With lifestyles increasingly time-pressed it’s often cooking that falls to the wayside. And while the microwaveable meal is undoubtedly convenient, its levels of flavour and nutrition tend to fall into question. Making the pre-made meal equal parts easy and delicious is exactly the task that chef Tobie Puttock has undertaken with his latest project.

Alongside working with close comrade Jamie Oliver on his Australian restaurant empire, Tobie has turned his attention to launching his own ready-made meal. The results is SuperNatural, a plant-based chilled meal made in collaboration with friend and 3 Degrees Director, David Abela.

The preservative and additive-free meals have been a long time coming says Tobie. “I’ve been tinkering with different ready-made food concepts for about six years,” he says. Both of SuperNatural’s current two offerings – a Mushroom, Thyme & Potato Pasta, and an Indian Coconut Curry – are vegetarian for a reason says Tobie. “As a chef, using quality produce is non-negotiable. I was unable to source meat products that would be affordable for consumers without compromising on quality or my ethics regarding animal welfare,” he explains.

When designing the dishes Tobie also noticed that vegetarian meal options, in particular, were rather limited. “My wife Georgia stopped eating meat about ten years ago which dramatically reduced my own meat consumption, so I started looking into the space, which at the time consisted mainly of faux meat and tofu. A ready-to-eat vegetarian product following my ethos of cooking simply without additives made total sense to me. My business partner David and his wife Rebecca (also veggie) really championed the idea and together we’ve brought SuperNatural to market.”

The resulting range hopes to change the reputation of the ready made meal market. “Forget what you think you know about ready-made meals,” says Tobie. “For starters it tastes really good. We tasted a lot of different products in a similar category and found them lacking as a whole.”

The immediate response to the SuperNatural range has been overwhelmingly positive says David Abela. “The market has responded extremely well to our ready to eat, plant-based meals, in fact we’ve sold three times more than we expected to in SuperNatural’s first month of launching,” he says.

Which means the duo already have plans in place for what’s next. “We have big plans for SuperNatural. Several new products are currently in development and my brain is ticking over with ideas which I’m playing around with at home. Hopefully we will have new products on the shelves soon but the process of concept to shelf is a long one,” says Tobie.

But the vegetarian slant will remain. “Vegetarians and vegans, as well as anyone keen to reduce their meat consumption, need quality meal options readily available to them. And with vegetarians making up approximately 10 percent of Australians (and these figures are rapidly growing), we’re very happy to be launching more products to expand our range to offer more variety for our customers,” explains David.