Buying & Storing Legumes

Many of the common varieties of legumes (like chickpeas, kidney beans, brown lentils, and yellow split peas) are a cinch to locate in the rice and beans aisle of your neighborhood supermarket. For some of the not-so-common ones (like black lentils, pigeon peas, and cowpeas), seek out an Indian grocery store in your city (or in a larger city nearby), a mail-order or website source, or a natural foods store. I have been pleasantly surprised to find the unusual ones in a “regular” supermarket in my city; this is the case especially in areas that have a large Indian enclave.