Festival of dal will celebrate the rise of global food staples as vegans drive a revival in their popularity

Last modified on Thu 2 Aug 2018 12.52 EDT

Some may like it hot, others may like it cold, but for many people pease pudding is the last thing they would order from the menu. Similarly, mushy peas have enjoyed something of a mixed reputation with those who enjoy a side with their fish and chips.

Now these two oft-unloved traditional British dishes – and the homegrown split and marrowfat peas from which they are made – are to be revived and championed in the first UK festival celebrating the “magic and variety” of dal.

Dal is any split pulse – the humble lentil, bean or pea – or pulse stew or soup, its best-known incarnation being the Indian comfort food and curry house favourite. The festival will showcase the huge variety of pulses now grown in the UK, such as fava beans and split yellow and green peas – all perfect ingredients for dal but which many people will never have thought to use.

In medieval times, dried beans and peas were a staple food and the main source of protein for most of the UK population, but as meat and dairy foods became more widely accessible pulses became stigmatised as the food of the poor. Now the recent shift towards so-called “clean” eating and veganism has meant that pulses, lentils, peas and beans are seeing something of a revival.

“As a nation, we clearly love baked beans, and who would have thought that a Middle Eastern classic like hummus would become a UK supermarket staple?” says Nick Saltmarsh, co-founder and managing director of Hodmedod, a Suffolk-based pioneer of British-grown pulses and grains founded five years ago. “We have found that the rise of plant-based eating has led to strong interest in our products, but we hope the festival will inspire consumers not just to buy pulses but to buy British pulses.”

Most UK-grown fava beans – dried broad beans – for example, are exported to the Middle East and northern Africa and others are used for animal and fish feed. The organisers of the festival want to boost UK interest in beans such as the fava, which can be used for dishes including homemade baked beans. Although UK shoppers are the world’s biggest consumers of baked beans, the dried haricot or navy beans used in the leading brands are imported from North America.

The event is the idea of the British Edible Pulses Association and will take place in Bristol later this month. Through a slew of trails, tastings and educational activities across the city, visitors will be able to sample the traditional spiced dals of the Indian subcontinent alongside the refried beans of Mexico, the fava bean dips of Greece and, of course, Britain’s pease pudding and mushy peas.

Chefs such as Meera Sodha and Cyrus Todiwala are among those who have contributed new recipes for the event using British-grown pulses and grains. They include marrowfat peas, fava beans, haricot beans, badger or carlin beans and quinoa.

Last autumn, Hodmedod launched the UK’s first commercial crops of lentils, grown on farms across Britain. It is ramping up production to meet demand and is about to launch the first UK-grown chia seeds – a food which originated in the Americas. “Beans and pulses are such an important part of Middle Eastern cooking, but getting a good and consistent supply of them is near impossible in this country and you never really know the source and how fresh they are,” said Itamar Srulovich, the Israeli chef and co-founder of London’s Honey & Co restaurant group. “There are so many dishes we were keen to cook but couldn’t, things like Ta’amiya [an Egyptian falafel] or fava [a Greek dip made with split yellow peas].”

Supermarkets are slowly getting in on the act and Marks & Spencer and Waitrose stock British-grown quinoa. A Waitrose spokeswoman said: “Shoppers are on the lookout for British-grown versions of ingredients traditionally grown overseas. Sales of our organic British quinoa are up 15% compared with last year.”