A bean is the seed of several plants in the family Fabaceae, which are used as vegetables for human or animal food. They can be cooked in many different ways, including boiling, frying, and baking, and are used in many traditional dishes throughout the world.
Edamame is a Japanese dish prepared with immature soybeans in the pod. The pods are boiled or steamed and may be served with salt or other condiments. The dish has become popular across the world because it is rich in vitamins, dietary fiber, and isoflavones. When the beans are outside the pod, the term mukimame is also sometimes used in Japanese. Edamame are a common side dish in Japanese cuisine and as an appetizer to alcoholic beverages such as beer or shōchū. As an ingredient Edamame are found in both sweet and savory dishes such as takikomi gohan, tempura, and zunda-mochi.
Legumes are plants in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption; for livestock forage and silage; and as soil-enhancing green manure. Well-known legumes include beans, chickpeas, peanuts, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, tamarind, alfalfa, and clover. Legumes produce a botanically unique type of fruit – a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces on two sides.
Phaseolus acutifolius, also known as the tepary bean, is a legume native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from Arizona through Mexico to Costa Rica. The water requirements are low. The crop will grow in areas where annual rainfall is less than 400 mm (16 in).
The mung bean, alternatively known as green gram, mungo bean or mongo bean, is a plant species in the legume family. The mung bean is mainly cultivated in East, Southeast and South Asia. It is used as an ingredient in both savoury and sweet dishes.
Vigna is a genus of plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, with a pantropical distribution. It includes some well-known cultivated species, including many types of beans. Some are former members of the genus Phaseolus. According to Hortus Third, Vigna differs from Phaseolus in biochemistry and pollen structure, and in details of the style and stipules.
Phaseolus coccineus, known as runner bean, scarlet runner bean, or multiflora bean, is a plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. Another common name is butter bean, which, however, can also refer to the lima bean, a different species.
A lima bean, also commonly known as butter bean, sieva bean, double bean or Madagascar bean, is a legume grown for its edible seeds or beans.
Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is a herbaceous annual plant grown worldwide for its edible dry seeds or green, unripe pods. Its leaf is also occasionally used as a vegetable and the straw as fodder. Its botanical classification, along with other Phaseolus species, is as a member of the legume family Fabaceae. Like most members of this family, common beans acquire the nitrogen they require through an association with rhizobia, which are nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
Vigna umbellata, previously Phaseolus calcaratus, is a warm-season annual vine legume with yellow flowers and small edible beans. It is commonly called ricebean or rice bean. To date, it is little known, little researched and little exploited. It is regarded as a minor food and fodder crop and is often grown as intercrop or mixed crop with maize, sorghum or cowpea, as well as a sole crop in the uplands, on a very limited area. Like the other Asiatic Vigna species, ricebean is a fairly short-lived warm-season annual. Grown mainly as a dried pulse, it is also important as a fodder, a green manure and a vegetable. Ricebean is most widely grown as an intercrop, particularly of maize, throughout Indo-China and extending into southern China, India, Nepal and Bangladesh. In the past it was widely grown as lowland crop on residual soil water after the harvest of long-season rice, but it has been displaced to a great extent where shorter duration rice varieties are grown. Ricebean grows well on a range of soils. It establishes rapidly and has the potential to produce large amounts of nutritious animal fodder and high quality grain.
The asparagus bean is a legume cultivated for its edible green pods containing immature seeds, like the green bean. It is also known as: yardlong bean, pea bean, long-podded cowpea, Chinese long bean, snake bean, bodi, and bora. Despite the common name of "yardlong", the pods are actually only about half a yard long, so the subspecies name sesquipedalis is a more accurate approximation.
Green beans are young, unripe fruits of various cultivars of the common bean, although immature or young pods of the runner bean, yardlong bean, and hyacinth bean are used in a similar way. Green beans are known by many common names, including French beans, string beans, and snap beans or simply "snaps." In the Philippines, they are also known as "Baguio beans" or "habichuelas" to distinguish them from yardlong beans.
The black turtle bean is a small, shiny variety of the common bean especially popular in Latin American cuisine, though it can also be found in the Cajun and Creole cuisines of south Louisiana. Like all varieties of the common bean, it is native to the Americas, but has been introduced around the world. It is also used in Indian cuisine, Tamil cuisine, where it is known as karuppu kaaramani and in Maharashtrian cuisine, where it is known as Kala Ghevada. It is widely used in Uttrakhand India also known as "Bhatt". It is a rich source of iron and protein. The black turtle bean is often simply called the black bean, although this terminology can cause confusion with at least three other types of black beans.
Cellophane noodles, or fensi, sometimes called glass noodles, are a type of transparent noodle made from starch and water. A stabilizer such as chitosan may also be used.
The navy bean, haricot bean, pearl haricot bean, Boston bean, white pea bean, or pea bean is a variety of the common bean native to the Americas, where it was first domesticated. It is a dry white bean that is smaller than many other types of white beans, and has an oval, slightly flattened shape. It features in such dishes as baked beans, various soups such as Senate bean soup, and bean pies.
Parkia speciosa, the bitter bean, twisted cluster bean, sator bean, stink bean, or petai is a plant of the genus Parkia in the family Fabaceae. It bears long, flat edible beans with bright green seeds the size and shape of plump almonds which have a rather peculiar smell, similar to, but stronger than that of the shiitake mushroom, due to sulfur-containing compounds also found in shiitake, truffles and cabbage.
The borlotti bean is a variety of common bean first bred in Colombia as the cargamanto. It is also known as the cranberry bean, Roman bean, romano bean, saluggia bean, gadhra bean orrosecoco bean. The bean is a medium to large tan or hazelnut-colored bean splashed or streaked with red, magenta or black.
Pea beans are several types of common food plants producing beans:
Strophostyles helvola, commonly called amberique-bean, annual sand bean, or trailing fuzzybean is a species of flowering plant in the legume family. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern United States.
Phaseolus polystachios, also known as the thicket bean or wild kidney bean, is a perennial, herbaceous vine that is native to North America. It is unique among the Phaseolus in that its native range extends across the eastern temperate United States to southeast Canada, while most Phaseolus are tropical or subtropical. It is the namesake for the Polystachios group clade, which is the most species-rich within Phaseolus. In spite of its common name, it is more closely related to the lima bean, and it holds potential as a crop wild relative due to its resistance to white mold.
