Nursery World - A Unique Child: Nutrition

From chickpeas to beans and lentils, pulses are an exciting
addition to the menu, says Mary Llewellin.

Pulses are the unsung heroes in our diets, stalwarts of the store cupboard and hard-hitters in the nutritional stakes. They provide protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre, and even count as one of your five a day. But does your pulse race at the thought of them?

Pulses have been cultivated for thousands of years, and there is hardly a culture in the world that doesn't use them in its cooking. In India, sweetly spicy dhals made from lentils or split peas are a delicious and economical mainstay of the diet. Chickpeas feature frequently, whether whole or ground down to flour, and used in a multitude of ways from thickening yoghurt sauces to baking wickedly syrupy, colourful sweets. Chickpeas are also a main ingredient in the Middle East and North Africa where they are used in falafels, houmous and fragrant, fruity tagines.

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