Legumes

Most of the legumes we eat today were eaten in ancient Greece. Chick-peas were roasted and eaten as tragemata, or snacks, much as we eat our stragalia (roasted chick-peas) today. Just as Americans buy popcorn at the movies, Greeks buy a small paper bag full of stragalia or passatempo (salted roasted pumpkin seeds). Athenaeus liked lentils and mentioned them many times in his writings: “In the winter season, a bulb [wild hyacinth] and lentil soup is like ambrosia in the chilly cold.” We still enjoy lentil soup on cold winter days.