TAKE 5 The perfect houmous with Ayleen Driver

)A4--6 ,:I>-: Handmade, small-batch, organic houmous made with love – that’s what the team at The Precious Pea are all about

Tell us a bit about The Precious Pea. What’s different about your houmous? There is something very satisfying about doing anything to the very best of aour abilita.

Making houmous isn’t rocket science but it takes a surprising amount of eٺ ort to maSe it well. -verathing we use in our kitchen is organic and each ingredient is selected because of how it tastes. ?e do everathing on site, from cleaning, soaking and cooking the chickpeas to making up the spice mi`es. ?e maSe the houmous in small batches and every batch is tasted by the chef making the houmous – there’s quite a collection of spoons at the end of the morning!

Why houmous? How did the obsession start? We both – my business partner 5arS :awson and I · fancied a new challenge, so a number of years ago we bought a vegan food business. 5ana of the products we were fairla indiٺ erent about but there was a houmous that we

NEIL WHITE ©

thought was head and shoulders above the other oٺ erings. ;o we gradually dropped the other products and refi ned that to be the best it could be.

We wanted to make nutritious food but not something that people ate just because it was healthy – we wanted them to eat it because it was delicious. <here was no way we could compete with the budget brands and neither did we want to.

We now produce white label houmous for three prestigious customers as well as our own brand. ?e¼re not after marSet domination, we just want to be and staa the best. Why is supporting local important to you? We are part of the community, so we think it is important to support it. ?e alwaas tra to recruit local people and we are pleased to support ;wallow in :adstocS a charity that provides user-led support for teenagers and adults with learning disabilities. ?e are registered as ,isabilita +onfi dent employers and where we can, we like to give people who might initially need a little extra support the opportunita to worS. What do you look for in a perfect houmous? First, what I do not look for is vinegar; an increasing number of houmous producers are using it to extend shelf life – aucS ;econd no nasta chemical preservatives, there is no need for any of these ingredients · Rust eat fresh. If aou have a tub of houmous hanging around for over a week, you should probabla tra another brand. ?e use blast chilling at diٺ erent stages of our production and that gives our totally organic product  daas shelf life. It tastes fresh because it is fresh: we use a top-quality extra virgin olive oil plus an excellent tahini, and this means that our houmous contains on average Rust .g of fat per g. 6e`t time aou bua a regular pot take a look at the fat content, it will probably be double or even triple that. <e`ture is also important – I don’t like chunky but neither do I like toothpaste smooth. 7urs is Rust liSe *aba *ear¼s porridge. Do you have a favourite from your range and why? 8ersonalla I love the ;moSed. The way we make it is absurd – there can’t be many people who smoke trays of chickpeas – but it is the onla waa to get the Æ avour that we liSe. <here is other smoked houmous on the market but thea are all vera diٺ erent from the one produced in The Precious 8ea Sitchen.

We hear you make lunch for the team every day. That’s so lovely! Years ago, as part of our no waste policy, we started making soup for the staٺ> . his was vera popular and so we continued and e`panded the oٺ ering. ;ome staٺ start early in the morning and the last thing they want to be doing is making a packed lunch before thea come in. .or mana aears now lunch has appeared – nothing fancy, always wholesome, always vegetarian and apparently always welcome. -ating together is civilised and unifying; it is a very important part of our culture at <he 8recious 8ea.

www.thepreciouspea.co.uk