Pulse Party 🎉

Try Crispy Lentil Baked Eggs

Image from Hodmedods UK

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Have you heard of the word pulse before? You might first think of heartbeat, but it’s related to food and agriculture. If you read this newsletter, you’ve undoubtedly heard of beans and lentils, but did you know they belong to a category called pulses?

You will primarily hear academics and scientists using the word pulse, while chefs and home cooks usually don’t. For example, 2016 was deemed the Year of the Pulse by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an arm of the UN.

So, what is a pulse, and how does it compare to a legume?! I am writing this mostly because I struggle to keep it straight, but with the help of some YouTube videos, I think I finally have it down.

I am a big fan of Chelsea Didinger, who has a site called A Legume a Day. She did her PhD on increasing consumer bean consumption to advance public and environmental health and is a very trusted voice in the field. Her video on pulses helped break it down for me.

What to Know:

Image from Chelsea Didinger of A Legume a Day

Legumes are plants in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seeds of such plants.

There are two types of legumes - Oilseed and Non-oilseed. Peanuts and soybeans are Oilseed legumes - as they both can create oil.

Non-oil-seed legumes are plants you can eat, like string beans and snap peas, while pulses are the dried seeds of Non-Oil-Seed legumes! Easier known as the dried seeds of beans and peas.

So, what counts as a pulse? They are broken down into five categories:

• Beans

• Peas

• Cowpeas (black-eyed peas)

• Chickpeas

• Lentils.

All of these are seeds of different plants, and there are hundreds of varieties within the category, but using the word pulse can help define this powerful food group.

So, as much as I am a passionate bean supporter, I aim to spread the love among the various pulses and bring that word to the forefront!

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Pulse Party Recipe 🎉

Crispy Lentil Baked Eggs

If you’re not a huge fan of lentils, try them crispy.

As I shared last week, brown lentils can be made like pasta by boiling them in salty water and draining them. I made lentils for another dish and used my leftovers for this quick lunch creation.

INGREDIENTS

• Eggs

• Cooked brown lentils

• Cherry Tomatoes

• Any cooked veg (I had leftover cooked Brussel sprouts and spinach)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350

2. Find a shallow baking dish and add your cooked veg, lentils and cherry tomatoes

3. Make two small divets and crack two eggs

4. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper and chile flakes

5. Bake until the eggs are how you like them

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Gems of the Week 💎

• Learning about Gen Z and food trends with

  Casey Lewis
  of After School

• Took a Vintage Cake Decorating Class with Saint Street Cakes at RecCreate Collective. Check them out for all sorts of creative workshops!

• I got to meet

  Hetty Lui McKinnon
  this week! She is one of my favorite cookbook authors and recipe developers, partly because she mainly focuses on vegetables. After an awesome event at Farm to People, we briefly chatted about the American obsession with animal protein and the desire for recipes to take 15 minutes when cooking can often be relaxing and enjoyable.

• This county’s newest food critics: Its students

• This is TASTE interview with Dan Barber