Pulsing

For the vast deal of my life, the only pulse I liked was haricot beans covered in tomato sauce; all other pulses I had disdain for, considering them to be the blandly served fodder of worthy vegetarians. These days, however, I think nicely seasoned beans or chickpeas are in some ways preferable to meat, their nutritional value certainly beats that of a sausage, and they are much cheaper! Although, as you will see, I have combined the two to great effect this week.

The first recipe is entirely suitable for any vegetarians out there amongst you: Moroccan aubergine and chick pea salad. This was chosen partially out of necessity (it was cheap), partially because I was astonished at how little I had enjoyed the last dish I made from aubergines (I know they are delicious, and do not actually taste of slippers), and partly because I had a hankering for chick peas (I am aware of how odd that sounds). This is a really good demonstration of chick peas and aubergines at their best, soaking up strong flavours--in this case, cumin, coriander and chilli--and delivering a tasty meal for not much money. Lovely.

Following a weekend which saw the consumption of a lot of rich food, this week Sam and I fancied something a little plainer. Olive Magazine's  recent booklet of £5 suppers supplied us with black bean and chilli soup. I have to put my hands up and say straight away, I couldn't find black beans, so I used their tasty cousin, cannellini beans, as these are also good in soups. This was nothing special, just a hearty bowl of homemade soup. I wouldn't serve it to impress, but that wasn't what I was trying to do; I wanted simple, and it was. Success.


Finally, finally, Boston baked beans with sausages, another one of Olive Magazine's meals for a fiver. I can't see how this is a recipe for two, really, as it's got six sausages, bacon and a load of beans in it. ANYWAY, putting that to one side, it's very good, the mustard in it makes it taste much more grown up than baked beans, and it tastes lovely and smoky, in a sort of barbeque sauce kind of way. I served with olive-oily roast potatoes and A, H and I agreed that it seemed to herald the start of autumn, along with the rain was also lashing down in Kirkstall that night. Oh and by adding an extra can of beans, I made it stretch round four of us--Sam ate when he came home, and I also had some for lunch the next day. It relieves me to see that even the BBC's publishing team couldn't make it look nice though!

I think after this week's successes I shall perhaps turn to being a professional pulse chef, bringing their nutritional wonderment to the masses. On the other hand that might make me into the next Gillian McKeith, and no-one wants another one of those! (Gillian, I know you like suing people, so this is my own subjective opinion and probably wrong. Ahem.)