It's turning into a good year for an Indian takeaway with a difference. The Vegetarian Rasoi has been crowned the 'People's Choice' winner in this year's Great Food Club Awards - months after one of the founders was honoured with a British Empire Medal.
The Vegetarian Rasoi, started as a 'side hustle' five years ago by Meena and Jatinder Hanspal but has since turned into a business. Run from their kitchen at home in West Bridgford, the husband and wife team cook delicious veggie food for collection and delivery each Friday.
Every week they prepare around 60-70 takeaways from an ever-changing menu. Recent dishes - all made from scratch - have included aloo dosa masala topped with chilli paneer, vegan naan with scrambled tofu, and vegetable biryani.
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Meena, who worked in HR at Experian for nearly 10 years, said winning the People's Choice Award had come as a huge surprise. "I was flabbergasted. Wow... I had to look at it a couple of times to think 'is this true?' It is absolutely amazing. It's all thanks to the people who took the time out to do the voting."
The Great Food Club, which boasts 16,000 members across the East Midlands, presents the People's Choice Award to the biggest overall vote winner in the annual celebration of first-class food and drink across the region.
Meena said what started out as an experiment, just grew and grew. "It started off once a month when I was working at Experian and then twice a month and the frequency increased because of the demand to every Friday.
"The menu changes each week - I like the variety. My food isn't something you'd find in restaurants - the whole purpose of starting this was to give people the experience of a home-cooked meal. It's not greasy, it's healthy and it's flavourful.
"I love cooking. It's that passion of cooking that drives me to do this every week. I'm the eldest of five siblings and having to help mum in the kitchen from a very young age, it becomes part and parcel of the daily routine to cook meals. That's where the passion and inspiration started. Mum's a fantastic cook and she loves innovating and experimenting with spices and coming up with really nice dishes."
Self-employed Jatinder takes time out on Fridays to help his wife cook the food and come 5pm he delivers around the NG2 area. Customers outside the delivery zone can collect from the couple's home - with a regular often travelling from Melton Mowbray.
Such is the trust in the food that fans will book a slot before they even know what's on the menu, which caters for vegan and gluten-free dietary requirements. Meena doesn't use any base sauces or jars but makes her own masala from scratch to enhance the flavour.
It's not just adults who enjoy the food - children are happy eaters, too. "We have a very good young client base. The idea started a couple of years ago where I wanted kids to enjoy the meals as well as a family."
The business has allowed Meena to enjoy a better work-life balance with her daughter, who will be 10 this year. "Jat's self-employed and worked from home which meant he was quite flexible with what he could help out with, like school trips and reading groups and I missed out on all of that," she said.
Meena also does outside catering, recently having a stall at Trent Bridge for the IT20 England v India cricket match, and in her spare time she helps out with several charities, assisting women fleeing domestic violence and providing free meals for school children during holiday periods.
It was her work with Guru Nanak's Mission, cooking hot meals for the homeless and people in need both in the city centre and at home, that led to her being awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the Sikh community. She said: "I'm really blessed, I feel so humbled by how things have changed. I never thought when I was working at Experian that I would ever reach this far but it's been an incredible journey and so nice and humbling to reap the awards."
Jatinder runs digital design agency 3bit but he comes from a foodie background. His mother Jaswant, now aged 83, opened one of Nottingham's earliest vegan and veggie restaurants, The Vegetarian Pot, in Alfreton Road in 1983.
Meena said: "She had that for years. When I got married mum still had the restaurant and I'd go in there and help while I was settling into Nottingham. When I started the business she used to help. There is that commercial cooking aspect from her side. You always look up to your elders and say 'Mum, how would you do this? Or what would you put in this dish?"
So what does her mother-in-law, possibly the toughest critic of all, make of her cooking? "I think she likes it. She's not said anything otherwise," said Meena.
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