Mrs. MM has mentioned kadios to me on several occasions. Her yaya, then cook, then eventual major doma apparently made a memorable dish that Mrs. MM has never seen 
replicated in over 20 years. I had no clue what kadios was…so when I was at the Nasugbu market last weekend and I spied a small bowl of peeled beans, like small hard green peas, I asked what they were and the vendor said “kadios†so I bought half of the contents of the small bowl for PHP20. Back home, I took this photo and NO ONE in the house had the foggiest clue what to do with the beans. So they went to waste. Back in Manila, a little research yielded the following information… Kadios or Kadyos are Pigeon Peas (Cajanus cajan) and are probably native to Africa but thrive in many parts of Asia, especially in India, where there are several varieties, the two most common being described by their color, green or black (I presume these are the green ones, though these could just be immature and they turn darker when they get older?). Today, India grows over 90% of this legume, according to Alan Davidson. And the bulk of the legume turns into that fabulous dish, dahl.
Despite its popularity in India and the volume grown, the scientific name Cajanus cajan is derived from the malay word for kacang, which means nut or pea. In the 
Philippines, it seems this delicacy is mostly enjoyed in the North of Luzon and oddly, in particular islands in the Visayas. Growing up in Manila, we NEVER seemed to have this in our household. Mrs. MM describes a wonderful dish that mixes kadios with chicken and banana blossoms with a broth added of some sort. But we haven’t been able to figure out a recipe so far. A little “googling†on the internet also yielded a dish referred to as KBL (and no, that’s not Ferdinand and Imelda’s political party) or Kadios, Baboy at Langka that sounds equally intriguing. At any rate, my interest is peaked…I like the thought of a legume dish. The protein fits in with a South Forbes-y diet…but I have no recipe? Anyone care to share your recipe for kadios so I can try it the next time I find the peas??? Thanks!
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You mentioned chicken, banana blossom in broth with kadyos. I remember my grandfather used to cook a dish with the same ingredients. He boils meat with sibot, adds banana blossoms and kadyos. If kadyos is unavailable he just adds radish. Its my grandfather’s version of nilaga.
I know my mom (from Panay) stews kadyos from time to time with pigs’ feet and banana blossoms, with a rather thick soy sauce based sauce.
In Bali, they call this bean “undis” – I’ve had this in a very savory and spicy soup. It’s also mentioned in a well-known proverb: Selem-seleman jukut undise rasane bangkit. “A black undis has an attractive taste.” It’s somewhere along the lines of “don’t judge a book by its cover”.
Hi MM, it was always kadyos, langka, baboy at my parents’, though I have tried the chicken, kadyos and ubad version at friends’ houses. We’ve always bought purple/black kadyos but sometimes there’s the odd green in there so they might just turn purple as they age (have no idea hehe).
These beans, as well as batuan, are two staples of the Negrense household that are rarely available (if at all) in Manila markets and my mom used to bring kadyos and batuan when she would come to visit when I was in college so she could cook this at my apartment.
Anyway, this is the way we make it at home:
Boil the kadyos with chopped tomatoes and onions until the beans soften. Once the beans are soft, add the cubed pork (or chicken), some string beans and the langka. And then add batuan or some other souring agent, like kamias plus salt and pepper.
(The sourness) shouldn’t be sinigang-like, we love it best when it just hints of sourness -perfect complement to the meltingly tender pork!
Ilonggos would probably agree with me that KBL (kadyos,baboy at langka) is one of best love dish in Panay. Cooking it with pig’s feet which was broiled a bit on charcoal to get that smoky effect before stewing it together with kadyos is just wonderful.Oh boy, now I’m salivating with just the thought of KBL and some pritong daing on lunch!
when most of the ilocanos here in greece go home and come back to athens they always bring kadyos
never had it when i was young and to discover this among the ilocanos here in Athens…they stew them with banana blossoms
they sometimes add them to pork
but what they normally bring are the ones of purple colour with black mark….
My favorite vegetable.
The ones we have in Iloilo are dark red to almost black. They are dark red no matter how small. The soupstock becomes dark because of that.
For pork with langgka, you can saute tomatoes, garlic and onions with the pork. When the pork has caramelized portions (a bit browned), add the kadyos and the shredded langgka and then simmer in a bit of water (not soupy, the way I like it). The kadyos and lannga gets done almost the same time, maybe 45 mins to an hour. I season with patis early on.
For kadyos with chicken and ubad ng saging (the white soft central portions of the banana stalk), saute the holy trinity with the chicken and then later add kadyos and shredded ubad. Simmer with a bit of water and season with patis. Gets done in about 30 to 45 mins.
For these two dishes I like to top with a few pieces of pangsigang sili, which are not seen in the original Iloilo versions at home.
I also use kadyos with ordinary laswa (diningding, Iloilo version). My favorite sahog to this are malunggay, string beans, okra, talbos ng sitaw, kalabasa or chayote, and perhaps talong. Plus shrimp, of course.
My favorite vegetable, kadyos.
Kadios is my grandma’s favorite (the Kadios, Baboy at Langka type)! My mom and tita also love it. They hail from ilo ilo. So we would have it very often. They didnt make it though…I think they bought it from some Ilonggo restaurant. It’s really gooood!
A bonus for me though, from reading this post, is that I had no idea they were pigeon peas! I was even looking at them in the market this weekend (strange synchronicity again!) and wondering what they were…when they told me kadios I even thought “oh, not what I need right now”…when I was really looking for pigeon peas! Thanks for setting me straight! You see I wanted to try my hand at Chicken Pelau (a dish from the Carribean) and they use that bean :)
Hello MM! Love your site. You can try Kadios in Ilonggo Grill. I used to order that a lot when I was still in Pinas. Its with pork and unripe langka. The both is almost purplish black. I guess it is similar to Brazil’s national dish.
Hi, I have been reading your blog for awhile now and enjoying it. It’s funny that you just featured alucon and now kadyos. My mom cooked dinengdeng last weekend with some pork bones, bagoong for seasoning and these two vegetables. As dinengdeng goes for Ilocano it is very simple. But I like the ideas from the other region too which maybe we’ll try at home. I live in Chicago and we’re not supposed to bring seeds in but I got someone to bring it for me because I’ve been missing kadyos so much.
MM, check out the Kadyos recipe in the Namit Gid! cookbook I sent you. It’s the Ilonggo KBL that’s talked about here. Although batuan is best for th souring ingredient, i guess you can substitute if you can’t find that in our local markets.
My landlady was of Ilongo descent when I was in college and so her household angels. It was one of the dishes she offered with pork belly, young-green langka or kamansi the one that looks like small langka and the kadios. Indeed, it was good as the pork belly excreted all its glorious and mighty fat. I can tell if she is around the vicinity the meat was stingy when we get our trays.
batwan,one of the essentials in cooking the Ilonggo KBL is now available as a preserve in a bottle. i saw a couple at SM Megamall when i visited the Philippines last month. Batwan is now being grown and processed commercially by Danding Cojuanco in his farm in Negros. He really likes KBL. No pun intended.
eat matters, yes I purchased some of that batwan at a food fair in SM Megamall… we used them for chicken inasal…excellent. But now that I have run out I haven’t found a store that stocks it…
MM – if you find some of the bottled batwan, you can also experiment with another Ilongo favourite, Cansi/Kansi – sort of a sour bulalo with unripe jackfruit. i lived in Bacolod for a while and I remember that the highlight of taking the old ferry between Bacolod and Iloilo was getting some Cansi at the ship’s food service….
I am Ilonggo and KBL is my all time favorite Ilonggo dish…it’s comfort food for me. Our cook sometimes uses the dried kadios beans but not really sure if the fresh ones are better.
bottled batwan is available at SM Megamall Supermarket as of last month. i think i saw it at the aisle where the bottled sardines are. just check.
KBL with tiny dark kadyos is staple carinderia and foodcourt fare. The black kadyos tints the broth and the pork with a dark, purplish hue. Namit. yum. grrrr…
eat matters, thank you so much, I will go soon and see if they still have it!
Yup, KBL works for me, too! For an intro, try the KBL at Ilonggo Grill as suggested. Use some patis to flavor it a bit. Pork belly, with some ribs, are the best parts to use as they are tender and with bits of fat. Yumm!
When I was still in Manila, our household help were mostly Ilonggas and their favorite dish was KBL. They used to cook this with red munggo so I grew up thinking that red munggo was the typical companion of the langka until I found out much later that it was supposed to be kadyos, a different bean altogether. I used to watch them cook this and the recipe looked very simple. It seemed like they just boiled the pork, the langka and the beans together, added salt or patis, and that was it. The green langka seemed to provide the right sourness to the soup.
I tried cooking this dish very recently in Vancouver, using canned green jackfruit but I added coconut milk to the broth. It turned out pretty good too.
my first time to comment here but im checking your website everyday for a long time already. my father is an ilonggo who taught my bicolana mother how to cook the kadyos.it is one of his favorites.we use buto-buto and langka or kamansi whatever is easily available.sa paasim we use sampalok.when i read your entry bigla kong na-miss ito having work here in hongkong for more than a decade.we use dried and fresh kadyos, but if fresh kadyos is available in the market sa manila we use it than the dried one.madali kasi siyang palambutin.
I agree that Ilonggos are particularly proud of their KBL. I once had a hearing in a small town in Capiz and had to eat at a carenderia. My client convinced me to order the KBL because she said, I couldnt find that dish elsewhere. It was the only time I tried that dish and I didnt understand why my client was so proud of it. Now I know it was probably just the carenderia which did not do justice to the dish.
same as evelyn my first time to comment also but checks your website everyday. in our province in batangas we put kadyos in bulanglang with other veges such as patani, green papayas etc. boiled in rice washing with tomatoes and ginger (if i remember correctly.
Marketman, I just went to Megamall recently and bottles of batuan aren’t available. Try going to Tiendesitas and look for the ECJ Farms booth at the Food Village, they always have it there.
Hi MM,
In Laguna kadios is boiled with patani with ginger for a simple quick soup and veggie dish, yes I think they cook it with the rice water or hugas bigas. I believe it is really refreshing and usually eaten with fried GG –the best:).
My Lola used to cook this when i was young and a favorite of my tita.
Hi MM,
I just love, love your site! So natural and unpretentious. I encountered this dish once and have been puzzled ever since on how to come up with it at home. I hope you could share me a really standard recipe like how much pork, langka, kadyos, etc to put in the dish. thank you and more power!
Hi mia, I haven’t cooked the kadios yet… so when I do get a chance, I will post the recipe. There are many suggestions posted up above, but cooked more from feel than measure, it seems!
We call this ‘kardis’ in Ilocos. We simply add it to our dinengdeng. I haven’t had kardis for years..sighh…
is KBL = to cansi?
kadyos has 2 different variety, the green and the black one w/c makes the soup of KBL purple. You can try KBL at Ilongo Grill or Chicken bacolod.
MM, my mom would make kadios with pork, langka and talbos ng kamote. Its like making sinigang. I think she even uses the rice water (pinag hugasan ng bigas) for the broth. Simple lang. I miss my mom tuloy.
Hi MM, I haven’t visited your site for a while. when i saw in your index KADIOS, i right away clicked it. I’m very proud to be Ilongga and if there’s one type of bean to associated with us, its Kadyos/Kadios.
The variations of cooking it have already been posted by many of your friends. May I just add then that KBL also gets served in fiestas. And usually, its the first dish to go.
The town of Miagao, Iloilo grows this a lot. When kadios is “off-season”, a small glass (the takal) can cost as much as P20.00. Still, we buy for it is a staple dish of the Ilonggo people.
why is it that ilonggo food is soooooo masarap???
I just found this site. Kanamit.
seems like nobody posted a recipe yet. so here goes. this one is from my tita, which i adopted. yep. i hail from miagao, kadios kapital of iloilo, or so i’d like to think.
isa ka siki (1 pig’s leg. hind ones better)
tatlo ka baso nga kadios (3 cups kadios, the partly green and violet ones are the best. dried ones lack the sweetness of the fresh, almost ripe ones)
isa ka tumpok nga batuan (this is around 4 pcs average batuan fruits)
duha ka tumpok nga langka nga gin kihad na (around a block of jackfruit, 2x4x8 inches, sliced)
ahos, bumbay, kamatis, asin (garlic, onions, tomatoes, salt. use the usual quantities that you use for panggisa)
duha kag tunga nga litro sang tubig (2 1/2 liters of water)
1) sugbaha ang siki. mas nami kon kusog ang uling para dasig masunog ang gwa pero indi luto ang sulod. importante nga mag gwa lang ang baho sang sunog nga panit sang baboy para hamot.
(grill the pork leg in very hot coals. the goal is to make some parts of the pork singe to black to coax out the aroma of the burnt pig skin)
2) lasa-a ang siki kag gisahon sa kamatis, ahos, bumbay.
(cut the pork legs into desired size. i usually cut it 2 inches crosswise. sautee with the three amigos: garlic, unions and tomatoes)
3) laga-a ang siki asta mag humok. idugang dayon ang batuan
(boil [is that the right term? first time writing a recipe :-) i just usually tell people how to cook things.] til it’s almost melt-in-your mouth soft. throw in the batuan)
4)i langkay ang kadios. hulat asta mag humok. timplahon sa asin
(add the kadios. wait til it becomes soft. add salt to taste)
5) ilangkay ang langka. pag bukal kaisa, bahita kag i-atang
(add the jackfruit. let it boil for a minute. serve)
yaiks. there was already one posted above. tupid me. should have read the entire thing instead of speed reading. :-)
jose, THANK YOU so much for your recipe. I have to remember to try it the next time I find kadios. Now, I have to get some bottle batwan and keep it at the ready… Salamat!
just found site.my fav dish .but i add lemongrass(tanglad) to bring out the flavor.
this is the 1st time to send an email…….
my teacher said “wat is kadyos”?…… so i wanted to know it….. then finally i found out wat is kadyos….
i’m craving (pregnant kasi ako) for KBL right now and i couldn’t find the english name of Kadios here in Nevada…good thing i found this sight…yumyum…i’m an ilongga and surely i miss this delicious dish…have to find it now…thanks a lot!!!
We used to have kadios in our farm before. Its purple almost black. My mom used to cook it by grilling the pig feet then saute garlic, onion and tomatoes in a deep pan then add the grilled pig feet(already slice in to pieces. Then she add kadios and young shredded langka and boil it until the everything is cook probably an hour. It is so good. I’m craving for it now! I haven’t eaten this dish for at least 20 years.
You guys try…KMU…Kadyos Manok Ubad ng saging…Any town fiesta in ILOILO is not complete with out this dish…
Another dish is KBK..Kadyos,Bangus at dahong ng kamote…HMMM…YUMMY!
I saw an episode of Tablescape in TFC channel. The Ilonggo cook boiled kadios with pork feet and lemon grass until the pork is off-the-bone tender. Then he sauteed chicken pieces with onion, tomatoes and garlic and topped it into the mix. Cooked it for another 30 minutes on low heat.
I tried it and added ginger to add more flavor. It is really good.
We just had kadyos for dinner tonight. And it’s a super yummy dish rarely prepared at home. ( Because the seed is so rare)My mom-in-law,an (Ilocana she is dearly remembered) we miss her so much used to prepare it for us. She boils pork ribs or pata sometimes ( remove the skin) then boil until very tender( can be pressurized I prefer the pork ribs than pata then she puts in sliced eggplants and malunggay bunga so delicious just add patis.(wow) really tastes so good then let it simmer. The reason why I reached this site is I’m trying to find out what is the season for kadyos? We cook this meal once in five years because we forget about it since kadyos is so unknown in our marketplace here in metro manila The dried violet kadyos tastes better than the fresh greens. But it’s really a rarity. The last time I ate that was about 20 yrs. ago. We’re planning to grow them now.
Hi MM… i first encountered this kadyos in January 2009 of agriculture magazine as main topic. this was being describe as good source of protein but minimal attention was giving to this plant. Luckily, one of my nieghbors have at least 5 plants of this small tree planted on his land.
Now… I also engaged in promoting kadyos in our place…and soon I will engaged in honeybee farming under from flowering kadyos tree.
Coming from an ilonggo, i can go on and on…talking about KADIOS and while doing that i have to stop for a few and wipe my drool. I grew up eating and loving the KBL. I remember we always have the soup the day after each fiesta or handa-an. You know why? The next day, when the visitors are gone, the pig legs that where sat aside from the feast/handa and where grilled and left hanging on top of the pugon(wood burning stove)becomes the center of the attention. It is very important that the legs where grilled just medium well or maybe rare–just enough to have grill marks and let it hang for a day. I dont know why but it helps the meat taste better. Then we throw in the tomatoes, onion, water, KADIOS, LANGKA and BABOY together. The souring agent is batuan or “LABOG”(i can also talk forever about this too) and some patis to taste. Stop–i have wipe my drool.
I live so far away now that it’s hard for me to find all this ingredients especially the LABOG–wala talaga dito. i can find KADIUS in some Filipino Stores. Also, i have to go to a Spanish or Asian store for the certain cut of pork legs. and for the souring agent BATUAN, is no where in sight too. So..tadah!!!—Sinigang mix ang substitute. I go a mile or 20 for my KBL. Call me crazy but i do. CrazyIlonggo.