A Feast to Celebrate the International Year of Pulses

For our own pulse feast we asked everyone in our small team to bring in a dish or two, cleared out a space in the Bean Store, rustled up a trestle table and a random assortment of plates and cutlery. 

For any sceptics out there who think there are only a handful of things you can do with a bean or a pea this lunch was testimony to their versatility. We’d not planned who would bring what and yet we created a table laden with a dozen very different dishes.

We're pleased to share some of the recipes with you on our recipe pages.

We had delicious patties made with carlin peas, aubergine and our British quinoa; we enoyed a braised fennel and whole fava beans, dish; and there were two very different types of dhal. Both the dhal dishes were made with yellow split peas, one to a traditional Madhdur Jaffrey Indian recipe with lots of turmeric, cumin and mustard seeds, the other an Ethiopian recipe where the bright yellow peas contrasted with dark green spinach and zingy cardamon.

William’s wife, Sue Hudson, runs Bread Workshops, teaching the craft of bread making, and brought along some delicious bread; a traditional focaccia and a loaf made with mix of wheat flour and naked barley flour.

Our illustrator, Carol Kearns, creator of all the wonderful pictures and lettering on our packaging, brought a gluten-free lemon and ginger cake made with our fava bean flour, which we savoured over coffee before getting back to work for the afternoon!

The pulse feast was a great opportunity to bring the whole team together and dine on our favourite peas and beans. We’re planning more pulse feasts throughout 2016 for others to join, so do keep your eyes peeled.

You can find recipes for these dishes on our recipe pages:

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