Increase your pulse rate

Pulses are diverse, colourful, tasty and nutritious – but generally they’ve been undervalued. Defined as the dried seed or bean from a legume plant, they can include peas, beans, lentils and chickpeas. 

Pulses have been used for thousands of years, with records of peas and beans found on neolithic farms, and remains of lentils found in Roman settlements – but it’s not clear to what extent lentils were cultivated here. Until comparatively recently, we only grew beans for drying too. They were considered a peasant food: easy to grow, filling and nutritious, and eating fresh peas was tantamount to raiding your winter store – a luxury of the elite from the 16th century. 

A rewarding and nutritious crop

Growing pulses brings many health and environmental benefits. They are a good source of plant protein, and provide fibre, B vitamins, folic acid and other minerals (1). There’s also clear evidence that increasing the proportion of plant protein in the diet reduces greenhouse gas emissions, land use and water use – whatever their origin and method of production (2). 
Legumes are also able to fix their own nitrogen from the air with the aid of Rhizobium bacteria in the soil, so they can reduce the impacts associated with using nitrogen fertiliser. Current estimates are that use of this fertiliser contributes 2-5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and 10% of total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (3), so anything that can be done to reduce it is a good thing.

What pulses to grow

On an agricultural scale, the dominant pulse crops in the UK are still peas (Pisum sativum) and field beans (Vicia faba). Field beans are the same species as broad beans but produce pods with larger numbers of smaller beans. A significant proportion of the field beans are fed to livestock or, surprisingly, exported to North Africa where they’re an important part of the cuisine for making ‘Ful Madames’ (a hearty stew incorporating mashed fava beans), or falafels. 

On a domestic scale, we’re most likely to grow broad beans, peas, runner beans (Phaseolus coccineus) and French beans (Phaseolus vulgaris). But it might be worth adding other legumes such as lentils (Lens culinaris) and chickpeas (Cicer arietinum) to your repertoire. 

The vast majority of lentils are imported from India, Canada and Turkey4. More recently, British grain and pulse specialist Hodmedods has helped UK farmers grow lentils commercially in the southern counties. 

The lens part of Lens culinaris refers to the convex shape of the seeds. The plants are bushy, about 30cm tall with pinnate leaves (central stalk with leaflets either side). They have small pinkish flowers, which give rise to lots of small pods containing two lentils.

There are many types of lentils including red or yellow varieties that are normally sold ‘split’, with the outer case removed. Brown, green and black beluga types are sold whole. Puy lentils are a speciality lentil that has protected regional status. Only certain varieties grown in the volcanic soils around Le Puy-en-Velay in the Haute-Loire region of France are allowed to be designated as ‘Puy lentils’. 

The vast majority of chickpeas are also imported from countries including Australia, India, Turkey and Canada. Like lentils, they’re thought to have originated in the fertile crescent around 10,000 years ago, later spreading to the Mediterranean, India, and North Africa and the rest of Asia5. Today chickpea cultivation spans more than 50 countries, encompassing the Indian subcontinent, North Africa, the Middle East, southern Europe, the Americas and Australia. 

There are two main types: ‘Desi’ which produces darker brown, smaller seeds and ‘Kabuli’, which produces the larger cream-coloured seeds that many of us are familiar with in the UK. The challenge is to find earlier maturing varieties that can thrive in a dull summer (when empty ‘blind pods’ are common), so new ones are being developed by National Institute of Agricultural Botany.6

How to grow lentils and chickpeas

Chickpeas are often grown by Indian and Bangladeshi growers on allotments in the UK and – I believe – are well worth trying at home. The plants are low growing bushes with pinnate leaves and pink or white flowers. The pods contain two or three peas. Yields in the garden can be low (read Emma’s experience opposite), but roasting the peas (not the pods) when they’re still green provides a delicious nutty snack that can’t be bought in a shop. 

Lentil plants can take some frost, but not a hard freeze. The pods form quite quickly after flowering, so keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t drop their seed. As they don’t ripen all at the same time, it can be easier to cut the tops off the plants and let them dry once half the pods are ripened. 

Garden Organic members grew varieties ‘Flora’ and ‘Anicia’ in trials, and the major headache with growing them at home was the number of pods. We calculated there were around 2,500 pods per square metre! Those who were persistent enough to process them managed to achieve 150g of lentils per square metre. Although this might sound like a measly amount, it does compare favourably to commercial yields of lentils in the UK of 170g/m2, which would be harvested with a combine and processed through a threshing machine.

Other leguminous alternatives to grow

If you want an alternative to chickpeas, which is better adapted to the UK, it’s worth growing Carlin or Latvian peas from the Heritage Seed Library. These are traditionally grown in more northern climes so should be well-adapted to tolerating a cold, damp summer and both have that nutty chickpea taste. After growing for one season, more than half the participants in our recent citizen science trial agreed that these varieties would make a suitable homegrown alternative to chickpeas. 

Field beans are also particularly well suited to a winter sowing as they’re better able to withstand any sudden bouts of frost that can knock out some varieties of broad bean. Our experiments also showed that field beans yielded about 50% more than broad beans. 

While most people in the UK tend to grow French and runner beans to eat fresh – you’re also missing a trick by not saving some for drying as a pulse. This reduces gluts and provides you with something to store for more lean times of year. 

With rises in temperatures, it may be possible to grow a wider range of pulses in your garden than the standard beans and peas. With such an exciting array of plants and ways of using them, we recommend upping your pulse rate.