EXTENSION COURSE IN VEGETABLE FOODS. 43 
for both soaking and cooking legumes, and this naturally distilled 
water is the very best for the purpose. 
Since the proper preparation of legumes is a long process, it is well 
to cook enough to serve in two or more fashions. Thus the baked 
beans are often reheated or served cold and the final remainder used 
in soup. So, too, the dry Limas or red kidney or any variety may 
first appear as plain buttered beans, a further portion, prepared at 
the same time, be reserved for salad or croquettes, and any still re- 
maining be utilized in making a soup. 
The addition of potato or onion to the pot of beans before balan 1s 
doubtless an instinctive attempt to supply flavor lacking in the bean. 
Lentils are not as generally used in this country as they deserve 
to be. They may be found in the markets of foreign sections of large 
cities and in the larger groceries. The price is about the same as 
that of dry beans and peas. There are many colors, as with beans, 
and Esau’s pottage is supposed to have been made from red lentils. 
Sometimes they are served like peas or with a seasoning of fried 
onion. Sometimes soup or purée is made from them. 
Cowpeas are cooked much like navy beans. Dried peas are most 
commonly used for making soup or for purées or pea porridge. 
The Mexican frijole is another type of bean the use of which might 
well be extended. It is boiled, often highly seasoned with Chile 
pepper, and cooked in other ways. 
Chick-peas are used extensively in southern Europe and may be 
found in the foreign markets in the large cities of this country. 
These are cooked in different ways, much as navy beans are. 
The people of the Far East have cultivated many varieties of 
legumes that are not so well known elsewhere as food for man, though 
much use is made of them in the United States, particularly as forage 
crops. The soy bean from China and Japan differs from other 
common varieties in containing considerable fat; it is used in making 
special types of so-called bean cheese or bean curd and for sauces 
of agreeable flavor. Ground into flour, soy beans can be used for 
making muffins and for similar purposes. The adsuki bean from the 
same countries is very prolific, and may be grown in this country. 
Its seeds are smaller even than the pea bean, but when prepared in 
the same fashion seem not unlike other legumes. These beans are 
often combined with rice by the Japanese. 
Flour made from beans and peas may be used in making soups, 
but the results are not always as palatable as soups properly made 
from the seeds themselves. 
BEANS AND OTHER LEGUMES USED GREEN. 
The use of fresh young peas, beans, and cowpeas is very common, 
the seeds being sometimes served alone, and often with the succulent 
