Beans and pulses have too many healthy benefits to be left out of our diets, writes Haydn Shaughnessy
Most people could do with more pulses in their diets but fear the consequences. Yes, flatulence, but hey girls, you can join in too.
Pulses and beans contain saponins and saponins are thought to be useful in managing cholesterol. The foamy scum that develops when you heat beans indicates the presence of saponins, which are also found in olives and grape skins.
Saponins are being investigated for their anti-cancer properties, which is the kind of claim these days that leads to the big yawn. Another anti-cancer ingredient! A quick sconce at the US National Cancer Institute's website, www.cancer.gov, confirms, indeed, that they too believe in saponins.
The isoflavones in pulses are a weak form of oestrogen and are thought to compete with the body's own oestrogen at oestrogen receptor sites, in effect blocking the body's stronger version and its potential downside when over-expressed, ie tumour growth.
This is one of those extraordinary examples where the weak triumph over the strong, a moral for people who believe in the law of the jungle.
Scientists speculate that isoflavones could be effective against breast and prostate cancers.
And beans help diabetes suffers to lower blood sugar levels.
Is there a way to prevent or limit the embarrassing side effects? The cynic (or comic) might say counselling. Learning to live with the ruminant odour without blushing is a test of character.
A pulse is the seed inside a legume, and a legume is the pod you see, for example on a carob tree or pea plant; there are thought to be over 13,000 species. Haricot beans - used to make baked beans - contain 21.4g protein, 1.6g fat, 45.5g carbohydrate, 25.4g fibre, 6.7mg iron and 180mg calcium per 100g dried beans. That's not an unusual profile.
If your culinary voyage is anything like mine you will have gone through a period when inadvertently you excluded pulses without knowing or caring. I grew up on baked beans and left them behind when I started "preparing dinner" rather than just eating.
Mercifully, I discovered hummus and started to reap the benefits of beans, also without knowing or caring.
The exclusion of pulses from our diets, if I might use myself as an example again, is caused simply by not knowing how to make them compelling to eat and of course attractive to present. Few people salivate over the prospect of a plateful of beans, like they might over pigeon wrapped in bacon with an apple and cognac sauce. It is difficult too to make of them a work of art comparable with Gary Rhode's food towers.
The 17th century botanist Nicholas Culpeper thought chickpeas less windy than other pulses. To Culpeper, pulses are plants of Venus, which suggests something of an estranged mind. Bean flour boiled to a poultice with wine and vinegar, "and some oil put thereto, eases both pains and swelling of the privities", he said but I don't care to test it.
Here are one or two other ideas of what to do with them.
Hummus is generally made with tahini, lemon and garlic but for variation we often substitute different chutneys. It's as easy as this. Chickpeas need soaking overnight. The soaking water should be thrown away and the chickpeas boiled for a short while and then simmered for around three hours.
To make different flavoured hummus is no more difficult than combining around 100g dry weight of soft simmered chickpea with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, two or three cloves of garlic, two tablespoons of your favourite chutney, a tablespoon of chopped coriander and lemon juice to taste.
One variation is to simmer the chickpeas with a whole onion and a clove or two in the water. The chickpeas emerge with an exotic flavour and combine well with cumin and parsley in the blender.
Dhal, or lentils, is another of those foods that has the mark of poverty and provokes us into shunning them except when visiting aunts wearing holed, knitted cardigans who tap their cigarette ash onto the palm of their stained hands without wincing. Know the type?
Still, here is a way to treat make them with spinach. This recipe uses yellow split peas, mung dhal and red lentils.
Wash all lentils several times to get rid of excess starch (and filth). Take two large cups of the first and soak for a few hours. After soaking, set the yellow spilt peas off to simmer in a pan of water along with a one inch cube of fresh ginger root and a tablespoon of turmeric. They'll take around 40 minutes.
Slice two onions finely and over half an hour caramelise them in a frying pan until crisp. While you're doing this grind two tablespoons full of cumin seeds and coriander seeds with a pestle and mortar, add about 20 black peppercorns and one more spice of your choice, chilli say. When the onions are nearly ready add these to the mix and let them heat for a couple of minutes.
After 20 minutes of simmering the yellow split peas, add the mung dhal and red lentils. After 40 minutes remove the ginger and add 200g of frozen spinach. Mix thoroughly. When the spinach is melted in, add the onions, a tablespoon of garam massala and some fresh coriander for garnish. Culpeper might have suggested pulses as a poultice for the "privities" but I propose you eat them with yoghurt, lime and chilli chutney, rice of course, and a well-toasted pitta bread.