The Green Museum celebrates Legume Day

Danes eat too few legumes. On Legume Day, Friday, February 10, chefs and food professionals will show the way to tasty lentils, beans and peas.

Danes eat an average of 2g of legumes per day, and that is a far cry from the 100g that the official dietary guidelines recommend we eat.

Pulses Day was launched by the UN, and through the Danish Council for Healthy Food, The Green Museum has joined forces with chefs and food professionals across the country to raise awareness of the benefits of pulses and provide inspiration for a wide range of dishes that go beyond the most well-known; hummus, falafel, daal – and yellow peas.

The museum's food historian, Bettina Buhl, is a very active participant in connection with Legume Day, and in this connection she has made a video for the Danish Council for Healthy Food, in which she talks about legumes from a food history perspective.

It can be seen here.

On that page you can also find a lot of good recipes and good tips and tricks on how to get more legumes into your everyday diet.

On behalf of the Green Museum, Bettina Buhl has contributed both knowledge and has been in old Danish cookbooks and found historical recipes. One of these is pea mash with fried pork and currants from 1766.

'When The Green Museum participates in the work of promoting the use of legumes, it is because in the past, from ancient times until the arrival of potatoes in Danish kitchens in the latter half of the 19th century, we have used dried peas in daily meals, both as a main meal and in various types of baked goods. The dried peas fed the Danish population at a time of year when it was not possible to get fresh supplies in the pantry,' says Bettina Buhl, who continues.

'And most recently in the First and Second World Wars, we creatively used the pea as a necessary measure in a time of rationing and shortages of certain raw materials. And we can learn a great deal from the diverse and creative uses of dried peas in the past.'

What are legumes?

Chickpeas, kidney beans, split peas, white beans, butterbeans, red lentils and Puy lentils are all legumes, and the list goes on. Fortunately, it is easy to make these beautiful legumes taste like a dream. From a consumption analysis of legumes from Aarhus University, we know that Danes will be motivated by knowledge and recipes on how to use legumes and knowledge about health and nutritional benefits.

Legumes are a good choice when you want to serve healthy food, and they are good sources of protein and other nutrients. At the same time, legumes are among the foods with the lowest climate footprint. Legumes can be grown in Denmark. Today, there are several farmers who grow lentils, chickpeas and broad beans, and you can now buy the Danish-produced legumes in various supermarkets.

Find recipes with legumes here.

The following Council members are involved in the Legume Day project:

• FOA
• The Danish Food Safety Authority
• Culinary Institute by Vejle Business (Vejle Municipality)
• Danish Horticulture
• DI Food
• The Green Museum
• Municipality of Copenhagen
• Agriculture & Food
• Odense Municipality