COULD CHOCOLATE FLAVOURED HUMMUS CATCH ON?

Is a new brand of sweet hummus spreads going to catch on? Victoria Prever investigates.

DOES THE thought of a sweet version of our favourite chickpea dip delight or disgust you? Chickpea-based dessert dips are already a thing in the US, but hadn’t reached our shores. But last week a sweet hummus was launched in London, offered at another US inspired concept — Mandira, London’s first yoghurt bar in Covent Garden. Mandira offers simit (Turkish bagels) alongside pots of thick, creamy Turkish yoghurt with sweet and savoury toppings . And now you can go there for pots of sweet hummus in three flavours: chocolate, strawberries and blueberries and banana and caramel.

Still not convinced? More accurately, they are stocking “houmous” — same dip, different spelling. Actually, a very different dip. No tahina, no garlic, no cumin. But chickpeas cooked to buttery softness and blended to a smooth puree with a little sugar, lemon and chickpea water —known as aquafaba in vegan circles.

Pushing the boundaries for Middle Eastern staple are two nice Jewish boys — Harry Tyndall and Jake Finn. A couple of years ago at the tender age of 28, Tyndall suffered health issues that forced him to make a change to his diet.

“I had kidney stones and gout, which my father had suffered from so could have been hereditary. I had to cut out red meat and rich dairy food. I’d always enjoyed my food. A bit too much maybe, as I weighed my age at 12. I used to microwave tubs of Ben and Jerry’s as a smoothie” admits Tyndall.

His new eating regime left him healthy and slimmed down. He explains that hummus became a regular part of his diet, but he was still missing something. “I hit upon the idea of sweet hummus, as it was lower in saturated fat and so better for me but would still satisfy my sweet tooth.”

Research turned up a US brand — Delighted By — that made hummus in several dessert flavours, but nothing this side of the pond.

Tyndall arranged to have some shipped over and tasted their vanilla, chocolate, mint choc and “Snickerdoodle” hummus. “I expected chocolate and nuts, so “Snickerdoodle”, which is cinnamon flavoured, was not at all what I expected” he laughs.

By then he had paired up with Finn, a former JFS pupil who he’d met on tour in Israel more than 10 years earlier. “Jake has worked as head chef at a number of restaurants including La Petit Maison and Coya” explains Tyndall, a former pupil of Highgate School and most recently, head of sales for Deliveroo. “We hadn’t seen each other since tour and I was asking him to go into business with me making sweet hummus!”

Tyndall learned much about the food industry and growing a business during his years at Deliveroo. “When I started there were 30 of us and when I left the staff numbered more than 1700. I launched them in Reading, Leeds, Watford, Dubai and Sydney and have also looked after their alcohol division.”

At the start of this year, he and Finn started testing recipes for their range.

“It didn’t take too long to get the flavours right but the texture took a bit longer. When we tasted the US brand it was smooth but our texture was still quite chunky, so we decided to make ours smoother and more like a puree” he explains.

Their flavours contain only a few ingredients. “We use dark chocolate, cocoa and coconut milk in the choc-o-chick; just strawberries, blueberries and some sugar in the mixed berries and bananas and a caramel in the banoffee pie flavour.”

In March, Tyndall resigned from Deliveroo to dedicate his full time efforts to his new sweet hummus pots, and the pair are now looking to introduce the products to independent retailers.

“We see the chocolate flavour as a competitor to chocolate spreads; the mixed berry flavour to jam and the banoffee pie to nut butters. They are healthier and lower in saturated fats.”

Whether the dip catches on here has yet to be seen, but Tyndall has reported favourable reactions