Legumes

Pulses for sale in Italy. Scuola Ambulante / Pixabay.com / 2016 / CC0 1.0

In culinary terms, pulses are edible seeds that grow in pods on plants, bushes or vines from the legume family. Botanically, the term can apply to the entire plant. There are over 13,000 varieties of legume plants.

Depending on the type of pulse, it can be eaten fresh, sprouted, dried, dried and ground, or liquified and transformed into other products such as bean curd or bean milk.

Legumes on average have a water footprint of around 4000 litres per kilogram. ^[1]Mekonnen, M.M. and Hoekstra, A.Y., “The green, blue and grey water footprint of farm animals and animal products”, Value of Water Research Report Series No. 48, UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands. 2010b. Accessed August 2022 at https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-water-footprint-of-food

See also: World Pulses Day

Defining legumes

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health makes this distinction between botanical legumes (the entire plant) and the actual edible seed part of it (the pulse, the dried seed):

“Although used interchangeably, the terms “legumes,” “pulses,” and “beans” have distinct meanings. A legume refers to any plant from the Fabaceae family that would include its leaves, stems, and pods. A pulse is the edible seed from a legume plant. Pulses include beans, lentils, and peas. For example, a pea pod is a legume, but the pea inside the pod is the pulse. The entire legume plant is often used in agricultural applications (as cover crops or in livestock feed or fertilizers), while the seeds or pulses are what typically end up on our dinner plates. Beans in their various forms (kidney, black, pinto, navy, chickpeas, etc.) are just one type of pulse.” ^[2]The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Legumes and pulses. Accessed April 2021 at https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/legumes-pulses/

Typically, the seed of a legume plant can easily be split in half. “Legumes are the edible seeds from pods you can split in half.” ^[3]Plant-based diet: Nuts, seeds, and legumes can help get you there. Harvard Men’s Health Watch. November 2014. Accessed April 2021 at https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/plant-based-diet-nuts-seeds-and-legumes-can-help-get-you-there

Nutrition

Legumes are rich in fibre and proteins.

Legumes and grains complement each other in two ways:

• In the field. Legumes enrich the ground with nutrients that the grains use. This is why even the Romans would rotate these crops, and why natives in Central America grew beans and corn right together, training the bean vines right onto the corn stalks;
• On the table. The protein in each is incomplete but together they form a complete protein:

” Legumes are rich in proteins. However, these proteins lack some essential amino acids, such as methionine and cysteine. Legumes are instead rich in lysine. On the other hand, cereals are rich in methionine and cysteine and pour in lysine. Therefore, cereals and legumes, when consumed together, provide proteins with high biological quality, which are similar to animal proteins.  Legumes are on average more nutritious than grains, with almost twice the protein, and more iron and B vitamins.” ^[4]University of Turin. Understanding Mediterranean and Okinawa Diets. Step 2.8: Legumes and other plant protein sources. Accessed February 2022 at https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/okinawa-diet/3/steps/1373383

The flatulence problem with legumes has been known for ever. Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome wrote about it (Saint Jerome forbade his nuns to eat beans on account of it).

History Notes

Legumes were quite important in Rome, and not looked down on, as they are today. Four prominent Roman families derived their names from Legumes:

Cicero — Chickpea (an ancestor had a growth on his face that resembled a chickpea)
Lentulus — Lentil
Fabius — Faba bean
Piso — pea

Growing legumes was very important for farmers in the days before commercial fertilizers, because legumes would put nitrogen into the soil.

Language Notes

Legume word comes from the Latin verb legere, meaning “to gather”.

The bean family of legumes is called phaseolus; the lentil family is called lens; the peanut family is called arachis.

Related entries

• Beans
• Lentils
• Peas