Adding more legumes to your diet

Consider these ways to incorporate more legumes into your meals and snacks:

• Prepare soups, stews and casseroles that feature legumes.
• Use pureed beans as the basis for dips and spreads.
• Add chickpeas or black beans to salads. If you typically buy a salad at work and no beans are available, bring your own from home in a small container.
• Add cooked beans to meatballs or burgers.
• Snack on a handful of soy nuts rather than on chips or crackers.

If you can't find a particular type of legume in the store, you can easily substitute one type of legume for another. For example, pinto and black beans are good substitutes for red kidney beans. And cannellini, lima beans and navy beans are easily interchangeable.

Experiment with what types of legumes you like best in your recipes to make your meals and snacks both nutritious and interesting.