Vegetables for vitality: varieties of beans

The beans that we eat fresh are not different species from the dried beans that are cooked for hours to make chili con carne and Boston baked beans. Here is a guide to some of the edible pods and beans:

• Borlotti or pinto beans are grown not for the pods but for the mature beans inside the pods.
• The beans are also sold in dried form.

• These mild-tasting green beans are very long.
• They are related to black-eyed peas, but taste like other green beans when cooked.
• Often cut up for use in stir-fries, they are a staple of Chinese cooking.
• Although the beans can grow to as long as 75 centimetres (30 inches), they are at their best when they are half that size.

• Green beans range in length from about 10 to 20 centimetres (four to eight inches).
• Green beans are picked young when their carbohydrate content is present in the form of sugar. Hence, they are the sweetest of all the types.

• Recognizable for their broad flat shape and deep green colour, these beans, also called "romano beans," are a specialty of Italian cuisine.

• These exotic-looking beans with their deeply coloured pods are the smaller cousins of yellow wax beans.
• They lose their hue during cooking, turning green and tasting like other wax beans.

• Shell beans — lima, fava and soybeans (or edamame) — fall nutritionally between fresh green beans and dried beans that have developed high-protein and carbohydrate and low-vitamin counts.
• Used much like dried beans (except they don't need to be soaked), shell beans have protein, potassium, iron and vitamin C in different degrees.
• Lima beans, which indeed do come from Lima, Peru, are the most popular shell bean in North America. They provide high amounts of iron and potassium.
• Fava beans, or broad beans, are similar to lima beans, just a little larger and richer in folate and vitamin C. Both are used cold in salads and hot as a side dish alone or in soups or stews.
• Soybeans are a staple of Asian food markets. Fresh soybeans are unique among beans in having high amounts of complete protein. They also contain unsaturated fat. Soybeans have a mild flavour. Keep refrigerated and shell them right before you cook them.

• Colour and nutrition separate wax beans from green beans, which they resemble in both size and flavour.
• Green beans, however, have eight times as much beta-carotene as the paler yellow beans.

• String beans don't have strings any more.
• The fibres that were attached to either side of the pod were bred out almost 100 years ago, but the name "string bean" is still as common for this vegetable as snap bean or green bean.

Fresh beans are a healthy and delicious addition to any meals. Try cooking them into your pasta sauces or making homemade chili, or even just having them beside your regular protein.

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