KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — Eating healthy and juggling a busy work life is a big challenge. The options for those who want to practise a healthy diet is often impossible especially within the vicinity of the office.

Most times, you are too stressed to meal prep and pack healthy food to the office. The Rebellious Chickpea is godsend to those who want a healthy meal delivered to their doorstep.

The duo behind the healthy food delivery service is formally trained chef Allison Xavier, 31 and gym owner Edeareena Nor, 32. About a year ago, Allison decided to embark on the food delivery business. The catchy name is credited to her friend, Zhang Su Li. “She came up with The Rebellious Chickpea as it’s healthy yet you want to also be rebellious and not so healthy at the same time.”

This April, Edeareena who is a big fan of Allison’s cooking decided to hop on board. “I own a gym full time and my members sometimes have trouble keeping the weight off as they’re eating wrong, hence I wanted to go into the healthier side of food delivery.”

The philosophy behind their food is a reflection of their own lifestyle. That slight rebellious and willful streak represents Allison. “I am supposed to be the chickpea as I like pigging out but I also like being healthy.”

Allison likes to add her personal touch of flax seeds and chilli flakes to this delicious salmon and pasta dish cooked with soy sauce and wasabi

When she was working in England, she had puffed up from indulging in one too many sweets. “My main problem was eating. I love sweets and I could not stop eating chocolate every single day.” About three and a half years ago, she decided to start eating right to shed the weight.

“What I do now is I work out a bit but I eat a healthy good meal in small portions.” She admits she’s human, as her resolve tends to crumble when she enters a cake shop and she still eats chocolate.

“Everything in moderation. I wake up early at 5.30am to go to the market every day, so it’s like a workout. It’s tiring but it’s worth it to meet all your friends like the aunties and uncles in the market.”

When she first returned to Malaysia, she saw many misconceptions such as eating gluten-free food or chicken breast with no skin. “It’s not true at all you have to eat gluten-free food unless you have celiac disease. It’s processed food that’s bad for you and a lot of people do not understand that.”

All the food served by The Rebellious Chickpea is prepared from proper ingredients like fresh vegetables and ayam kampung or free-range chicken. Allison also puts her foot down on processed foods.“There’s only one process, which is me cooking the food that I get from the market and I flavour with whatever I have. That’s it!”

Allison credits her mother as her biggest culinary influence. “From her, I got this passion to cook and I started to know all about markets, which is cheaper and fresher compared to shopping in a supermarket.” As a child, Allison lived in Ipoh with her aunt but her holidays would be spent with her mother who ran a chap fan or economy rice place in Pertama Kompleks. “She would take me to Chow Kit and we’d ride the pink minibus.”

Allison likes to cook with her instincts, making up the dish as she slowly preps the ingredients

Even though her mother could have passed down her cooking skills to her, Allison preferred to pursue a diploma in culinary arts at KDU. Subsequently, she interned at Rasa Sayang Hotel in Penang. “It was full of aunties and uncles who taught me stuff you can’t get anywhere.” She also believes her mixed parentage – her father is Indian Portuguese and her mother is Chinese – exposed her to a richer heritage of cuisines. In addition, her aunt also influenced her in Western cuisine such as baking breads, pies and pastries.

Initially, Allison preferred to bake and took up jobs with the Rotiboy bakery when it first started and Strudels that was popular for its flaky apple strudels. “I wanted to learn to bake stuff as I wanted to understand food properly instead of just homecooked stuff or what I learned from college as I knew that was just not enough.”

​Nowadays, Allison cooks more savoury items. “I don’t know how I switched from baking to savoury items but it just happened one day and I kept doing it as I saw my mother doing the same.” Even though Allison is not so well versed with Chinese food, she’ll still add her own twist to the classic dishes.

What sets The Rebellious Chickpea apart from its peers is their fun approach with their food. Their weekly menus devised by Allison can be inspired by anything that catches her fancy. For instance, “scattered brains” was picked from a random phrase in a book, while “green eggs and ham” was from Allison’s favourite Dr Seuss book.

Only the freshest vegetables from Cameron Highlands can qualify for The Rebellious Chickpea’s healthy meals

Every Wednesday, they serve up a surprise meal, which often have their regulars excited with anticipation. Once they served a Maldivian fish wrap and a customer asked how to eat it, which Allison replied, “Do whatever you want.”  

Allison cooks from the heart to create tasty and unique dishes you won’t typically find in a food delivery service. Her creativity stems from the fresh produce she discovers in the Chow Kit market. “When I’m in the market I do have a fixed thing I’m going to put into the dish but as I’m walking around, I spot something that looks fresh and decide to use that in the dish.”

That spark has seen her serve items like cold prawn and mangosteen salad or even charcoal noodles with feta sambal. “Every day is an adventure for me and it’s tough. Writers hit the wall and chefs hit the same. When that happens at 5.30am in the morning, I walk around and have my coffee with roti bakar before I decide what to buy.”

Since vegetables from Cameron Highlands change daily, she picks up only the freshest vegetables to use in her cooking.

The Rebellious Chickpea also sells pre-packed products like trail mix and goji berries

Once their menu comes out for the five days, customers can select their meals by ordering a day ahead. An order for two meals at RM16 per meal means your delivery charges can be waived. “We don’t charge delivery but we get people to order more.” Allison suggests that the extra meal can be shared with a fellow colleague.

They also sell all kinds of products that a customer who orders a single meal can purchase. “We tell them we have products and we’ll waive the delivery fee if they buy a product from us.” These products include their trail mix, pulverised chia seeds and goji berries, which are all pesticide-free.

At a recent bazaar, they debuted a delicious homemade lemon curd made from free range eggs, and strawberry balsamic vinegar that goes well with salads and chocolate cake. Recycling for the jars is also encouraged whereby RM1 is deducted from future purchases if a jar is returned. Some customers also return their plastic lunchboxes so they can be reutilised for storage purposes.

Originally when they first started, it was still a niche enterprise with a few players in the market. Nowadays, more competitors are jumping on the bandwagon. “It’s good as there’s a demand but people tend to compare us.

We’re not a detox food delivery but we practise sustainable living, something you can maintain the rest of your life,” says Edeareena.

Zucchini for the pasta is slowly cooked on a pan before everything is tossed together (left). Their signature BBQ ayam kampung is drizzled with their homemade BBQ sauce and paired with a tangy coleslaw made from cabbage, red cabbage and rice vinegar (right)

Even though the business is growing, both of them admit it’s scary to expand. “Now that we’re heading there, we’re both tak larat to expand. It’s scary for us, as if we expand, we will get problems.”

Taking a big step forward, the duo will soon be moving to their central kitchen in Bangsar. Currently, they cater for special customisation meals including dinner for recovering cancer patients or people with diabetes.

They hope to expand their daily repertoire to include dinner to others. Their central kitchen will be the pick-up point for these meals. “We want to move to Bangsar as we notice people around that area want dinner meals.

Moreover, picking up food in central Kuala Lumpur after office hours is a nightmare.”

The Rebellious Chickpea Delivery Service can be contacted by calling 012-6953803 (Allison) or by emailing therebelliouschickpea@gmail.com Check their Facebook page for the weekly menu at https://www.facebook.com/TheRebelliousChickpea