BBQ hotplates are usually the home of sizzling chops and sausages, but Let Them Eat’s Tanya Agius proves that you don’t need meat to create a tasty charred treat (although cheese helps).

Let Them Eat makes solely vegetarian dishes, but head chef and co-founder Tanya Agius says that’s not really the point.

“It is more about it being good and wholesome healthy food made with heaps of whole grains and legumes,” she says.

Tanya Agius

 

“I would say it comes from my family background. My dad was Maltese and my mum is right into food, and we never had take away or anything like that.

“There was a lot of vegetarian food around – a lot of people don’t realise that Mediterranean food is often vegetarian. It is not about it being vegetarian, it is just about the fact it is made with vegetables and maybe some cheese – it just happens not to have meat in it.” 

This approach to food has proved very successful for Tanya and partner Danielle Frankish, who started Let Them Eat more than six years ago and have been running to keep up with its evolution and growth ever since.

Originally a wholesale business, the company has moved on completely from that style of operation and now has several different modes. The pair’s permanent shop frontage at the Central Market serves breakfast and lunch, while the catering arm of the business provides for everything from office shindigs to weddings and events, all while Let Them Eat continues to maintain a presence at various farmers’ markets.

There’s nothing like a good bit of charring for flavour

With a background as a chef in fine dining restaurants including Windy Point and Magill Estate, Tanya chose to start something of her own because she has “so many ideas” and thought she might be able to achieve a better work-life-balance out of a traditional kitchen setting.  The latter assumption now makes her laugh.

‘’I was wanting to do something that was a little bit more flexible and would give me a bit more lifestyle and now I have worked harder than I ever had before,” she says.

Nonetheless, Tanya is clearly excited by the business and delighted by the response of customers. She and Dani work hands-on with Let Them Eat everyday – still going out to events and running market stalls – and the strength of customer sentiment often takes them by surprise.

“A few months after we opened the Central Market stall, I went and sat there and watched the lunch period and I couldn’t believe how busy we were. But the staff said it was normal, that we are like that all the time,” says Tanya.

“I always try to expand the product list but people get very attached. There are some things that we do that are seasonal so you can’t do them all the time, but there are some things we make, like the fritters, which you just can’t take off the menu because people get very upset.”

Having fully ingrained themselves in people’s palates, Tanya and Dani are now considering the future. A couple of new, regular market positions – one at the recently-launched Gawler Farmers’ Market – are in the works.

A bigger project, a new shopfront that might go some way to filling the hole left when Let Them Eat closed their Croydon café location after the lease ended, is also on the cards. 

“We have a vision of opening somewhere – probably on the other side of town,” says Tanya. “But that is in the longer term. If I had my way it would be much sooner, but we are known for rushing things so we’re just going to take the time to find the right spot.”

In the meantime, there are still plenty of places to find Tanya’s food – or you could make your own version of the salad she cooked for us on the BBQ, which Tanya says is everything a Let Them Eat dish should be: “simple, fresh and very tasty”.

Ingredients

–  1 red capsicum, quartered
–  1 small red onion, cut into chunks and skewered
–  3 green chillies – seeds set aside and de-veined
–  ½ a sweet pineapple – skinned, and cut into rounds
–  300gm haloumi, sliced
–  ¼ tspn ground cumin
–  ¼ tspn dried ginger
–  4 tblspn olive oil
–  1 lemon
–  1 lime
–  1 bunch coriander
–  Salt and pepper to taste
–  Baby cos lettuce leaves

Method

Put the capsicum, chillies, pineapple and onion skewers in a bowl and rub with olive oil to coat.

Heat about three tablespoons of olive oil on the BBQ grill and, once hot, place capsicum, chilli, pineapple and haloumi slices and onion skewers on the grill. Turn as each side begins to caramelise and char.

Remove each item as it is browned – it does not need to be cooked through, just browned – and place aside to cool.

Once cool, finely dice all grilled produce and combine in a salad bowl.

Chop the bunch of coriander and add to the bowl along with all the reserved chilli seeds, the juice of the lime, juice of the lemon, cumin, ginger, remaining olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.

Stir to combine fully, and then serve in baby cos leaves.