Packed with nutrition, nearly fat free and inexpensive, beans and other legumes hold an important place in many world cuisines. Because of their mild flavor, they invite the addition of hearty spices and other seasonings.
Americans ate 7.8 pounds of beans in 2000—an increase of more than one-third compared to the amount they consumed 15 years earlier. Demographic changes account partly for the increase: the population is now 11 percent Hispanic and they eat 33 percent of the beans. A trend paralleling the increase in bean consumption is the remarkable popularity of “hot” seasonings, a category that includes ground black pepper, red pepper and ginger. It now accounts for nearly half of spice sales in the U.S., according to the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA).