The Big and Great Legume

soy milk	Soy

The Chinese first cultivated the soybean 3,000 years ago. It took them nearly 1,000 years to develop its full nutritional potential. Mung beans, azuki beans, broad beans, peas; the Chinese make liberal use of all of them, but none of these legumes compare in significance to the one they call the Big or Great Legume, the one we know as the soybean. In fact the soybean is so central to the Chinese food system that it is often simply referred to as ‘The Legume,’ its full name often only deemed necessary when distinguishing it from other types. So when Chinese buy tofu they need only ask for doufu. Rotten Legume, LIkewise soy milk is rendered dou jiang, Legume Paste.

The soybean differs from its legume cousins in its lower level of carbohydrate, but much higher tallies of protein and oil. After rice and wheat, the great modern-day staples of China, the soybean sits firmly on the third rung on the Chinese food hierarchy. From a dietary point of view soy food offers a ton of protein and calcium to a population that gets precious little of either from meat or dairy products. Though it is not usually consumed in large quantities, except by vegetarians, soy in one form or another is eaten daily by just about everybody. Soy sauce alone, with its role as the key food flavouring, would be enough to guarantee that much.