How Aahana’s Naturals Is Reimagining Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life

Summary

In this conversation, Evan J. Cholfin interviews Sonal Khakhar, founder and CEO of Aahana's Naturals, about her journey from being a clinical dietitian in India to launching a plant-based convenience food brand in the US. Sonal discusses the inspiration behind her innovative lentil bowls, the challenges of maintaining authenticity while adapting traditional recipes for modern consumers, and her strategies for navigating the competitive ready-to-eat meal market. She emphasizes the importance of clean ingredients, consumer education, and the brand's mission to promote healthy eating. The conversation also touches on future goals for expansion and the trends in plant-based nutrition.


Takeaways

Sonal's journey began as a clinical dietitian in India.
The inspiration for Ahana's Naturals came from a personal need for convenient nutrition.
Ahana means 'inner happiness' in Sanskrit, reflecting the brand's mission.
The lentil bowls are designed to be nourishing, convenient, and culturally rooted.
Sonal emphasizes the importance of sprouting lentils for nutrient density.
Maintaining authenticity while modernizing traditional recipes is a key challenge.
The brand targets a broad spectrum of consumers, including students and outdoor enthusiasts.
Whole Foods has been a supportive partner in retail expansion.
Consumer education is crucial for introducing traditional foods like khichdi to American audiences.
Sonal is focused on marketing strategies that highlight clean ingredients and mindful eating.

Sound bites

"Aahana means inner happiness."
"We participate in all the local shows."
"We believe in mindful eating."


Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Ahana's Naturals
03:05 Sonal's Journey from Dietitian to Entrepreneur
05:30 Creating Convenient Nutrition with Cultural Heritage
07:24 Challenges in Maintaining Authenticity
09:43 Educating Consumers on Kichdi and Its Benefits
11:56 Navigating the Competitive Ready-to-Eat Meal Space
13:21 Expansion Plans and Brand Positioning
15:24 Marketing Strategies and Consumer Engagement
17:21 Future Goals and Achievements

Video: https://youtu.be/i9kOYaJLU1U

Transcript

Welcome to "A Healthier, Happier You: 0:30

The People Working to Make it Happen". I'm Evan J. Cholfin from LUXHAMMER where we help the brands that help you live healthier. Today, I'm joined by Sonal Khakhar founder and CEO of Aahana's Naturals, who's pioneering convenient nutrition with her innovative lentil bowls. With over 15 years of experience as a clinical dietitian, and a fascinating journey from India to entrepreneurship in the US., she's bringing traditional wisdom to modern convenience foods. Sonal, thanks for being here. Thank you, Evan. So, your journey from clinical dietician in India to food entrepreneur in the US is fascinating. What inspired you to create Aahana's Naturals? So, just a little bit about myself. Like my journey started in the world of wellness about over 15 to 18 years ago, where I worked back in India as a school and clinical dietitian. We planned nutritious meals for the school program and we educated the children to make healthy choices. Even as far as our clients are concerned, we worked on improving their health, not only through planned diets or medications or anything, but through mindful balance eating rooted with Ayurveda principles and clean nutrition. So I realized it wasn't long before I then realized that even in spite of all my knowledge, I really struggled finding meals that were both nourishing as well as convenient, especially during the busy weekdays when you just don't have time to cook. It's like, no matter how hard you try, it's just so difficult. So, that gap inspired me to create something that I couldn't find on the store shelves. Meals that are truly clean, made with real ingredients, they are simple, like everyday meals that are just ready in minutes. And that's how Aahana's sprouted Power Bowls were born. They are plant-based, gluten-free, shelf-stable, made with clean ingredients. We sprout our lentils to increase their nutrient density, bold flavors, and without any compromise. They reflect everything that I stand for, nutrition, simplicity, cultural heritage, and accessibility, which is the most important thing because you can find everything maybe sometimes online or in stores, but it has to be easily accessible otherwise what's the point of convenience food. And I'm incredibly proud to be now on the shelves of Whole Foods in the Northeast area, especially after completing my LEAP Accelerator program, which really helped me a lot in re-reviving and restructuring and positioning ourselves, making it accessible to all, building a brand that empowers people to eat well no matter how busy life gets. Absolutely. You chose a wonderful name. What made you choose it and how does it reflect your mission? That's a very good question and I was hoping someone would ask me. So, Aahana is a Sanskrit word. It means "inner happiness" and "the first ray of sun," which is supposed to be very energizing and that is what our mission is. We want to create foods that not only nourish your body but also your mind. So that's the whole mission behind creating these foods. So, you've taken traditional khichdi and transformed it into a modern convenience food. What challenges did you face in maintaining authenticity while making it shelf stable? So One of the core values, actually, that is what has shaped Aahana's. that still drives me into everything that I do, is that everyday food shouldn't be just healthy. It should be nourishing. It should be vibrant. And it should be enjoyable. So that may sound simple, but surprisingly, it's so hard to find in today's, even with the wide food landscape that we have. We changed the traditional khichdi into something that is more acceptable to the modern society. We enhanced the flavors. So the base recipe of what we have in all our four flavors is the traditional khichdi. But what we have done is we have changed the proportion of the lentils and the grain. But the base principle that we have to mix a lentil with the grain to make it a complete protein that is equivalent in quality to animal protein always stays. So we have that, we enhance the flavors and the most important thing that we did is we sprouted our lentils. So sprouting increases the nutrient density and makes the food very easy to digest. And after that, what we did is we, the most important step is we started freeze drying our products. Freeze drying increases the nutrient density of the food without any need to add any preservatives. We just add hot water and it preserves the food's original nutrients, colors, and flavors. So the base of all the four bowls is still the traditional cultural recipes that we have, which just enhance to make it more accessible to the modern times. That's wonderful. So, where are you focusing most of your energy in the business right now? Right now, especially with the launch of Whole Foods, we are trying to make ourselves more accessible, visible, and bring awareness to the people who do not know anything about the brand as yet because we really haven't been very retail oriented so far. We had been an e-commerce company when we started off. It wasn't actually by choice. We started off around COVID. So, it just took a natural turn on focusing our time and energy on e-commerce, which really helped us understand our consumers. And that's why with the rebrand that we just did like a few, not even a month, I would say. Yeah, it would be about four to six weeks ago. Helped us shape and get everything in the bowl that the consumers wanted, desired, and had some feedback on the original recipe. So we made it more bolder. We made the structure better. Originally the khichri recipe, the khichri is supposed to be porridge-like and that's what we originally had. But after getting a lot of feedback, we realized that people like texture in their food. So, we made the grains a little firmer. We changed the type of lentils that we used. So we've made so many changes. And that's thanks to the e-commerce at first, where we started. participated in all the local shows, consumer shows, and we took first-hand feedback from everyone and brought everything out with this new rebrand. That's wonderful. Who would you say is your ideal customer and how are they discovering you? So we actually have a very broad spectrum of customers. Beginning from students in colleges, we are in, I would say, not most of, but a lot of colleges and universities in the Boston area, like BU, BC, Northeastern, Wellesley, just to name a few, UMass. So the student is one population that we target and who really enjoy our products. And the others, second part to it is it's like a work lunch. People love to have it at their desk. Now there's kind of a transition happening between work from home and work going to office. So it's very handy. So we have a lot of people using it for lunches. And the third thing which we focus on during the summer months is the outdoor industry. People use it when they're going for their hiking trips or anything to do with outdoors travel. So we really have a wide spectrum of people using our products. As a food brand focused on traditional recipes, what's been your biggest challenge in scaling while maintaining quality? The biggest challenge was to make that transition from that soft porridge kind of texture to get more hearty grains and to maintain the freshness and the same fresh experience after reconstituting the food. The reason I use the word reconstituting, although it's not a very commonly used term, is we want to differentiate between dehydrating and freeze drying. There's a world of difference and freeze drying actually retains the food's nutrients as I mentioned. At the same time dehydrating food actually kills the nutrients because the food actually has to go through a very very high temperature to extract all the moisture from it. So our biggest challenge has and has been to give that fresh taste, look, and feel, which I feel with the new branding and the change in the texture, we have achieved it, but we've just launched in Whole Foods, so the market will speak and the customers will speak. If there's any room for improvement, we are a small business, we make food in small batches, so we are constantly there to improve till we finally nail it. But I think with these new flavors and the branding, our consumers are going to love it. That's great. So, how are you addressing the education gap around khichdi and its benefits for American consumers? So, the first thing that we did is we moved away from the term khichdi. We kind of translated it to what the American consumers would understand. So we started calling it sprouted power bowls. Sprouting because we want to highlight the fact that that's how we differentiate ourselves, that we want to sprout our lentils to increase their nutrient density. We made the branding and the positioning of the brand in a way that the consumers find it easy to understand. Even when it's a flavor profile, like we have used flavors that traditionally the base is the Indian flavor profile, but we've kind of adapted it to the modern lifestyle. Say for example, toasted curry is one of our flavors. It's very rich, deeply roasted spices in clay pots that really feel warm and grounded with a little bit of smoky and bold flavor. So the toasted curry, the name by itself would suggest that. And then, we have say, coconut and ginger is one of the flavors. It's more softer, creamier side. It's comforting and smooth with a gentle kick off spice. We really tone down on the spice, which that was a feedback we had also received earlier. Then we have the spinach and garlic flavor with mung beans. It's a dish that's inspired by my mother. We used to make it weekly at home. Like literally it was our everyday food. It's very humble, nourishing, but quietly very addictive. Like if you try that flavor, like I think that's going to be the favorite for everyone. And then of course, we have the classic masala, but the name by itself, masala has become like almost a mainstream term, like how we have naan, we have biryani, but masala kind of flavor is becoming the mainstream flavor. And it's like our ode to the everyday dal that we make. It's simple, but layered with familiar spices that wrap around you like something that you really don't know that you've missed it. Maybe it's like because we grew up with it. But I'm sure even the modern palate is getting familiar to Indian taste and flavors. So, although we have maintained the base flavor as the Indian flavor, we really modernized it to make it more appealing and acceptable to the main American. consumer. That's really good. How are you navigating the competitive ready to eat meal space? So, our main differentiating factors where we really want to, I would really want to scream and talk about it is that we use clean ingredients. increase our nutrient density. We have 12 to 14 grams of fiber in each cup. And we are gluten-free plant-based. We blend our lentils with grains to make a complete protein which is compatible in quality to animal proteins. So with all these factors, and it's convenient, you just add hot water and it's ready in five minutes. With all these factors, we want to bring out the message that convenient food does not have to compromise on the taste or the quality or the nutrition of the food. I feel there is a difference of day and night when it comes to meals in a cup and convenience food where, like imagine having a nutritious meal without oil, without sugar. And you won't even realize that. That's what we are trying to bring forth. No preservatives, no additives, no colors. Yeah, yeah, of course. And What's been your experience breaking into retail stores as a premium plant-based brand? We have been welcomed very, very warmly, I would say, into Whole Foods. I feel it's the brand very much represents and we are proud to be on the shelves of Whole Foods. Like it's one of the most premium chains in the country. And I feel they're one of the best partners you can work with. Not that we are in any other retail for me to compare that. But it's such a warm feeling to be there because the consumers understand. And it's so easy to pass on the message about what the brand is and to position ourselves and make it easily accessible to the shoppers in Whole Foods. We have started doing a lot of demos, sampling demos, promotions. Although it's just been four weeks that we launched, but... I feel the response has been overwhelming. So we are very, very encouraged by that. So I think with the promotions and the sampling, we will be able to bring awareness. That's great. So, what are your main expansion targets for this year? By the end of this year, we want to try and see if we can get national with Whole Foods and look into similar chains. But we don't want to expand so much where we are not able to focus on our consumers, bring out the message, pass on the marketing thing. So, as far as retail is concerned, Whole Foods and just a natural mom and pop independent stores around the New England area. So, we don't want to spread too much where we are not able to focus on our consumers and our brand. Another place where we want to really, like where we are really doing very well is also Thrive Market. So we want to focus our energy in growing our sales in there and our e-commerce business on our website, getting into colleges, universities, but nothing too great with the nothing too, I would say, spreading wide as far as retail is concerned. So, we just want to focus on Whole Foods for now. What would it take to get there? The velocity of recognition velocity, a lot of support from consumers. So building brand loyalty, social media. And that's the reason like why we don't want to spread too wide is so we can put in all our focused energy on just growing the sales in Whole Foods. So, Whole Foods and e-commerce, those are the two. areas where we want to focus our sales on. Are there new product categories you're considering beyond lentil bowls? Not at the moment. No, not at the moment. We are thinking and we are doing some R &D on some other product lines, but we will not be bringing it out in the near future. It's just we'll do it at the literally in our kitchen for the time being. We just want to stay very, very focused because we are a bootstrap brand. We haven't raised any money so far. So I don't want to like dip my fingers into everything and then, not know where I'm going. How are you currently reaching health conscious consumers? One is through social media. We sell on Amazon as well, so we do get a lot of brand recognition and then people come to our website. For that, we are rebranding the website to reflect the new branding. And with that, we will also be using Google Ads, Meta, to reach out to consumers.

One of the biggest things what we are doing is we participate in all the local shows: 16:32

food shows, vegan shows, gluten-free shows in and around New England area. So we have firsthand contact with the consumers. So that would help. And of course, social media would help. Meta would add, Meta ads, all that stuff. that influence our marketing. So we're just gonna start focusing on some PR just to raise awareness. What marketing messages are resonating most with your audience? I feel clean ingredients and sprouting with 18 grams of complete plant protein, the biggest message would be that the protein that you get from the plant-based proteins, specifically. You cannot just eat lentils as lentils. You have to mix it with a grain to make it a complete protein because the lentils and the grain both lack one amino acid without getting into too many details. But once you have them in the same meal, you complement each other and that's what makes it a complete protein. So it's very important to mix the lentil with a grain to make it a complete protein, which is equivalent in quality to animal protein, which will help you. The big rave about the protein is that everyone wants to build muscles. They want to become fit. They want to lose the body fat and increase the muscle mass. So, when you have a complete protein, in your meals that's what's going to help you increase your muscle mass and increase like if someone is into bodybuilding muscle building of course that would help them too but even for everyday people who may not be into too much of muscle building or bodybuilding you need muscles to have a healthier life so and the only way you can utilize The protein that is coming from lentils is if you blend it with a grain to make it a complete protein. That's a message which we would like to pass. Another thing is also the spices that we've added in our meals are like all based on Ayurveda principles. So we believe in mindful eating. So to me, mindful eating isn't about just being perfect, perfect that, I cook a meal every day at home. It's about... being present when you eat. Even if it's for a moment, I'm life is busy so many times. I've done it so many times. I'm having my lunch while driving. I'm having my lunch while being in a meeting. But it's important to take at least 10 minutes out of your time. You don't need to have a long lunch. And in those 10 minutes, have something that is quick, meaningful, nutritious and it's going to make you feel energetic. So, what trends and plant-based convenience vids excite you the most? The trends that excite me the most are the meals that are coming with clean ingredients, especially the plant-based meals coming out with clean ingredients, ingredients that you can understand, ingredients that are you use in your kitchen, not produced in the labs. So I'm not going to name any specific brand or products. I don't believe in that because each one is there for their own reasons. But I feel meals coming, convenience food coming with clean ingredients and simple plant-based protein instead of proteins made in the labs is something that excites me. There were not too many when the plant-based trend started, but now I do see a lot of products coming up with that and I'm really happy that that space is really growing and people are becoming aware that it's important to have meals made with simple and clean ingredients. Yeah, yeah, I think that's great. So, what will be crucial to get right in the next year? It would be important that we position ourselves well. We find the right audience and expand our reach. So, it's important that we continue growing our velocity with Whole Foods. So, a lot of marketing, a lot of brand awareness, sampling, demos, promos, but just positioning ourselves well. And that's why we don't want to expand too much into other areas and just focus. Whole Foods has a wonderful team and they are so supportive. We just enjoy working with them. They recognize that you are a small brand and you need the support and they believe in what you do. So, I think that's going to be really helpful and they are great partners to work with. So, it's going to be crucial to just follow what they're saying in bringing out the brand awareness. And we're just going to be demoing, demoing, and demoing and try to pass on the message. That's great. So, if we have this conversation again in 12 months, what achievements would you say would make you proudest? Getting national with Whole Foods and growing our sales in the e-commerce specifically our website and Thrive Market and in the independent retail stores but just within the northeast for now. So yeah if we have achieved that like which I'm sure we will, that's going to be our benchmark. Yeah, well, I see it happening, so... Thank you.

Yeah, Well that's it for today's episode of "A Healthier Happier You: 21:41

The People Working to Make it Happen". A huge thank you to Sonal for sharing her insights and the amazing work that you're doing to help people live healthier, happier lives. If you enjoyed this conversation, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could benefit. And if your brand or business is making an impact in health, wellness, or personal care, we'd love to help you grow. Connect with me at Luxhammer.com. Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay healthy, stay happy, and keep making a difference.