EDMONTON — An Italian gelato made from white beans, chickpea flour and pea protein won top prize in a student food development competition.
BiotaGelata, made from fermented white beans with chickpeas, fababeans and pea protein, shows that pulses can be used for desserts rather than just side dishes, said Austen Neil, one of the students from the University of Alberta’s food and nutrition department who developed the gelato.
“It shows beans can be made into something sweet and not just be a savoury dish,” he said.
Read Also
Canada’s rural crime problem far from fixed
Farmers on the Prairies are worried about crime rates and safety, but an effective approach to meaningfully reduce rural crime remains out of reach so far.
Neil and her teammates, Sujata Patel, Chandre Van De Merwe and Nicolle Mah, created the protein-rich dessert after learning about pulses from one of their nutrition instructors.
“He is passionate about pulses. Before the U of A, I didn’t understand pulses,” said Neil.
“It is such an awesome alternative to animal proteins. They grow in Alberta, are cheap and you can do a thousand things with them,” she said.
Mission Impulseible challenges culinary and food students to create new foods using beans, peas and lentils.
Christine Farkas with Pulse Canada said the food that the students create for the competition may not end up on food store shelves, but they will think about pulses in their jobs.
She said she knows of former competitors who have helped promote pulses in their food careers.
Stephanie Stolk, a culinary arts student from the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, created Cinnamon Delights, a doughnut mix made from chickpea flour.
Clarissa Cardinal, Kali Brodbin and Tara Collins from Portage College Culinary Arts program in St. Paul, Alta., created Freak Sante, a roasted chickpea and haskap power bar made from roasted chickpeas, lentil puree and pea protein in an attempt to recreate a traditional native pemmican.
The trio was not familiar with pulses until their instructor, Mallory Bowes, introduced them to the versatility of pulses and convinced them to enter the competition.
Bowes and her partner won a previous Mission Impulseible competition with their Angel food cake mix made from pulse flour.
It took the Portage students three months to come up with the perfect recipe, analyze nutrition tables and conduct a cost analysis of the bar for the competition
“It’s more than just cooking,” said Brodbin.
The winners of Mission Impulseible will compete in the national pulse food development competition in Vancouver.
The United Nations has declared 2016 as International Year of Pulses.
Contact mary.macarthur@producer.com
