Beyond Pulses from Asia:

Not an Ending, but an Opening…

An ongoing journey, one bean at a time.

What a remarkable journey it has been. When we first launched the “Pulses from Asia” project, our goal was simple: to explore the diverse, vibrant culinary and cultural landscapes of the continent through its humble pulses.

But as we sit down to wrap up this first major chapter, we realize this project has given us far more than a collection of recipes and stories. It has completely transformed how we see the world.

If you had told us at the start that we would spend hours meticulously drawing maps, we might not have believed you. Yet, looking back, creating those maps became one of the most unexpected joys of this entire experience. Each line we drew connected not just borders, but kitchens, grandmothers, harvests, and histories.

A Collage of Asian Kitchens:

Summing up Asia in one frame – festive mixed rice with rajma, chana, walnut and apricot, Dal Makhani, pulse salads, and our two festive cakes: a chocolate mooncake from China and a Mizu Yokan dessert with natural rajma colour from Japan. Same pulse family, completely different stories.

We didn’t set out to find the best lentil recipe in each country. We wanted to show you something simpler, and truer – that every country uses pulses in its own way. Sometimes humble, sometimes celebratory, always rooted in home. Same pulse family, completely different stories.

Our “Pulses in Turkish Cuisine” was the last stop in our Asian journey, and we are already packing our bags for the next one.

Guess where?

A huge, magnificent continent with a great Desert at its heart, where pulses grow in dry, hardy fields and become some of the most nourishing and soulful food on earth. How do they grow them? How do they cook them?

Pulses from Asia showed us that the simplest ingredients hold the biggest worlds. From here, we’ll keep adding new ideas from time to time – a new pulse, a new country, a new story…

This is where “Beyond Pulses from Asia” begins. Not an ending, but an opening.

Our next stop is Africa.

Coming up next… Kitchens of the Continent!

*****