Adding fermented vegetables to the first course of a meal is common in Ukrainian cuisine, and one of the most popular pickled-vegetable dishes is sauerkraut soup. It might sound a little odd, but trust me it's breathtaking. This recipe is from my cookbook The Authentic Ukrainian Kitchen, and is so easy to make that you can prepare it every week throughout the cold season.
Over the years, France has been blurred out of chicken Kiev's origin story. Its namesake, after all, is Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine (formerly spelt as Kiev before 1995). However, one origin story suggests it originated in Paris in the late 1840s, where Russian chefs came to learn more about haute cuisine, and brought back a dish called Mikhailovsky (or Novo-Mikhailovsky) cutlet.
Since February 2022, however, her feed has been loaded with heart-wrenching posts about her family in Ukraine and the deep fear she feels for her homeland since the invasion by Russian troops. While she continues to cook her way through the fear and grief for a homeland now altered in many ways beyond recognition, Olia remains a voice for the Ukrainian people, its past and its heritage.
