| Most people feel that they know a bean when they | | | | have subsisted happily on some combination of |
| see one. They're those little round things that | | | | legumes, grains, and a little bit of meat. |
| sometimes grow in pods, right? You've got kidney | | | | Pulses include many of the legumes that you're |
| beans, black beans, green beans, soy beans, and so | | | | probably familiar with, officially divided into 11 categories |
| on, and then there are things like coffee beans and | | | | by the Food and Agricultural Organization. If you live in |
| cocoa beans. But when we start perusing food books | | | | the U.S., though, you're probably mainly familiar with just |
| and recipes, we encounter all sorts of terms that | | | | a few of these categories. Dry beans include kidney |
| make this whole bean thing seem a little bit more | | | | beans, pinto beans, navy beans, lima beans, and most |
| complicated. For instance, how do beans relate to | | | | of the other familiar types that you typically find in cans |
| legumes? And what are lentils? Are they closely | | | | or in dry form. Chickpeas are a category on their own, |
| related to stuff like corn, nuts, and grains, or are they in | | | | as are black-eyed peas and lentils. |
| a completely different category? When you get down | | | | In short, lentils and beans are pulses, and pulses are a |
| to it, there's more to beans than it seems. | | | | type of legume. There's the essential information. The |
| First things first: The term "legume" is a broad category | | | | main thing that all types of legumes have in common is |
| that refers to lots of stuff, including beans, peas, lentils, | | | | their high protein content. Pulses in particular are |
| peanuts (that's right, peanuts are not nuts), alfalfa, and | | | | one-fourth protein by weight, which is almost twice as |
| clover. Technically speaking, all of these things are | | | | much as the protein content for even the best types |
| fruits of flowering plants in the Fabaceae family. Within | | | | of grains, and it's three times as high as rice. Of course, |
| the legume category, there are oilseeds that are | | | | the protein in legumes is different from the proteins |
| primarily used for extraction (soy and peanuts), | | | | offered by other types of crops, which is why we |
| vegetable crops such as green beans, green peas, | | | | often combine them to create a more complete |
| clovers, and alfalfas, and pulses. | | | | protein picture. |
| One of the interesting things about legumes is that | | | | So, in the end, legumes, beans, etc. are still pretty |
| they have been a staple crop throughout the world for | | | | complicated, but hopefully this clears up the picture a |
| as long as there has been human civilization. They're | | | | little bit. When you see a recipe that calls for lentils, it |
| abundant everywhere from Asia, to Europe, to the | | | | means those little things that are in a lot of types of |
| Americas, and their varying forms are all similar in the | | | | ethnic foods. If it calls for beans, that means something |
| type of nutrition that they can provide. In this sense, | | | | different, and hopefully it will be a little more specific. Of |
| they're a lot like grains, which are just as common. | | | | course, if it calls for legumes, that's sort of weird. I'd just |
| Throughout human history, people all over the world | | | | use a different recipe. |