A quick guide to pulses, legumes and sprouting

While sprouting of pulses and legumes has become quite popular of late, across the subcontinent sprouting has been done for hundreds of years, both as a way of maximising the nutritional benefits of these humble foods, as well as providing different textural profiles to a dish.

Pulses — chickpeas, lentils, dried peas and beans — are the dried edible seeds of legume plants. The terms ‘pulse’ and ‘legume’ are sometimes used interchangeably, but legume is a much broader category, applying to plants that enclose their fruit in pods, including all pulses, as well as fresh beans and peas, and surprising additions like peanuts and Australian native wattleseed.