For many generations, both ordinary and imaginative cooks have created tasty dishes featuring chickpeas, faba beans and lentils. An excellent source of protein and other nutrients, these versatile legumes are staple foods of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

The recipes in this book were collected by Lorna Hawtin from friends of many cultures. The idea originated from the need for information on the uses of these food legumes to enable breeders to know what characteristics to look for. The earliest recipes were contributed by trainees at the First Legume Training Course held in Lebanon in 1974. They were published in three separate volumes (Chickpea, Faba Bean and Lentil Cookbooks) by ICARDA in 1979 and 1981, but a continuing demand for the books soon exhausted the supply. For the convenience of the cook, the recipes for all three legumes have been edited and presented together in this pubtication by Linda Sears of the Communication, Documentation and Information Services department at ICARDA. All the recipes have been carefully checked and metric equivalents have been added where needed. The Introduction, containing historical facts and general information about each legume, was written by Lorna Hawtin.