On Food and Cooking

Legumes The legumes (from the Latin legere,
“to gather”) are plants in the bean family, the
Leguminosae, whose members bear pods that
contain several seeds. The term legume is also
used to name their seeds. Many legumes are
vines that climb on tall grasses and other
plants to reach full sunlight, and like the
grasses grow, go to seed, and die over a few
months. The legumes produce seeds that are
especially rich in protein, thanks to their
symbiosis with bacteria that live in their roots
and feed them with nitrogen from the air. The
same symbiosis means that legumes actually
enrich the soil they grow in with nitrogen
compounds, which is why various legumes
have been grown as rotation crops at least
since Roman times. Their relatively large
seeds are attractive to animals, and it’s
thought that much of the remarkable diversity
in the beans and peas is the result of survival
pressures exerted by insects. Legume seeds
are camouflaged by colored coats, and