oUr sTOry
This story started over in Sri Lanka where a Scot (Alastair) and a Belgian (Hannah) fell in love with each other.
Having both come from families who relished world cuisines, we leant-in to the local foods - smashing daal, sambal, and roti for all three meals became a common occurrence. What truly sparked the original idea however, was the late-night, face-in-the-bowl, non-verbal feeds after a night out. The quick food grab was not the European standard of fat, salt, and sugar, it was instead a vibrant, hearty bowl of lentils.
We wanted a convenient, plant-based option for lentil consumption on home turf.
Back home — traveling between Scotland and Belgium — our spice tolerance went back to the European average and it became hard to find our go-to-meal: supermarket daal was either bland or too fiery, and restaurant daal was expensive and a wee bit too formal.
Enough is enough - we got into gear.
Before long, our kitchen turned into a daal lab, with countless cooking sessions and tasting nights shared with friends, family, neighbours and strangers — those who already loved daal, and those who quickly learned to.
It soon became clear that the real reason people don’t eat daal more often is simple:
they just don’t have a daaler.
A year of refining recipes and eating our daal almost daily!
Proudly presenting our first final daal (the red one) on a dinner with all our neighbours!
Falling in love with Edinburgh! Choice made - Hannah's moving from Belgium to Scotland!
aBoUt uS
ALASTAIR
With a background in graphic design and an unshakable entrepreneurial drive, it came naturally for him to pour his whole heart into this project. What started as a shared love for good food quickly became a creative mission — to make something that looks as good as it tastes.
For him, being a daaler is about more than serving great food; it’s about building something from scratch, shaping ideas into reality, and making sure every little detail — from the logo to the ladle — tells the same story. He’s the visual storyteller, the brand architect, and the guy who somehow keeps everything both beautiful and functional.
When he’s not “taste-testing” for the tenth time (for R&D, obviously), he’s the one keeping the ideas flowing and making a plan to bring them to life. He’s the perfect mix of dreamer and realist — the one who can imagine big, bold ideas and then actually make them happen.
HANNAH
With a Master’s in Environmental Engineering and having long been fascinated by the environmental and health benefits of a plant-based diet, she chose to dedicate herself fully to promoting sustainable choices through something as simple and essential as food. After a year pursuing a PhD in biological wastewater treatment, she made the leap — trading lab coats for aprons — to become a full-time Daaler.
With a background in industrial microbiology, she’s endlessly curious about how the microbiome connects to everything — from digestion and mental health to sustainable agriculture. She came to see that lentils contribute to wellbeing along the entire food chain: they enrich the soil, nourish the body, and support a healthy gut.
For her, being a Daaler is about making good, honest food accessible to everyone, driving the shift toward plant-based protein, and standing firmly against the waste and harm of industrial animal farming. It’s about promoting sustainable eating without ever compromising on flavour or experience.