Add Legumes To Your Diet

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2009-02-16 Word Count: 312 Category: Nutrition

Do you incorporate legumes into your everyday diet? Many people overlook them, although they are extremely healthy and offer plenty of benefits. Legumes are a type of vegetable. They’re low in fat and have no cholesterol. Legumes are a great source of potassium, iron, folate, magnesium, and protein. In fact, they’re a healthy alternative to meat since meats usually have much more cholesterol and fat.

There are many ways that you can start putting legumes into your diet, because they’re a versatile class of vegetables. You can use them to create amazing casseroles and soup dishes; this is perfect for the chilly winter months. Instead of serving store-bought dips at your next dinner party that don’t offer any health benefits, try out a new recipe for dips featuring your favorite legume. They’re also wonderful additions to any salad.

There are many types of legumes, meaning that you could eat them everyday without getting bored with them. If you need some ideas as to some of the different legumes available, here is a sampling of what you can usually find in your grocery store:

* Chickpeas - These are sometimes referred to as Garbanzos, garbanzo beans, or ceci beans.
* Red kidney beans
* Adzuki beans - These are sometimes called field peas, azuki beans, red oriental beans, or asuki beans.
* Black-eyed peas - These are sometimes called cherry beans, frijoles, Indian peas, or cowpeas.
* Black beans - These are sometimes called black Spanish beans or Venezuelan beans.

Some of the larger ones, like the chickpeas, need to be soaked in water before actually cooking them. This is to rehydrate them and prepare them for even cooking. To reduce the intestinal gas that is often produced after eating legumes, you should discard the water they soaked in before cooking them and change the water out a few times during the cooking process.

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