Interview with Anushi Desai - Plant Pops Founder

Anushi Desai, founder of Plant Pops, was approached for the newly launched e-book, Mamma Makes - Recipes & Stories From Multi-Cultural Britain after her own incredible products were spotted jumping off the page of a newsletter. Anushi loves big bold flavours (as you’ll soon find out) and was absolutely sold on the brilliant idea of the book. Anushi’s parents moved to the UK a couple of decades ago, and her mother works in the NHS. So a project that celebrated the vibrancy of multicultural Britain whilst raising money for the NHS couldn’t have been more perfect.

Mamma Makes has over 55 recipes contributed by chefs and home cooks belonging to minority communities, which were cooked originally by the chefs mothers and the grandmothers. Anushi drew on Mumbai street food as an inspiration for her recipe, using her popped lotus seed snacks (Plant Pops) as the base of a ‘bhel’ inspired dish that’s tangy, spicy and tasty!

Yum, just reading that made our mouths water! We were lucky enough to catch up with Anushi and hear all about her love of cooking, inspirations and how her incredible brand, Plant Pops, came to life.

Anushi, great to e-meet you (aren’t you sick of hearing that…). I’m going to jump straight in there with this interview as I’m super keen to find out more about your incredible product and how your love of cooking came to be.

What three ingredients could you not live without?  

Chilli, garlic and tomatoes. I love big, bold flavours and add chilli to everything!

Who inspires you?

I’m hugely inspired by my parents who moved to the UK 25 years ago. Seeing how hard they’ve worked has been really motivating and made me want to own my own business someday. Particularly, also seeing my mum work so hard as a frontline NHS worker during COVID has been incredible. I also am so inspired by anyone that goes out there and tries to make their idea/dream a reality – it’s a really scary step to take and it’s amazing to see people do it!

So, were your parent’s good cooks? 

My mum is a great cook, but my grandmothers were amazing cooks – they inspire my love of cooking, food and flavour.

When did you first realise you had a knack for cooking? 

I’ve always loved cooking, but I used to be a real stickler for recipes. I’ve become more confident with my cooking over the last few years, and feel comfortable rustling something delicious up for dinner with whatever is in my cupboard / fridge. I still really struggle with baking though!

Such an impressive skill to have, pulling something together from nothing - one I’m yet to master myself, maybe you can come and have a look in my fridge?

No pressure.

So now, talk to me, Plant Pops - what was the inspiration? 

I’ve always been a foodie but I came up with the idea for Plant Pops after making popped lotus seeds at home (just like my grandmother and mother did) with some interesting flavour combinations and taking them into work for my colleagues.

We used to work long hours and snack all the time, getting really bored of crisps and popcorn, which is all that seemed to be on offer. Everyone loved the popped lotus seeds and that’s when we knew we were onto a winner! My friend Ash was the first to get hooked and he’s co-founder of our brand.

We must have tested around 15 different flavours across hundreds of people to get to our starting line up of Himalayan Salt, Smoked Chilli and Peanut Butter Popped Lotus Seeds.

Our mission is always to create snacks that are good for you, good for the environment and good for the communities that create them. Every pack sold helps us support Action Village India, a charity that supports farmers and their families in Northern India, from where we source our popped lotus seeds.

Where do you source your ingredients from?

We source our popped lotus seeds directly from farmers in Bihar, Northern India which is one of the few places they grow in the world. It was really important for us to give back to the communities that put so much into our product and a portion of our profits go to Action Village India who support farmers and their families in Bihar.

How do you come up with your flavours for Plant Pops? And which is your favourite?

Initially we trialled about 15 different flavours across hundreds of people, friends, colleagues, family – anyone we could get to try our snacks. We asked every person to fill out a survey with lots of questions and thoughts and from there we continued refining our flavours to the three we currently have: Himalayan Salt, Smoked Chilli and Peanut Butter. It was really important to me that we had a mix of sweet and savoury. I love big, bold, spicy flavours so our Smoked Chilli holds a special place for me, and it’s one of our most popular flavours, but I also love drizzling dark chocolate on our Peanut Butter Pops for a sweet treat.

How do you compare to your competition? 

Popcorn is so 2018! Our popped lotus seeds are light and crunchy, without any of the annoying bits that get stuck in your teeth (unlike popcorn). We use a premium grade of seed, authentic to the way it’s eaten in India, meaning there’s a lovely airy texture in the middle. It’s so important to us to make snacks that are not only good for you but also the environment and the communities that create them.

Well Anushi, I’m sold.