I’m a huge fan of pulses and use them a lot in my cooking. They’re cheap, versatile, range in texture, are great at soaking up flavours, nutritious and ideal for making more expensive ingredients stretch. The perfect store cupboard staples.

At one time they might have been seen as hippie, only for vegans or vegetarians but thanks to cookery book writers like Jenny Chandler, they’re being seen for what they are; an affordable and interesting way to eat well whilst reducing or eliminating your meat consumption.

Whether you don’t know where to start or, like me, are well versed in cooking beans and lentils, Pulse is a great guide. There is information on the different types of pulses and how to prepare them, how to store them in their cooked and uncooked forms, how to use them in your batch preparation as well as many a recipe to excite you. She provides quantities and instructions for using both tinned and dried pulses making it even more helpful. It’s not vegetarian but given Jenny’s philosophy and one of the aims of the book being to help those cutting back, meat and fish don’t feature too much and when used, they’re scant portions.

Jenny explores their versatility, with recipes for dips, purees for weaning babies, fritters, soups, salads, stews, curries, even sweet things. Pulses are used around the world and so it’s no surprise that the recipes in the book take you on your travels. There really is something for everyone.

I’d recommend buying it just for this black bean brownie recipe!