Melbourne sisters launch Australian - grown legume pasta alternatives

Two Melbourne-based sisters have launched a range of pasta alternatives using 100 per cent Australian grown chickpeas.

Innovative: Sisters Ingrid and Sally Stead have worked hard to develop their business Wilderbean, which sells chickpea-based products in stores across Victoria. Picture: DANNIKA BONSER

WITH demand for plant- based foods buoyant, two innovative Melbourne -based sisters are creating pasta alternatives with Australian-grown chickpeas.

Sally and Ingrid Stead’s business, Wilderbean, has taken flight this year, after plans to develop a legume-based pasta range began in 2018.

In an Australian first, the pair have now launched 100 per cent Australian-grown Chickpea Pasta and a vegan Chickpea Mac & Cheeze product.

To get their ideas off the ground, the sisters worked with local food technologists to refine their recipe and invested in equipment to develop a process to manufacture Wilderbean Chickpea Pasta commercially in Melbourne.

And after wanting to expand their range, Ingrid said they began thinking of other comfort food ideas, and that is where their vegan mac and cheese product developed.

“Mac and cheese is big in America and bigger brands use durum wheat and cheese flavouring, which is filled with chemicals and preservatives,” Ingrid said. “Legumes offer all natural alternatives.”

And after studying Agriculture Science at Melbourne, Sally said legumes not only offered health benefits, but were great for the environment.

“Legumes are not only super water efficient, they also benefit the soil by fixing nitrogen and fertilising future rounds of crops, while feeding the soil microbiome” she said.

With the businesses’ chickpeas and mung beans sourced mainly from growers in southern Queensland and northern NSW, the sisters said they were committed to supporting local communities after a tough year of drought, bushfires and the coronavirus pandemic.

“Most chickpeas and mung beans are exported, so if demand increases here in Australia we can take them and use them here,” Sally said.

The products are stocked in independent grocers and health food stores across Victoria, and the founders are looking to grow their presence in NSW and QLD.

MORE: PERFECT START FOR GRAIN HARVEST

CROPS ARE RIGHT AS RAIN AT SERPENTINE PROPERTY