Legume Recipes

The Best Legume Recipes From LoveToKnow

Here are 60 great time-tested recipes you can cook today!

What's a Legume?

Legume recipes sound exotic, but they aren't, really. A legume (leg-YOOM) is a family of plants that includes beans, peas, lentils and peanuts. They are a great source of protein, particularly for people who are trying to limit their consumption of red meat, as well as dietary fiber.

The Oft-Overlooked Lentil

Lentils are great little beans. About the size of a split pea, they make a great side dish and an even greater soup. People who think they don't (or won't) like lentils need to try a bowl of hearty lentil soup - flavored with bacon or ham and with plenty of carrots - on a cold winter day. Yum!

Soybeans are Beans Too

Soybeans aren't just for cattle any more. Once grown in the U.S. mainly as fodder for livestock, soybeans are more protein-packed than most beans. They can be turned into the often-unjustly-reviled tofu. When buying bean sprouts, look for soybean sprouts instead of the more common mung bean sprouts. The sprouts of the soybean are longer, stay crisper in food and usually the bean from which they sprouted is still attached and is crispy-chewy good.

Soybeans are also a great snack. Called edamame, cooked soybeans in the pod are available frozen in most Asian grocery stores. Just boil or steam to reheat them and then eat the beans right out of the pod.

More Beans

Pintos, navy beans, wax beans, green... Forrest Gump would have had a field day with the many beans of the legume family. Visit your grocer's dried food aisle and try a different bean this week. Black eyed peas? Kidney beans and limas? Even chickpeas. Use as a sidedish or a salad or a vegetarian main dish.