Cabuey

[Goa Bean/Winged Bean]

Psophocarpus tetragonolobus, also known as asparagus pea, four angled bean, manila bean, but commonly known in the general Tagalog region as sigarillas/sigarilyas/sigadillas.

(If it is called something else in your area please let me know via the comments section or email, so we could compile the local names, listed below)

In the Pangasinan language we call it cabuey (KA-BEY, with a guttural e, as in perm) or gabuey. My dad once told me the plant is a weed - it grows just about anywhere, on its own, and without any care - and is valued as a weed. But we eat the fruit (the elongated, square-angled pod), cooked as a vegetable.

What little literature about this vegetable indicates that it is a perennial, but I see the fruits only seasonally, like about half the year, starting from the end of the rainy season. And the whole plant can be eaten, including the flowers and roots.

The pod comes in two colors - waxy green, and red violet - and in two sizes - really long ones, about a foot, and the really short ones, three inches or thereabouts. It contains vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, and other trace vitamins.

Unlike any other pod that I know, the cabuey is four-cornered, but thankfully there are only two "strings" that need to be pulled out from its "seams" before cooking. Frills, or linear "wings," run along all four corners, thus the name.

Cabuey has to be harvested young, or else it becomes rubbery and inedible. And it has to be cooked on the same day it was harvested, to get its premium taste (likened to asparagus). I've seen it sliced thinly and stewed in gata (coconut milk), a common dish in Kapampangan restaurants, called gising-gising.


In Pangasinan it is boiled with bagoong isda (salted fermented fish in paste) and a thumb of ginger, along with other vegetables, like squash and string beans, perhaps, or maybe sliced green papaya. A common Ilocano mix is patani, bataw, and sigarillas.

Here I sauteed sliced (more like torn) cabuey pods with previously boiled cubes of gabi (taro tuber), seasoned with bagoong. A simple but classic pairing.

Ginisang Sigarillas at Gabi

a thumb of ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
garlic, peeled and crushed
one small red onion, peeled and sliced thinly
a tablespoon or two of bagoong water, strained
2-3 bunches sigarillas, de-stringed and quartered
100 grams (about 4 small pieces ) gabi, peeled, halved and boiled

1. Heat a teaspoonful of cooking oil. When smoke is rising put in ginger, frying for about a minute.
2. Put in garlic and stir around until golden.
3. Mix in the onion, and cook until translucent.
4. Pour bagoong water, stirring around until it starts to bubble.
5. Mix in gabi and sigarillas, then pour a swig of water. Let boil for about two minutes, covered.
6. Adjust the flavor by adding more water if too salty, or adding more bagoong if bland. Serve immediately.

Yields one serving. String beans can also be added, even kamansi, and okra.


Names in other areas in the Philippines

• cabuey / gabuey / parlang [Central Pangasinan, or where the Pangasinan language is spoken]
• padlang [Pangasinan, in outlying areas where Ilocano is spoken]
• pallang [Isabela]
• kalamismis [Batangas]
• pagulong (Bicol - Camarines Norte)
• balagay (Hiligaynon)

Equivalent terms in other Asian languages:

• dambala [Sinhala]
• kacang botol [Malay]
• kecipir [Indonesian]
• jaat [Sundanese]
• sirahu avarai [Tamil]
• tua phoo [Thai]
• đau rong [Vietnamese]

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Bahay Kubo
(A Filipino folk song)

Bahay kubo, kahit munti
Ang halaman doon ay sari-sari
Singkamas at talong, sigarillas at mani
Sitaw, bataw, patani


Gundol, patola, upo’t kalabasa
At saka meron pa, labanos, mustasa
Sibuyas, kamatis, bawang at luya
Sa paligid-ligid ay puno ng linga

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