In 2016, after almost five years of living in Abu Dhabi with her husband Ajin M P, Lakshmi Raj returned to Kerala. But her return was marked with certain setbacks.
“In Abu Dhabi, I used to get instant food products, which made cooking easier and less time consuming,” she recalls in a conversation with The Better India. “However, after I settled back here, I found it hard to get these instant food mixes, especially grated coconut.”
Lakshmi says that most dishes native to Kerala use some form of coconut — grated, ground, or milk. “Even in a curry or salad, we use coconuts. Having to grate it the traditional way every time was proving to be difficult for me. Even though Kerala has plenty of coconut trees, grated coconut is not easily available here in the market. I searched for it in shops and supermarkets, but couldn’t find good quality products,” she says. This predicament led her to start her food venture, Easy ‘n’ Fresh, in 2016.
Lakshmi, who is an MBA…