Pulses are the dried seeds of an enormous variety of bean and pea pods, many possessing very different flavours and characters. Whenever I travel abroad and discover pulses I haven’t seen before I cannot resist bringing them home to try. The flavouring of pulses is very important; although they do not have a definite taste of their own, the long, slow cooking they need allows them to take on the flavours of the ingredients they are cooked with. Some pulses, such as butter beans and lentils, break up more easily than others, making them more suitable for soups, purées or very mushy, comforting stews. Chick peas, however, never break up, however long they are cooked, although they can also be pureed to make hummus, the classic Middle Eastern appetizer.