Delicious, nutritious, cheap as chips and incredibly versatile ... we should all have our cupboards full of pulses. Whether you like to use the - some may say superior - lentil de Puy or prefer to call your chickpeas "garbanzo", you would be hard pressed to find a more protein rich and sustaining food source.
Boiled, slowly baked with tasty stock or mashed into vegetable fritters, pulses are perfectly practical. And at this time of the year, curling up in front of the fire with a bowl full of comforting and fragrant dhal can be a simple pleasure.
Pulses are often eaten fresh in the form of green beans and peas, but today the spotlight is on the dried variety. A staple of many cultures for thousands of years, lentils, split peas and chickpeas provide an ideal foundation on which many flavoursome ingredients can be added to build nourishing goodness.
Today we have nutty baked lentils with lemongrass paired with sesame crusted chicken thighs. The lentils do take some time cooked this way so throw them in the oven and forget about them for at least one and a half hours.
Dhal with coconut cream, chilli, carrot and cashews is spicy and scrumptious - perfect in place of soup for a more filling alternative.
Chickpeas, either soaked overnight then boiled or ready cooked in a tin, make great fritters paired with garlic and sweet roasted pumpkin. Plenty of yoghurt and fresh mint finishes them off nicely.
Chef's tip
Whole lentils and dried peas are better suited to long cooking and are good to use in salads where they hold their shape whereas the split alternative breaks down much faster - better for dhal and soups. Also, remember to sift through the pulses to remove any small stones.
On the pulse (+recipes)
Photo / Babiche Martens
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