Earlier this week it was World Pulses Day. To mark the occasion the East Flanders provincial restaurant in Ghent served its first ‘duo burgers’. The burgers combine pork meat and pulses in equal proportions. At Resto Leo in the former Leopold Barracks the duo burger comes in two variants: one with pork, white and red beans and one with split peas, carrots and pork.
The duo burger is a burger that combines meat and plant-based food. ‘The duo burger is a way of encouraging children to eat more vegetables, but also to offer a healthy alternative to seniors, who have to eat less meat on account of health reasons,’ explains Mieke Verniest of the Zwalmbeek Farm.
The duo burger was developed as part of the DIVERSI-PEUL project. This is a project that aims to encourage the cultivation and processing of pulses by farm butchers. ‘Pulses are rich in proteins and fibres,’ notes project manager Nele Lauwers of farmers’ union Boerenbond. Promoting the production of pulses can reduce dependence on imported sources of protein, which is good news for our own local agriculture.
Growing pulses also improves soil quality as a result of nitrogen fixation, reducing the need for artificial fertilisers and reducing the ecological footprint of the agricultural sector. Several types of pulses are already being grown in Flanders today, including field beans, split peas, white and red beans, lentils and chickpeas.
For now the duo burger is only available at Resto Leo in Ghent, but the people behind the project insist their will share their experience with the burger. This should allow other meat and food companies to produce and market the duo burger in time. ‘We want to make consumers aware of the benefits of balanced protein consumption and hope that the duo burger is a first step towards a wider range of hybrid meat products,’ Ms Lauwers concludes.
Resto Leo is an initiative of the not-for-profit organisation EROV, East Flanders Province and Lekker Oost Vlaams (Tasty East Flemish). It’s the provincial restaurant situated in Provincial House in the renovated Leopold Barracks on the Charles de Kerchovelaan 189 in Gent. Its focus is on local produce.