5 Minutes With the Team from Pauli’s

Words: Crush

We love pickled vegetables. They’re incredibly versatile – great on their own, plus an excellent way to add delicious layers of flavour to sauces, sandwiches, wraps and so much more. Making a good pickle is no easy task – finding that perfect balance of flavour, with the right amount of crunch, is key. These recipes are often closely guarded family secrets, made with love by someone who has had the recipe passed down to them. The story of Pauli’s range of pickles, relishes and condiments is a similar such tale and it started with Nana’s famous recipe. We chat to the husband and wife team behind the brand, Pauli and Dianne.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and what inspired you to create the Pauli’s brand?

Pauli’s desire for our family to eat healthy, preservative-free food, along with his passion for cooking, inspired him and myself (his wife – Dianne), to set up Pauli’s Food Company in 2012. We started Pauli’s with one product – Pauli’s Brinjali, which is Pauli’s Nana’s secret brinjal sauce. She made this sauce for family gatherings and we would finish the bottle in one sitting – it was that good!

So when Pauli came to me and said he wanted to start a company selling this sauce – I said, ‘go for it’. He is the visionary in our company and I am the detailed, organised accountant – so we work well together!

Can you tell us a bit about your product range?

Our product range grew within 2 months of us selling Brinjali at the Maboneng Market on Main (this is where we started). Pauli developed the very yummy Tasty Tomali Relish, which is a delicious tomato relish – a fusion of Indian and Italian flavours. Currently, we have 7 flavours of sauces, 3 of which fit perfectly into the Banting lifestyle (low carb, high fat) as they contain no added sugar (or sweeteners) and all our products are preservative free.

We have also just launched a biltong range that we are really excited about!

What are some of your favourite ways to enjoy your products?

Our products are extremely versatile – I cook with them daily. I love to add Brinjali to a chicken curry; Tomali is perfect added to Bolognese and served with linguine or zucchini pasta; Saffron Chilli Chutney is a perfect addition to a lamb curry or goes beautifully as the sauce to a seafood paella. The Anytime Zucchini & Peppers is great as a salad dressing, or spooned over white fish (with Tomali) and baked in the oven for 15 minutes. And, I love to add Anytime Brinjali and Peppers to my steak just before I serve it – so yum!

All of our sauces can be eaten straight out of the bottle; used as a dip (just add plain yoghurt); as a topping to a toasted sandwich; on crackers; or nachos; or as a topping to a pizza – it just depends what flavour you are looking for on the day.

We like to say – dip, spread, mix or cook with them!

A lot of the Pauli’s products have a strong Indian flavour, can you tell us where this comes from?

Pauli’s Nana Colleen (mentioned above) was born in India and she loved to cook curries and for the family. She moved to South Africa in the 1940s. Pauli grew up in Melrose North (Joburg) and lived opposite his Nana’s house. He would rush to her house after school and always remembers a beautiful curry cooking on the stove for supper. Her culinary skills were a big influence on Pauli’s taste and style of cooking and he attributes his love of good food to his Nana.

Your brand has quite an emphasis on conscious consumerism, how does that affect the way you run your business on a day to day basis?

We always consider where we buy our ingredients; how far they travel to get to us – we obviously try and buy local as much as possible. As an example, the honey we use in one of our sauces is farmed one street down from us in Linden.

We convert our food waste using the Bokashi method (a Japanese way of creating compost) and this compost is used by a community project for growing their vegetables. When they have a large enough supply, we buy the vegetables back from them.

Where can readers find the Pauli’s range?

Our website provides an extensive list of stores where our products are available – paulisfood.com

We are also in the process of setting up an online store which also focuses on beautiful gifting options for individuals and corporates – watch this space.

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