What Are Pulses & How Can They Improve Your Menu?
When you hear the word “Pulse” I bet you think of a heart beat just like I did the first time I heard it, however, you would be wrong.
It refers to a group of foods that we often refer to as legumes, beans or peas.
The word pulse actually refers to the edible seeds of legumes which include:
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Dry peas
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Lentils
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Dry Beans
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Chickpeas
Pulse Canada has recently come out with new recipe books, new website and is great teachers when it comes to the educating of foodservice professionals regarding pulses and how they can be implemented within industry and healthcare environments. Having recently been at one of the Pulse Canada presentations I can safely say that as a past operator, these recipes could be easily adapted for production faculties, as well as bulk retherm facilities.
In fact, Saskatoon Health Region recently went one step further and partnered with Pulse Canada to create large scale recipes for the food service industry! There are 13 recipes posted on Pulse Canada website, including the story behind the project that is worth the read.
http://www.pulsecanada.com/food-health/foodservice/scale-up-recipes
Most food service professionals know that Pulses are great sources of protein, fibre and are low in fat; in fact most hospitals have a variety of casseroles for their vegetarian and gluten free clients for those reasons. That being said, facilities especially smaller ones, are forced to buy out sourced products as they simply do not have the volume for producing these in house. Pulse Canada has gone over and above the regular chili’s and chickpea casseroles and has developed recipes not only using the whole beans, peas or lentils, but also using flours from these products that result in gluten free and some vegetarian alternatives that are also great for heart healthy and diabetic diets. With the above diets being more prominent in health care, it is safe to say that these recipes would be a great addition to any regular hospital or long term care menu!
One of my FAVORITES that would work great in the Multigen Oven system is the Chocolate Brownie made with Black bean flour coming in at only 166calories per serving with 3 grams of protein! (There is also a large scale recipe similar, called “Black Bean Brownie” but is not gluten free.
For more information and to learn more about Pulse Canada visit their website at:
