beet powder was used instead of the saltpeter or red food coloring sometimes used for longanisa. As important, the rice that would normally have been part of this breakfast combination was excluded.

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