Legumes are a Nutritional Force

Legumes are a class of vegetables that include beans, peas, and lentils. They are an affordable, nutritious, satiating, and sustainable protein source that can help us tackle raising food costs, reduce meat intake, and help the environment. Here are some ways of cooking and using these plants.

_{Beans Is How A campaign to fix the future by doubling global bean consumption by 2028.}

Remember I am not a medical professional, just a cook.Speak with your medical advisor if you have any questions about consuming legumes or their effects.

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_{A version of the Moroccan Lentil Stew: Here I used homemade turkey broth, wilted chard with garlic, Japanese Shishito peppers, yams, carrots, parsnips, yellow onion, orange lentils, yellow split peas, pureed tomatoes, and topped with scallions. Seasoning included salt, lemon pepper, cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, and lemon. Photo by PattyCooks.}

Terminology + Background

In countries where vegan or vegetarian eating is the norm, legumes are the most important of plants for protein (1). For poor people around the world, these plants produce the food that keeps them alive and healthy, as they form the basis of a sustainable and inexpensive meat alternative. Since so many recipes call for these items, it is important to understand how to best use this ingredient.

Let us get this part out of the way first, so there can be agreement on what we are talking about and cooking.

The Fabaceae family is the third-largest flowering plant family with 740 genera and 19,400 species; it includes leaves, stems, and pods, and may be also considered as culinary herbs, shrubs, trees, or vines.
- An example of trees: carob, mesquite and tamarind.
A legume is a subfamily of Fabaceae and includes: lentils, beans, peanuts, and peas.
A pulse is the edible seed from a legume plant.
- A pea pod is a legume, but the peas in the pod are a pulse
- Beans are pulses
In general these plants enrich soils with nitrogen, and a subset of the legumes are edible by humans and animals.

This plant family has a wider geographical distribution in a broader range of habitats than others. In fact, legumes are growing on every continent, except Antarctica and the high Arctic. They are also growing in almost every habitat: from freshwater lakes, through tropical and subtropical forests, to the deserts and the arctic-alpine vegetation of the temperate regions. As a result of such wide distribution, a number of Leguminosae have been a staple human food for millennia, and some attribute their use as closely related to human evolution.

Nutrition

Intechopen writes that Legumes are nutritionally valuable, providing proteins (20–45%) with essential amino acids, complex carbohydrates (±60%) and dietary fibre (5–37%). Legumes also have no cholesterol and are generally low in fat, with ±5% energy from fat, with the exception of peanuts (±45%), chickpeas (±15%) and soybeans (±47%) and provide essential minerals and vitamins.

Although some are cynogenic, like many other foods we consume, legumes do contain toxic and indigestible substances, which may be removed or reduced through various processing and cooking methods. Meanwhile, many sources state unequivocally, that these are inexpensive sources of protein, vitamins, complex carbohydrates, and fiber.

For example, lentils are low in sodium and saturated fat, while high in potassium, fiber, folate, and plant chemicals called polyphenols (antioxidants). They also contain slow-digesting resistant starch that delays carb absorption which will not cause blood sugar spikes. And are also noted as being a good source of prebiotics to help prevent digestive diseases. Further, studies have shown that lentils can lower blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and may improve cholesterol levels and protect against breast cancer in women.

To be clear, legumes do have lectins and cyanogenic glycosides (as do many of the foods we eat) and contain what are called anti-nutrients. But proper processing will help reduce or eliminate many if not all of the chemicals that cause symptoms (2). Which is why I have sections on proper processing of the legumes below. Additionally, it has been shown that with continual consumption, our bodies can accommodate legumes and thereby reduce symptoms as well.

Environment

The only agreement we need in this area of review, is that each type of food we eat has a different impact on the environment and climate change. Wheat, rice, corn, pulses, tubers are all on the low-end of limited resource use and impact.

As the world is impacted by higher salt content in soil and water, drought and desertification, and over used pesticides and fertilizers, legumes appear scientifically to be malleable enough to meet future food requirements, and can reduce fertilizer use now.

Eating and Cooking Legumes

Lentils

Lentils are often defined by their color: green, brown, black, red, yellow, and orange lentils. But also, some are referred by by a specific variety name, such as French lentils or black Beluga lentils. I have only seen dried lentils, but am informed they can come canned. They are sold as whole lentils or split, with whole taking slightly longer to cook while retaining their shape. Split lentils (also with peas) will cook quicker and break down into mush. with the husks removed. Whole lentils with husks intact take longer to cook and will retain their shape; split lentils without husks cook very quickly and break down into a puree. These differences in texture will determine in which recipes they may be used.

Storage

Lentils are available dried or canned, but I have only seen them dried. Many indicate they store well for a year in a sealed container in the pantry, but I have kept mine longer and they have cooked fine.

Processing

For processing I will place the lentils on a baking sheet to look through them for any stones or debris. (A habit I picked up decades ago, not sure it is still needed, but not worth a trip to the dentist to bypass this step.) Then I rinse them in a sieve, and cook. No soaking is required for these are relative fast cooking, and thin.

Cooking

For cooking I use a 1:3 ratio of lentils to water or broth. But each color of lentils cooks slightly different.

Black, green, brown: ~20-40 minutes
Orange, red, yellow: ~10-15 minutes

Here are some of my recipes for lentils.

Beans

The names of beans is a very long list, so here are a few that I often cook with: adzuki, black, garbanzo, mung, peanuts, pinto, red kidney, edamame and soy bean products, and white Navy and Cannelini beans. I have tasted but do not normally cook with: black eyed peas, lima, or fava beans.

An admission here, long ago my father’s mother made me eat a bowl of very dry lima beans, and I could not get up from the table until they I had. Unfortunately, I can still feel my mouth full of dried mush that I absouetyly could not swallow. So to this day, I avoid lima beans, and fava beans because they look like large lima beans, and gag when I find them in soups.

Process

For dried beans, I process them like I do lentils by placing them on a baking sheet and plucking out stones or debris. But then I rinse them in a sieve and soak them overnight and the next morning dispose of the soaking water outside, and start a new pot of water for cooking the beans.

If you are avoiding lectins, pressure cooking beans for 7.5 minutes almost entirely deactivates the lectin in the beans.
Soaking beans before cooking drastically reduces the amount of phytates, which makes beans safer to consume, even in large quantities.

Note RED KIDNEY BEANS (3, 4): Phytohaemagglutinin, the name of the actual toxic agent, is found in many species of beans, but is highest in red kidney beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). Raw kidney beans contain from 20,000 to 70,000 hau (hemagglutinating unit), while fully cooked beans may contain ~200 to 400 hau. Red Kidney Beans are toxic raw or undercooked. They must be soaked for at least 5 hours, and boiled (212F) on a stove top with fresh water for at least 30 minutes. Do not cook in a slow cooker or any other means. Personally, I only use Red Kidney Beans from canned sources, for the process of canning will safely remove the toxin.

Soaking

Soaking the beans helps them absorb liquid and break down the chemicals that cause discomfort, and will plump beans. For soaking, just using plain water is better than not soaking at all. But some beans need something extra in their soaking liquid, to make them better digestible and healthy. The chart above provides some direction.

If you need acid in the soaking water, use citrus juice or vinegar at a 5:2:1 (cups of water, to acid measured in tablespoons, to cup of beans).
If the soaking beans needs a base, use a 5:1:1 (cups of water, to 1 pinch baking soda, to cup of beans).
If using plain water, use a 5:1 ratio (cups of water, to cups of beans).

Beans come in dried form, but also in cans, glass containers, and box packaging. These days I normally use canned, especially for kidney beans. But will use precooked beans as it is quick, no soaking only rinsing the canned beans, and easy to store.