AnOther Dish invites chefs and notable food lovers to share a recipe of personal significance, using the food we return to as a way of revealing something about the person behind it.

“My mum always told me I was naughty as a kid, and you could say that’s where much of my cooking style comes from. That’s also what inspired the name Healgoblin: the ‘heal’ is for the nourishment at the heart of my cooking, while the ‘goblin’ is because I’m inherently mischievous in the way I do things.

“As a child, one of the few times I did exactly as I was told was when we were making mantı. It was one of the special dishes my mum had the patience to spend the whole day cooking with me. Mantı are little Turkish dumplings filled with minced meat, boiled and served with garlic yoghurt, then finished with droplets of Aleppo pepper and mint butter. They’re incredibly indulgent, but because we’d worked so hard to make them, they always felt deliciously guilt-free by the time we sat down to eat. That combination of smoky Aleppo pepper, dried mint and tangy yoghurt still instantly reminds me of home. I like to call it the triple threat.

“This summer, I’ve been obsessed with shredded chicken salads, and I wanted to bring some nostalgia to the dish by incorporating the flavours of mantı. For me, food is about creating an experience and inviting people into a moment. Taste and smell, in particular, have such a powerful connection to memory; with yoghurt, Aleppo pepper and mint, you can almost travel back in time. Food is like a portal, a time machine, and that’s what I love most about it. I’m far more interested in tasting your grandmother’s food than that of some old male Michelin-starred chef. If people were a little bit braver, food would be way more enjoyable. I’m always going to do what I want to do and be experimental with the food I make.”

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Best known for catering to London’s fashion crowd, Turkish chef and culinary artist Nil Mutluer, AKA Healgoblin, approaches food as both nourishment and a medium for storytelling. She creates inventive plates from seasonal, often simple ingredients, many of which she forages herself. Her work has seen her collaborate with brands such as Miu Miu, Acne Studios, Aesop, Ffern and Penhaligon’s. In July, she created a monumental edible centrepiece for the British Fashion Council’s Summer Party at the Serpentine Gallery, featuring two rust-coloured marzipan cake sculptures surrounded by more than 200 miniature cakes. Only yesterday (27 August), for the opening of London-based label Chopova Lowena’s first bricks-and-mortar store, she made a strawberry, raspberry, lychee and lime red velvet cake coated in black icing and studded with edible pearly embellishments – an oversized confection that echoed the label’s brash, folkloric world and Bulgarian heritage, right down to the blackened teeth partygoers left with.

Her approach to cooking is rooted in a lifelong relationship with food. Mutluer cannot remember a time when she didn’t know how to cook, having learned in Turkey from her mother and grandmother, who lived on a farm surrounded by the rhythms of seasonal produce. As a child, she foraged for wild oregano and rose petals, turning them into jam, and gathered mushrooms from the forest floor to infuse soups and stocks. Even then, she had mastered the art of boiling the perfect jammy egg. 

Mutluer considers cooking her second career. After moving to London for a master’s degree in an unrelated field, she began exploring professional kitchens almost by accident, staging at Michelin-starred Cycene, where a friend was head chef. She learned largely by watching and doing, taking on the jobs no one else wanted, like sculpting flowers from thinly sliced turnips. From there, she taught herself on the fly, moving from smaller gigs to increasingly ambitious commissions before joining Sessions Arts Club in June 2025, where she spent a year. She eventually left full-time restaurant work behind to devote herself to her own projects, while continuing to return to Sessions for guest residencies. 

For her chosen dish, Mutluer brings the smoky and tangy flavours that infused the kitchens of her childhood to the summery shredded chicken salad. Below, she shares her method for making it.

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Shredded Chicken with Cucumber, Crispy Mung Beans, Garlic Yoghurt and Mint & Aleppo Pepper Oil

Serves two.

Ingredients

1 large chicken breast
1 bay leaf, optional
1 cup cooked mung beans, well drained (this could also be green lentils, chickpeas or any other tinned or cooked pulses you have at home)
¼ iceberg lettuce, very finely shredded
⅓ large cucumber
3 tbsp thick Greek yoghurt
1 small garlic clove
1 lemon
1½ tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
Aleppo pepper
Dried mint
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt

Method

1. Bring a pot of water to a full boil with a bay leaf, if using. Once boiling, turn the heat completely off and immediately add the raw chicken breast. Cover with a lid and leave it undisturbed for 20 minutes. The residual heat gently poaches the chicken, keeping the breast incredibly juicy without having to watch or regulate the temperature. I often leave it sitting in the water for longer, even up to an hour, and it stays beautifully tender. Remove from the water, allow to cool slightly, then shred very finely by hand.
2. For the crispy mung beans, make sure they are already cooked, then drain and dry them really well. You can absolutely use ready-cooked tinned pulses here too, whether that’s green lentils, chickpeas or whatever you already have at home. Crush the cumin and coriander seeds in a spice grinder or with a pestle and mortar, and set half of the crushed spices aside for later. Toss the mung beans with a splash of olive oil, half of the crushed spices, a little Aleppo pepper and salt. Roast at 180°C until dry and properly crispy, giving them a toss every so often. Different pulses will take slightly different amounts of time, so don’t worry too much about the clock. You’re just looking for a good crunch.
3. Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scoop out the soft, seedy centre with a spoon, then slice it into thin half-moons. Combine with the finely shredded iceberg and shredded chicken. Add the crispy mung beans, the remaining crushed cumin and coriander seeds, some finely grated lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Toss everything gently with your hands until well dressed. I love the extra spices and lemon zest here because they make the whole salad much more aromatic while still keeping it really fresh.
4. For the yoghurt, microplane just a tiny amount of garlic into the Greek yoghurt. You almost just want the smell of garlic to be there, rather than an overpowering garlic flavour. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and mix. If the yoghurt is too thick, loosen it with a tiny splash of cold water. You’re looking for something creamy and pourable, just slightly thicker than single cream.
5. To make the mint and Aleppo pepper oil, gently warm some olive oil in a small pan. Add the mint and pepper and let them bloom in the warm oil for a few seconds, then take it off the heat before the spices begin to burn.
6. Spoon the garlic yoghurt onto the base of a large plate, spreading it into a loose pool. Pile the shredded chicken salad generously on top, then finish with the warm mint and Aleppo pepper oil spooned all over.