© NEIL WHITE
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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 our abilit . Making houmous isn’t rocket science but it takes a surprising amount of e ort to ma e it well. ver thing we use in our kitchen is organic and each ingredient is selected because of how it tastes. e do ever thing on site, from cleaning, soaking and cooking the chickpeas to making
up the spice mi es. e ma e 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 ar awson and I fancied a new challenge, so a number of years ago we bought a vegan food business. an of the products we were fairl indi erent about but there was a houmous that we
thought was head and shoulders above the other o erings. o we gradually dropped the other products and refined 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. e re not after mar et domination, we just want to be and sta 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 alwa s tr to recruit local people and we are pleased to support wallow in adstoc a charity that provides user-led support for teenagers and adults with learning disabilities. e are registered as isabilit onfident employers and where we can, we like to give people who might initially need a little extra support the opportunit to wor .
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 – uc econd no nast chemical preservatives, there is no need for any of these ingredients ust eat fresh. If ou have a tub of houmous hanging around for over a week, you should probabl tr another brand. e use blast chilling at di erent stages of our production and that gives our totally organic product da s 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 ust . g of fat per g. e t time ou bu 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. urs is ust li e ab ear s porridge. Do you have a favourite from your range and why? ersonall I love the mo ed. The way we make it is absurd – there can’t be many people who smoke trays of chickpeas – but it is the onl wa to get the avour that we li e. here is other smoked houmous on the market but the are all ver di erent from the one produced in The Precious ea itchen. 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 sta . his was ver popular and so we continued and e panded the o ering. ome sta start early in the morning and the last thing they want to be doing is making a packed lunch before the come in. or man ears 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 recious ea. www.thepreciouspea.co.uk
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