“Refined sugar, maida, butter, sunflower oil…” Priya Rathnakumar chalks up a list of ingredients that are absolutely not allowed in her kitchen. Almost two years ago, the 23-year-old started her own company, The Lean Bean, with the aim of providing healthy snacking options, including desserts, to the city.
With the project having taken off only a few months ago, The Lean Bean has a limited but definitive menu: from honey roasted walnuts, almonds and pecans, to breakfast options such as granola and almond butter, and desserts including peanut butter oat cookies and alcove cake. “I get about 10 to 12 orders per day,” she informs.
The Lean Bean, says Priya, started as an attempt to regulate her own health and nutrition. “I used to be on the heavier side in college. We would eat out all the time — so much junk!” she says. Like every person trying to get back in shape, she quickly realised that mere exercising wouldn’t be enough, and that she needed to eat healthier. It was difficult, she found, to find healthy alternatives in stores.
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“I started preparing my own meals when I was 20, choosing what ingredients were healthy. I’d share what I made with my family and friends,” she says. Eventually, her reputation as a good chef preceded her, and meal requests from friends of friends came pouring in. She would prepare healthy pizzas, using whole wheat or gluten-free bases, salad bowls with different dressings, protein pancakes, savoury crepes with quinoa, fruit bowls and so on.
“I would have to wake up at four in the morning to be able to cook meals for everyone. It got too hectic, so I decided to streamline it into just healthy breakfast, snacks and desserts,” she says. And so, in the gap year that she took after college, The Lean Bean was formed.
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“Date and pecan cake is my favourite recipe so far,” she says, adding that the cake has no flour and is made completely with just dates and nuts. “When you don’t use flour, you need to be very delicate while preparing it. You whisk it too much, or add to much baking soda, it will turn out bad. Too little and it will not rise,” she says.
Having undergone an online nutrition course, she sometimes innovates new recipes from scratch, and sometimes uses traditional recipes, swapping the ingredients in them with healthier alternatives.
Priya’s team consists of her mother and sister. The three work out of their home in Annanagar; they don’t have a brick and mortar store yet. So far, Instagram has been her main platform for selling her creations. She regularly posts pictures of whatever she makes and invites her followers to DM their orders. However, she’s looking forward to setting up an actual kitchen soon. “I also plan to come up with more eggless and vegan options,” she says.
Check out The Lean Bean on Instagram, @theleanbean_chennai