It all began with a simple Covid-era meal swap. I'll never forget someone telling me that if vegetarian food tasted this good, they wouldn't need to eat the meat. That really stuck with me.

At that time Sydney was having a massive vegan boom. Supermarket shelves were full of plant-based products, but when you'd have a look at the labels, a lot of them were full of preservatives and fillers. They weren't real food.

As a nutritionist, I knew I could do better. Growing up in India, and growing up vegetarian, I had learned how to cook vegetarian recipes well and make them delicious. So I started experimenting.

I knew the main ingredients in my meals would be pulses, and pulses can sometimes be hard to digest. I also wanted my meals to be nutrient dense. So I started activating and sprouting the pulses before cooking. This made them very easy to digest, and it also made their nutrients very easy to absorb. Because the meals were really rich in fibre and a great source of plant-based protein, they were going to nourish your gut and leave you feeling good. So Gut Happy felt like just the right name.

I perfected the recipes, and we trialled the meals in the local community and at farmers markets around Sydney. The feedback was very positive. I thought it would be amazing if this meal — cooked with love, preservative free, with good quality ingredients — could be available in your freezer for when you just didn't have the time to cook.

Gut Happy began with four instant pots and a part-time kitchen. Fast forward four years, we are now in a full-time commercial kitchen. Our benchtops are lined with instant pots so we can do many small batches, and we are in 35 locations around Australia, including two of our very own vending machines.

We would love to see Gut Happy as part of your freezer, ready for you even when you aren't.