nombo presents
Our story.
How two siblings started selling chicken meatballs.
Scroll to follow the routeThe introduction
Different in every way. Same chicken breast.
My sister is health-conscious. I’m just incredibly vain.
My sister is super busy. I'm just kinda lazy.
So while we’re different in every way imaginable, somehow we always find ourselves eating the same thing: chicken breast. It’s high in protein, low in fat, and generally a helpful addition to any meal.
The problem
Chicken breast usually sucks to eat.
The problem? It usually sucks to eat.
Have you ever put a chunk of chicken breast in your mouth and found yourself chewing for three business days, yet all the saliva in the world doesn’t seem to be doing anything? Yeah, that sucks.
Or picked up pre-packaged chicken breast from a certain convenience store that rhymes with “Beven Peleven” and thought, “This isn’t bad, but it doesn’t really taste like food either”? Yeah, me too.
The first batch
So she said, “Screw it. I’ll do it myself.”
After years of being disappointed by what was out there, my sister finally said, “Screw it. I’ll do it myself.”
One day, she decided to throw minced chicken breast, herbs, spices, and whatever else she thought made sense into a stand mixer, roll it into balls, and chuck it in the oven.
What she had created, completely unbeknownst to us at the time, was nombo V1.
She pulled the tray out of the oven, ran straight to my room with a meatball on a fork, and said, “TRY THIS. NOW.”
As someone who will happily put almost anything in my mouth, I did as I was told. Just as the meatball hit my lips, she said, “It’s pure chicken breast.”
My mind was blown. The earth shattered. This was the first time since 2012 that I’d eaten chicken breast without having water within arm’s reach.
TRY THIS.
NOW.
The meatball hoard
We built a hoard. The thieves arrived.
And that was the beginning. We kept a ready supply of these magical chicken meatballs and did weekly meal preps. But it was never enough, because we live in a world of thieves.
Even though we had laid claim to our meatball hoard, vultures began circling our treasure.
First, my girlfriend: “Ooooh, what’s that? Lemme try.” She’s been hooked ever since.
Then came my dad. One fateful night, he had the meatballs for supper, and he’s been bleeding our supply dry ever since.
The list goes on. Eventually, even our cousin, a mother of three, started taking the meatballs home to feed her spawn. She said they loved them, and that they were quick to prepare, preservative-free, and low in sodium.
All this thievery, happening in broad daylight. Stealing our gains. Stealing our balls.
Ooooh, what’s that? Lemme try.
The kids LOVE them!
The realisation
Maybe we were being selfish.
At some point, my sister and I had to face the truth.
Maybe we were being selfish.
nombo genuinely makes it easier to eat healthy, nutritious, protein-rich food. Why wouldn’t we want that for our friends, our family, our community, and yes... you?
So we set out to share our discovery with the world.
The recipe lab
Good was not good enough.
We knew we had a good product, but it needed to be perfect. Consistently perfect.
We needed meatballs you could keep frozen for months, meatballs that stayed juicy after being thrown into an air fryer, microwave, or oven.
So we tested recipe after recipe until we got there.
Each serving of 3 meatballs: 30g of protein. 168 calories. Less than 4g of fat. Ready to eat in minutes. Preservative-free. Low in sodium.
And here we are
More flavours. More people. More combos.
Then people told us they wanted more variety. So we listened.
Working from the base recipe we worked so hard to perfect, we built four flavours:
- Chilli & Garlic
- Shiitake Mushroom
- Herb & Garlic
- Spring Onion & Sesame
And here we are today. In our first three months, we sold over 6,000 meatballs. That’s 2,000 meals with clean, healthy protein.
Even better, nombos have found their way to people we never expected to get excited about chicken breast: mothers, grandmothers, and people who have never stepped into a gym, but simply love the way eating healthy makes them feel.
Along the way, you’ve shown us more ways to enjoy nombos than we ever could have imagined. Every nombo combo you share gives us inspiration for our own meals, and ideas for future flavours.
Chilli & GarlicShiitake
MushroomHerb & GarlicSpring Onion
& Sesame
The end, for now
Welcome to the nombo family.
Thank you for reading our story, for sharing your combos, and for becoming part of it.
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