*4.2. Germination and Lyophilization of Legume Seeds*

Before the germination, the legumes were soaked for 6 h (small grains: lentils, soybeans) or for 12 h (larger grains: beans, lupine, chickpeas), in pure water, with a temperature of 20 ◦C in order to activate the germination process. The germination of the grains was carried out using filter paper. The germination temperature was 25 ◦C. The humidity of 80% was kept constant throughout the entire germination period. The germination process was carried out exclusively in dark conditions. The maximum germination time was 4 days. At the end of the germination period, this process was stopped. For this, the freeze-drying process was used because, compared to other moisture removal alternatives, this process has the least influence on the nutritional profile of germinated seed samples [87,88]. For this purpose, an Alpha 1–4 LSC plus lyophilizer was used for lyophilization. Lyophilization was performed at −50 ◦C, for 72 h, at a pressure of 4.2 Pa.

## *4.3. Appearance of Legume Seeds Analysis*

In order to highlight the physical and physiological changes that occur in the legume profiles during the germination period, the Motic SMZ-140 stereo microscope device was used, which allowed the capturing of images with legumes in the dorsal, frontal, and ventral positions and in the section of them. For this, the stereo microscope was equipped with a Moticam 10× camera. The use of the stereo microscope made it possible to highlight the changes in legume profiles: increase in volume due to water absorption, degradation of the outer layer, the appearance of the radicle, root and plumule depending on legume type. The determinations were made taking into account the procedure described in the literature [89,90]. All these transformations were correlated with the determination of the size of the constituent parts of the germs (radicle and plumule), using a Modelcraft Vernier Caliper of 125 mm. Additionally, the caliper was used taking into account the procedure described in the literature [91].

## *4.4. SEM Analysis*

The study of the microstructures of the vegetable samples was performed using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) Vega II LMU-Tescan (Brno-Kohoutovice, Czech Republic) equipped with a SE detector, which works only in a high vacuum environment, and a BSE detector, a scintillation detector that works in high and low vacuum environments. The Vega II LMU-Tescan microscope, used in this research, allows the study of samples in a pressure range between 10–2 Pa and 2 kPa. The vegetable samples were sectioned longitudinally in order to obtain a flat surface, were placed on an aluminum sample holder using a double-sided adhesive tape and were studied at an acceleration potential of 30 kV.
