Cereals and legumes are the basis of the Mediterranean Diet. They are two fundamental foods in our diet and very versatile in the kitchen. Each one has a multitude of properties and benefits for our organism, but together, Legumes and Cereals create the perfect combination to obtain very nutritious and healthy dishes. In addition to providing us with a multitude of options to take advantage of leftovers from other recipes.
Therefore, today we are going to see why it is a good idea to combine these two foods in the same dish, and some ideas to do so.
Its great quality, without a doubt, is the important contribution of high value proteins. Something that only they get together. Therefore we encourage you to take advantage of the leftovers of your legume stews creating new dishes just by adding some cereal. Let’s see what properties this spectacular combination has.
But first, what are cereals and legumes?
We begin with legumes, a food with a multitude of properties and benefits. We know legumes as edible seeds. They are harvested as dry grains; and, in addition, their production also brings enormous benefits to the environment. For example, they help to reduce greenhouse gases and improve soil quality.
They are foods rich in carbohydrates, which provide us with the necessary energy that our body needs to function properly. They also provide us with proteins, vitamins and minerals. Some examples of legumes are chickpeas, lentils, white and green beans, broad beans and peas.
On the other hand, cereals are the edible grain of some herbs. They are rich in proteins, vitamins A and B, amino acids and other minerals. Among the most common cereals are rice, wheat, corn, oats and barley.
But why combine legumes and cereals?
Although all foods have their different vitamin contributions, there are combinations that increase these properties. Because the contributions of some, favor the absorption of the contributions of others. And this is exactly what happens when we combine legumes and cereals. For example, legumes are rich in lysine, but have a lower contribution of methionine. However, the opposite is true for cereals. By combining both, we improve their nutritional contribution and get a much higher quality protein.
In addition to the improvement of nutrients that gives us the combination of legumes and cereals, it also allows us to create perfect dishes to not throw away any food. Something fundamental and that we take less and less into account. Surely many of you have seen your grandmothers take advantage of the leftovers of any vegetable stew by adding a handful of rice to increase the amount and have food for the next day.
How to combine these two foods
We have a multitude of options to create very nutritious dishes and take advantage of the benefits of combining legumes and cereals. For example, rice is very versatile and, as we were saying, it is now great to take advantage of leftovers from any legume stew.
Other options for combining legumes and cereals
Chickpeas with rice. This combination is not only delicious but also very healthy. We can add rice for example in our chickpeas with squid; or even take advantage of the chickpeas from the stew to make a complete chickpea and rice soup.
We can even combine both ingredients to make great salads, for example, lentils with pasta. A spectacular combination to make perfect cold salads for summer, like this lentil and pasta salad.
Another option to combine these two ingredients is to prepare beans with quinoa, a cereal rich in essential amino acids, which will help us to complete the proteins of beans. A great recipe to try this healthy combination is a sauté of beans with quinoa.
As you can see, there are many benefits of combining foods correctly. In addition, taking into account these details will help us to maintain a more balanced and varied diet. If you have found it useful, remember to leave us your comments, advice, opinions… We love to read you!
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