EDMONTON — Winners of a student food development competition found success by using four types of peas and beans in their lemon tart.
The crust of the peamon tarts was made from a mixture of red kidney beans, chickpeas, romano beans and great northern white beans. The student developers substituted the eggs in the lemon filling with their own protein substitute they called Peggs, made from pea protein.
This inventive use of pulses pushed the University of Alberta team of Andrea Roman, Kaixing Tang and Minghua Yu to the top of the Mission Impulseible competition.
Read Also
A power of attorney document may no longer be enough
Recently, some financial institutions have begun imposing their own internal form of “verification” requirement with respect to powers of attorney.
The trio worked for two months to develop the tarts. They decided to work with pulses in their food development class as a way to learn more about the science behind cooking with legumes.
“They can be incorporated into anything. We want to raise that awareness and increase the interest of pulses in people,” said Roman.
People tend to associate pulses with chili and hummus rather than dessert, but Roman said it was important to show the versatility of pulses in the “elegant, bite-size dessert.”
“There are not too many sweet, pulse bakery products,” she said during the food competition. “We used a variety of pulses to increase awareness of the nutrient quality as well as the versatility of pulses.”
Debra McLennan, who organizes Alberta’s pulse cooking competition, said the goal is to help university food science students make the connection between the health benefits and versatility of pulses.
The team of Chau Chin Yo, Teresa Leone, Carmen Dam and Judy Kimotho put a twist on the latest cookie butter fad sweeping Europe.
Pulscotti spread is a gluten, nut and dairy free spreadable cookie made with chickpea flour and spices.
“Cookie butter is really hard to find in Canada,” said Dam, who added cookie butter could be a healthy alternative to other savoury and sweet spreads such as peanut butter and jams.
Cookie butter is a crushed cookie diluted with water, coconut milk or other liquid and used as a spread.
Kimotho said the possibilities for cookie butter are endless: savoury or sweet and mixed with a variety of liquids. The students’ butter was spread on a cracker and topped with an apple and tasted similar to apple pie.
The team of Min Lin, Cheng Shi, Shihao Wei and Stephanie Nash developed a chickpea nugget, a healthy substitute for deep fried chicken nuggets.
They replaced chicken with chickpeas, rice and spices to create their Chick P nugget, which was designed as a pre-cooked frozen product that was easy to prepare and eat.
“It’s a healthy, smarter choice for mothers,” said Wei.
The winners of the seventh annual competition can go on to compete at the national Mission Impulseible competition.
mary.macarthur@producer.com
