Recipes that are healthy and filling are just what we need.
Our current batch of recipes have been created by Olia Hercules for Maldon Salt, as part of the Feel Good Food series running on the Maldon Salt socials.
Today, we present a recipe for Grated Carrot with Herbs and Poppy Seeds.
Olia said: ‘Two things I can always find in my fridge are carrots and herbs. Sometimes the herbs are not at their best but minced finely with some salt they make for a good basis for a dressing. Almost any soft herbs work, and you can vary the spices and seeds that you add.
‘Being Ukrainian I always have an excess of poppy seeds, but sesame and nigella seeds would work really well too. This can be eaten as a salad or as a relish of sorts think cheese or leftover roast pork or chicken stuffed into a pitta bread. It keeps very well in the fridge, becoming a pickle after 24 hours.’
Olia was born in the south of Ukraine in 1984. She left her home town Kakhovka at the age of twelve, when she moved to Cyprus.
After finishing school, she moved to the UK where she studied Italian language and International Relations at the University of Warwick. After spending a year in Italy, Olia settled in London, pursuing a journalistic career after completing her Master’s degree.
Following the financial crisis of 2008, Olia decided to quit her job as a film business reporter to pursue her dream to cook for a living.
She trained at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine and then worked as a chef de partie in restaurants, including Ottolenghi, and as a recipe developer before landing a book deal for Mamushka, a cookbook that celebrates her family recipes, from Ukraine and Moldova to Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan.
Mamushka has won the prestigious Fortnum and Mason Award for best debut cookbook 2016. It has been translated into five languages, and to date has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide. Olia was named the Observer Rising Star of 2015.
Her second cookbook is called Kaukasis: a culinary journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and beyond.
Her third cookbook, Summer Kitchen, with Bloomsbury was published in spring 2020.
Olia lives in London with her son Sasha and husband Joe, writing, cooking and feeding her unceasing curiosity by researching food culture and culinary traditions of countries less explored.
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