Malunggay substitute

Best substitute

Watercress

Use the same amount by volume, packed as the malunggay you are replacing

Best for tinola

Close match

For fresh malunggay leaves in a soup like tinola or monggo, use watercress: it is the closest thing because it shares that faint peppery edge, and it goes in at the same moment, in the last minute off the heat. Spinach is the easier find and tastes right apart from missing the pepperiness, so add a few grinds of black pepper to compensate. Chili leaves are the traditional Filipino alternative if a market has them. If your recipe wants moringa powder for a smoothie, none of these work: use matcha or spirulina for colour and an earthy-green note.

Other malunggay substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Spinach
Different texture
Use the same amount by volume, packed
The most available option and a genuinely good one for what malunggay is doing in a soup: mild green bulk and a fresh vegetable note against a savoury broth.
What changes
Nine times out of ten this is what will actually be in your kitchen.
Best for
tinola, monggo, clear soups, any dish using fresh malunggay leaves
Prep. Stir it in off the heat and let the residual warmth wilt it, about a minute.
What is missing is the peppery finish, so the soup tastes rounder and slightly flatter. A few grinds of black pepper at the end fixes most of it. Spinach is also more mineral and slightly astringent, and it collapses much further than malunggay does, so use mature bunched spinach rather than baby leaves, which turn slimy.
3Chili Leaves (Dahon ng Sili)
Close match
Use the same amount by volume, packed
The traditional Filipino alternative in tinola, and the swap a Filipino cook would reach for first.
What changes
Mildly bitter, faintly aromatic and no hotter than a spinach leaf despite coming from a chilli plant, which is what makes it work.
Best for
tinola, clear chicken soups, dinengdeng
Prep. Pick the leaves off the branches and add them in the last minute; discard the stems.
More bitter than malunggay and with a distinct green-pepper aroma, so the broth tastes a shade more herbal and less plainly vegetal. Practically speaking, if a market carries any Filipino greens at all it will usually carry these, which is why they are worth knowing about.
4Amaranth Greens (Kulitis)
Close match
Use the same amount by volume, packed
A very close textural match: small soft leaves that wilt into a broth and stay tender rather than stringy, with a mild, slightly earthy taste.
What changes
Common in the same markets that sell malunggay.
Best for
monggo, tinola, dinengdeng, soups and stews
Prep. Strip the leaves and tender tips from thick stems and add 2 minutes before the end.
No pepperiness at all, so the finish is mild and a little sweeter and earthier than malunggay's. Red-stemmed varieties will tint a clear broth faintly purple, which looks odd in a pale tinola. Otherwise this is an easy, unfussy swap.
5Baby Kale or Young Mustard Greens
Taste and texture differ
Use ¾ cup for every 1 cup malunggay, packed
Useful when you want a green that holds its shape and does not disappear, which is helpful in a longer-simmered dish like monggo.
What changes
Mustard greens in particular bring a peppery bite in the same family as malunggay's.
Best for
monggo, longer-simmered stews, sauteed greens
Prep. Shred finely and add 2 to 3 minutes before the end, since both need a little more cooking than malunggay does.
Both are more assertive than malunggay, kale in a chewy cabbagey direction and mustard greens in a sharp, sinus-clearing one, which is why you use less. Mature kale is too tough and fibrous here; the leaves stay leathery in a broth that malunggay would have melted into. Mustard greens can dominate a delicate chicken broth entirely.
6Moringa Powder (For Fresh Leaves)
Taste and texture differ
Use about 1 tsp powder for every 1 cup fresh leaves, packed
Included with a warning, because people reach for it assuming it is a form of the same thing.
What changes
It is, in flavour terms, but there is no exact conversion and it contributes nothing you can chew.
Best for
adding moringa flavour and colour when no fresh leaves exist, smoothies, drinks
Prep. Whisk it into a ladleful of the hot broth first so it disperses, then stir that back in off the heat.
It gives the green colour and some of the grassy taste, and none of the leaf texture that is half the point of malunggay in a soup. Dried and milled leaves also taste dustier and more bitter than fresh ones, and it is easy to overdo: too much and the broth turns muddy green and tastes like wet hay. Add it off the heat, since boiling makes the bitterness worse.

What is Malunggay?

Malunggay is the Filipino name for the small round leaves of the moringa or drumstick tree, stripped from their wiry stems and stirred into soups at the last minute, and also dried and milled into the green moringa powder sold as a health supplement.

Cooking tips

Malunggay goes in at the very end, always. The leaves are thin and cook in well under a minute, and boiling them turns them dark and bitter. Take the pot off the heat, stir them in, put the lid on for a minute, and serve. Every substitute here follows the same rule except kale and mustard greens, which want two or three minutes.
Strip the leaves rather than chopping the branches in. Malunggay comes on wiry stems that stay tough no matter how long they cook, and finding one in your mouth is unpleasant. Run your hand down each stem from tip to base and the leaves come away in a shower.
Malunggay carries no salt, no acid and no fat, so swapping it almost never means adjusting the rest of the recipe. The one exception is if you use mustard greens, which are peppery enough that you can pull back the black pepper.
Fresh malunggay leaves keep badly, about two or three days in a bag in the fridge before they yellow. If you get a big bunch, strip the leaves and freeze them spread on a tray; frozen leaves go straight into soup and are noticeably better than dried.
Malunggay leaves and moringa powder are the same plant doing different jobs. In tinola or monggo the leaves are a vegetable, providing bulk and a fresh peppery note. In a smoothie the powder is flavour and colour. Do not try to use one where the recipe wants the other without expecting a very different result.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for malunggay leaves?

Watercress, used in the same packed volume and added in the last minute off the heat. It is the only common green with the same faint peppery finish that malunggay gives a broth. Spinach is far easier to find and tastes right apart from the missing pepperiness, which a few grinds of black pepper mostly fixes. If you have access to a Filipino market, chili leaves are the traditional alternative in tinola.

Is malunggay the same as moringa?

Yes. Malunggay is the Filipino name for moringa, also called the drumstick tree or horseradish tree, and known as sajna or murungai in South Asia. The leaves are what Filipino soups use; the long seed pods, the drumsticks, are a separate vegetable used in Indian cooking; and moringa powder is the dried milled leaf sold as a supplement. All three come from the same plant and are not interchangeable with each other.

Can I use moringa powder instead of fresh malunggay leaves?

Only partly. Roughly a teaspoon of powder stands in for the flavour and colour of a packed cup of fresh leaves, though there is no exact conversion. What it cannot do is provide anything to chew, so a tinola made with powder is a green-tinted broth rather than a soup with greens in it. Whisk it into a ladle of hot broth to disperse it, then stir it in off the heat, because boiling brings out its bitterness.

Can I just leave the malunggay out?

You can, and the dish will still work. In tinola or monggo the leaves are the last thing in and are there for freshness, colour and a peppery lift rather than for structure. Without them the soup tastes heavier and more one-note but is perfectly edible. A handful of spinach, watercress or even sliced spring onion at the end recovers most of what is missing.

Can I use spinach in tinola instead of malunggay?

Yes, and it is the most common substitution people actually make. Use the same packed volume and stir it in off the heat so it wilts without going grey. The broth will taste correct but rounder, because spinach has none of malunggay's peppery finish and is slightly more mineral. Add black pepper at the end, or mix in a handful of watercress if you have some, and the difference becomes hard to notice.

Related substitutes

More vegetables & aromatics substitutes

Malunggay substitute

Other malunggay substitutes

2Spinach

3Chili Leaves (Dahon ng Sili)

4Amaranth Greens (Kulitis)

5Baby Kale or Young Mustard Greens

6Moringa Powder (For Fresh Leaves)