Eat Pulses, Support Local, Save $

I have been developing a love affair with pulses over the past few years, and I hope I might convince you to get on board with me!

What’s a pulse? Essentially, dried (not fresh picked) legumes – i.e. lentils, peas, beans, and chickpeas. The majority of Canada’s (and potentially the world’s) pulses are grown right here in lil ol Saskatchewan. Despite the fact that we are a Pulse Powerhouse, these are food items you may have considered all your life to be very boring, tasteless, and hard to cook (if you are a lifelong Saskie of mainly Eastern European descent; if not, please commence eyerolling). Here’s the thing though – they are not hard to cook, easy to learn how to season so they actually taste good, and extremely nutritious and CHEAP AF.

Ever since I was a kid I have been a frugal person. I don’t know where this trait came from, but I was one of those weird children who rarely spent their birthday money, opting instead to sock it away in a Cheez Whiz jar(!!) until I finally got a bank account at the age of 18(!!). This has more or less carried into adulthood; though my money goes directly into a zero-fee bank account now instead of a Cheez Whiz jar I still seem to be forever in a contest with myself to be as frugal as possible. I find that if I can make a dish where pulses are the main protein, I can often keep the entire meal (3-6 adult-sized servings) under $5.

Pulses are a great way to eat frugally and nutritiously; honestly it almost feels like I’m cheating somehow. A couple Christmases ago we were gifted an Instant Pot* which transformed our ability to use pulses, as it no longer took an hour to cook the beans BEFORE adding them to the chili, or confined us to volume measures of “one can”.  

(Most of my pulse and whole grain collection)

So listen – I know that for most Saskies of Eastern European farmer descent, experiences with pulses have probably been mainly the following:

• A lentil side dish someone tried to make because they heard they were a “superfood” that consisted of al dente green lentils boiled in chicken broth
• An otherwise JUST FINE salad that someone ruined by throwing in a can of soggy chickpeas "to be healthy"
• Undersalted split pea soup
• Chili

This is not a particularly encouraging list of ways to enjoy pulses (other than the chili). In fact, 3/4 to me sound downright disgusting and I would not recommend them. This is generally what happens if you try to cook pulses as if they are boiled potatoes (FOR THE RECORD as the granddaughter of a Slovakian farmer I personally have nothing against boiled potatoes). To really transform pulses it is best to look to the wisdom of the rest of the world, and perhaps adopt some not-so-Ukrainian flavours into one’s cooking.

Here are some of the preparations that have helped me get Hooked on Pulses:

• Homemade falafel – this is scarcely harder than making burgers, other than the mental prep of remembering to soak the chickpeas overnight. DO NOT use canned chickpeas for this. I don’t care what the food blogger tells you in their post sponsored by Eden Brand Chickpeas, canned chickpea falafel is terrible. I love Ottolenghi's recipe and unlike this blogger, have no trouble pan-frying them (perhaps my cast-iron skillet is the secret)
• Adding red lentils to pureed vegetable soups to add bulk/protein! This is a great trick that I invented and even generally acceptable to sensitive-palated Mennonites and/or children
• If you are going to use canned chickpeas, there are exactly two acceptable preparations – pureeing them into hummus, or crisping them like this
• Soup, soup, and more soup – there are so many great pulse-focused soup recipes out there! This Italian bean soup has become my go-to over the past few years, I also love this Quebec-style split pea soup recipe, and the Whitewater Cooks lemony lentil soup recipe is so flavourful
• Black bean Tex Mex taco filling – either add black beans to taco meat to stretch the amount, or just season black beans like you would taco meat. I don’t make Tex Mex style tacos anymore at all, instead opt for a shredded cabbage base and pile on the fillings (cheese, beans, sour cream, salsa) to make a very filling salad
• DAL – okay, I realize using the term “dal” to mean Indian-style preparations of pulses is not linguistically correct (as I understand, dal just means pulses) but this is how I’ll refer to it. I am obsessed with the cookbook The New Indian Slow Cooker by Neela Paniz. I’ve never had a cookbook I’ve used even half as much, and all the dal recipes have been life-changing. I would buy this book for the green mung bean recipe alone.  It is sort of astonishing how just adding like four extra spices or aromatics to some mung beans or lentils completely transform them (the non Ukrainians are like, DUH). If you aren’t convinced, next time you eat at an Indian restaurant trade the butter chicken for something off the dal section of the menu and see what I mean.

I think that’s enough for now. The summary, the TL;DR: pulses need not be inherently flavourless, or difficult to incorporate into your meal rotation. They can help you save money and eat healthier, all while supporting Saskatchewan farmers. Eating more of them is win-win all around!

*While you don’t NEED a pressure cooker to enjoy pulses regularly, for the way I cook it’s a pretty essential appliance. It is cheaper and more conducive to versatility to buy dried pulses rather than canned.