Pulses

Pulses take their English name from the Latin puls or pultis, meaning 'thick soup' — a nod to how these seeds are traditionally cooked. Botanically they are the edible seeds harvested from the pods of the legume family, Fabaceae, and nutritionally they are one of the world's most important plant-based sources of protein, vitamins and minerals. Black gram (Vigna mungo), native to India with archaeobotanical evidence going back some 3,500 years, is grown as a rain-fed crop in India's drier tracts (India alone supplies about 80% of world production, chiefly from Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka); it is eaten whole, split, boiled, roasted or ground into flour, and its batter is the base of popular South Indian breakfast dishes, while the split pulse also seasons curries. Red gram or Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is the only pulse native to South India and is the key ingredient of sambar, besides being eaten as a roasted, salted snack or as young cooked pods. Green gram (Vigna radiata), also native to India, is cooked roasted or sprouted, forms one of the ingredients of pongal, is fried into a popular snack, and — less obviously — its flour is traditionally used as a skin cosmetic. Chick pea or Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum), grown in India for more than …