Sabra's Middle Eastern influence is spreading throughout town
NORWOOD -- September is a busy time for Boston University dining services director Joshua Hubbard. Students seem to have insatiable appetites, and food deliveries resume at a feverish pace. Hubbard oversees five dining areas and a food court. The challenge is to supply fresh foods and lots of variety.
On these BU menus -- and in cafeterias in colleges and hospitals all over town -- some of the most popular choices are the chickpea spread hummus, the parsley and grain salad tabbouleh, and the smooth, smoky eggplant dip called baba ghanouj. Sabra Foods has been delivering ready-made Middle Eastern specialties for 21 years. Lebanese-born Pierre Saroufim began the company by making what he knew best, using recipes from home.
In an obscure spot behind the Victory Plaza shopping mall here sits an undistinguished building where Sabra Foods makes 12 products, including hummus, tabbouleh, and baba ghanouj, in quantities of about a ton a day. Shipped daily from the plant, they're bound for supermarkets, private labeling, and many local cafeterias.
These low-fat, protein-rich bean spreads and salads play an important role on Boston University's menu for the school's increasingly large number of vegetarians and vegans. "We like to provide alternate proteins, especially those with great flavor profiles," says Hubbard. At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, executive chef Brett Nadeau also serves the Sabra line. Employees, patients, and their families are looking for healthful menu items, he says.
Saroufim already owned Sabra restaurant in Newton Center when he decided to package some of its specialties. He had been in Boston since 1970, when he came to study engineering and a string of part-time jobs turned him toward the food industry. The entrepreneur remembers his first order, from the former Bread & Circus (now Whole Foods) in 1983: "They asked for 200 packages of hummus and tabbouleh." That was fine, recalls Saroufim, until he realized they wanted 200 every day.
But he rose to the challenge, and now his line of preservative-free spreads and salads is available all over the region. Every package is stamped with a "sell by" date, 18 to 20 days from manufacture for salads such as tabbouleh and balela (a chickpea salad), close to a month for hummus and baba ghanouj. Saroufim explains that the tahini oil and citric acid in the spreads act as natural preservatives. You can find hummus with lots of additives and a three-month shelf life in some markets.
Freshness is Saroufim's mantra. Growing up in Lebanon, he says, a "garden salad" meant just that: freshly picked lettuce, tomatoes, and parsley from the backyard, cut up and tossed with a light dressing. Often, a little bulghur, pita bread (for a salad called fattoush), or chickpeas were added. "That's what we call fresh food," he says.
Kathy McManus, director of nutrition at Brigham and Women's Hospital, also buys Sabra products. Selections on the hospital's salad bar include a large assortment of bean, vegetable, and cracked wheat salads. "These are whole foods, part of what the Mediterranean diet is all about," she says. McManus and Karen Purdy-Reilly, director of Brigham and Women's food services, work together to provide employees plenty of healthful choices that are plant-protein-based, low in saturated fat, and high in fiber. Saroufim isn't surprised that his native foods have taken off in this country. Growing up, his diet consisted of vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, and only a little meat. "We were eating the food pyramid without knowing it," he says.
