Those who have visited Georgia at least once in their lives forever keep the most pleasant memories of this country. They concern, among other things, its national cuisine, which has a thousand-year history. It contains many original dishes of meat and vegetables, which are rich in Georgian land. And they all have an excellent taste that is hard to forget. In addition, some Georgian soups, such as hashs, are an excellent remedy for a hangover, and sour milk ovuk helps to satisfy hunger in the heat.
Features
As in the cuisines of other southern countries, greens and spices play an important role in Georgian, so many dishes are quite spicy. At the same time, a significant part of the territory of Georgia is occupied by mountainous regions, where it is rather cold in winter. That is why its residents love hot and rather fatty soups on meat (beef, lamb or chicken) broth. They are usually cooked with tomato or vinegar dressing, often with flour and eggs. Moreover, garlic and walnuts, a large amount of cilantro, parsley, tarragon, dill, basil and other herbs are often included in recipes.
Along with meat, Georgian vegetable soups are very popular. No less tasty are first courses based on dairy products, for example, yogurt. So, in the summer in this country the air is very popular, which resembles our okroshka, but with cold lean meat.
Georgian chihirtma soup
If there is a little chicken meat in the house, and guests have come to you, then you can serve the first tasty dish with a lot of aromatic greens. Georgian chihirtma soup is prepared quite simply. To treat 8-9 people, you will need:
- 400 g of chicken;
- a little sugar;
- 1 peeled onion;
- 1 tbsp. l flour (with top) and the same amount of white wine;
- 1 small carrot;
- 2 eggs;
- a small bunch of dill, cilantro and parsley;
- salt;
- 4 cloves of garlic;
- freshly ground pepper.
Cooking Chihirtma
Georgian chicken soup begins to be prepared by slicing it into small pieces and boiling in 2.5 liters of water.
Then:
- take out the chicken meat;
- peeled carrots are rubbed on a coarse grater;
- peel and chop the onion;
- beaten eggs with flour, add lemon juice (white wine) and 2 tbsp. l broth;
- garlic is passed through a crush and, together with vegetables and finely chopped herbs, are sent to a boiling broth;
- put the boiled meat there;
- pour egg dressing;
- season with salt and pepper.
In some versions of the preparation of this dish, a second beaten egg is poured into a chihirtma a thin stream one minute before being removed from the fire and quickly stirred so that flakes appear in the soup.
Hashi
Some Georgian soups, the recipes of which are presented in this article, are present in the cuisines of other peoples of Transcaucasia. True, in each of them, the dish has its own flavor. For example, hash in neighboring Armenia is called hash, it is prepared without milk and served with dried slices of pita bread, garlic, mashed with salt, and with white radish.
To prepare the Georgian version you will need:
- 2 tooth. garlic
- black pepper;
- 1 kg of beef scar ;
- 1/2 kg of beef leg;
- half a glass of milk;
- salt;
- 200 g of Georgian white bread.
Cooking Hashi
Some Georgian soups take a very long time to cook. However, the record holder in this matter, of course, is hash. It is prepared like this:
- they burn the beef leg over the fire, wash it thoroughly, remove hairs and soak in cold water in a deep bowl;
- do the same with scars, which are not cut and kept in a separate bucket;
- after 12 hours or more, drain the water, wash the feet again, scrape and lay in a pan with cold water;
- repeat the same procedure with a scar, which at the end is cut and put in a separate dish for cooking;
- both pans put us on fire and boil;
- change water;
- again put both dishes on the fire and cook (legs - 6 hours, and a scar - 8);
- mix the contents of both pans;
- continue to simmer, evaporating the liquid;
- white bread is cut into pieces and soaked in milk;
- wait for the liquid from the soup to evaporate halfway;
- put soaked bread there;
- boil for about 30 minutes until the soup turns white;
- pour boiling water into the pan;
- do the hour and a half.
Khashis are served along with salt, pepper and crushed garlic, so that everyone can put themselves as much seasoning as he wants.
In some areas of Georgia, soaked bread is not put in soup, but served in a separate bowl, like sour cream for borsch. Khashis eat only hot, early in the morning, and drink vodka and Borjomi. It is believed that it is very useful for people with fractures, as it accelerates bone growth.
Simple bosartma
This Georgian lamb soup is made from a minimum amount of ingredients. It is required:
- 500 g of fatty mutton meat;
- salt;
- 200 g of onions;
- several branches of green cilantro;
- freshly ground pepper.
Prepare a bosartma like this:
- cut the meat into small pieces and, having washed it, fill it with cold water;
- set the lamb to boil over low heat, removing the foam;
- after 2 hours, half-prepared meat is removed from the broth;
- chop the onion, put in another pan and stew on the fat, which was removed from the broth, until red;
- transfer meat there;
- stew it with onions for 10 minutes;
- poured strained broth;
- salt and pepper;
- add chopped cilantro and let it boil.
Tkemali Chicken Soup
One of the features of Georgian cuisine is the widespread use of fruit sauces. These include tkemali, which is made from plums of the same name with the addition of garlic, salt, special peppermint and red pepper.
This sauce gives the dishes a spicy sour taste. For example, with its help, you can cook a hearty Georgian chicken soup with potatoes and rice.
You will need the following ingredients:
- 1 medium-sized chicken carcass;
- 100 g of rice;
- 1 onion head;
- 4 potatoes;
- 1 pc. Capsicum and carrots;
- 100 g of tkemali;
- dill and celery greens;
- salt.
Like chikhirtma, Georgian chicken soup with tkemali and rice is cooked quite quickly. The order of its preparation is as follows:
- the chicken carcass is poured with 7 glasses of water and boiled, constantly removing foam from the broth;
- 10 minutes after the start of boiling water, a whole peeled onion, celery and carrots cut along it are put in it;
- the finished chicken is removed from the pan, salted inside and out and cut into portioned pieces;
- filter the broth;
- washed rice is added to it;
- salt;
- cook until rice is cooked;
- add tkemali, finely chopped greens, crushed garlic, crushed pepper and pieces of chicken;
- serve soup to the table, sprinkled with cilantro.
Kharcho soup (real Georgian recipe)
Under this name, restaurants around the world serve anything but the dish that it means. So, very often kharcho is made from lamb, while its basis - according to the traditional recipe - should be beef. In addition, it should include cherry plum sauce - tklapi or tkemali.
A true Georgian kharcho soup cannot be imagined without crushed walnuts, which give it a unique, special taste.
In addition, the composition of this dish, if taken 1 kg of beef, should include:
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- 1 tbsp. l tomato paste;
- by Β½ tbsp. plum, rice and nut sauce
- 1 pc. carrots and onions;
- condiments (hops-suneli, salt, red hot pepper, bay leaf).
Cooking Kharcho Soup
The preparation of this Georgian dish is carried out in the following sequence:
- beef (preferably veal) is washed, poured with cold water and boiled for an hour and a half, removing foam;
- finished meat is transferred to a separate dish;
- the broth is left on fire, salt and pour washed rice;
- chopped onions and passer in oil, add grated carrots;
- before removing dishes from the fried vegetables from the fire, mix them with tomato paste;
- walnuts grate in a mortar;
- transfer them and onion-carrot dressing to soup;
- cook another 10 minutes;
- add all seasonings to the soup, as well as crushed garlic and chopped herbs;
- remove the traditional Georgian kharcho soup from the fire and cover it and let it brew for 3-5 minutes. They eat hot, with national rye bread.
Megrelian Kharcho
Despite the fact that Georgia is a very small country, several dozens of peoples and nationalities live there, each of which has its own cultural traditions. For example, some Georgian soups, recipes with photos of which are presented above, mehrels are prepared in a completely different way. So, in the kharcho they put:
- 1 kg of veal;
- 250 g of walnuts, better than recently picked;
- 2 bunches of cilantro;
- 3 onion heads;
- salt;
- 250 g Megrelian adjika and dry white wine;
- 2 tbsp. l tomato paste;
- 1 tbsp. l Imereti saffron and sun hop;
- 2-3 pinches of ground coriander;
- 50 g butter;
- pepper.
Cooking Mingrelian Kharcho
Many Russians love rich Georgian soups. Recipes with photos help you easily prepare them, of course, if you have all the necessary seasonings at hand. For example, you will have no problem cooking the Mingrelian kharcho if you use the following instruction:
- veal or beef tenderloin is cut into small pieces;
- fry in any odorless oil for two minutes;
- shift the pieces into a large pan;
- chop onions and mix with meat;
- pour wine into the pan, add a little water;
- if the meat is lean, then put a piece of butter to it;
- bring to a boil and simmer for half an hour over low heat;
- the kernels of nuts are pounded in a mortar;
- add the resulting mass to the meat;
- seasonings and finely chopped greens are poured into the pan;
- add a can of adjika or take it in half with tomato paste;
- stew for 20 minutes over low heat, adding a little water.
Mingrelian kharcho soup turns out to be very thick and incredibly tasty.
Ovduh
This Georgian beef soup is one of the first summer dishes served cold.
To prepare it you will need:
- 400 g lean, well-boiled beef;
- 150 g of green onions;
- 1 liter of yogurt (can be replaced with natural unsweetened yogurt);
- salt to taste;
- 300 g of fresh cucumbers;
- 20 g of cilantro and dill.
Cooking Ovdukh
If the meat is already boiled and cooled, then the soup is prepared in just 5 minutes. Necessary:
- dilute yogurt with 1 liter of water;
- put in the resulting liquid peeled and finely chopped cucumbers, as well as chopped greens and green onions;
- salt, add sugar and, having closed the dishes with the soup lid, put in the refrigerator;
- cut the beef into small cubes and add to the ovdu before serving.
If you are a vegetarian, you can eat this soup without meat.
Tatariahni
Like many other Georgian dishes, soups can be both light and very hearty. They are hardly suitable for those who want to lose weight, but you can still try such a meal once.
You will need:
- 1 kg of beef (fatty);
- 1 capsicum;
- a small bunch of parsley with roots and dill;
- 4 carrots;
- 4 sprigs of celery;
- 2 laurels
- 1-2 tsp garlic salt;
- 2 pcs. bay leaves and onion heads;
- 3 liters of water.
Cooking Tatariahni
Prepare the dish like this:
- cut the beef into pieces;
- washed and boiled in cold water;
- before boiling remove foam;
- put carrots, sliced ββin circles, and finely chopped greens;
- boil the soup for about half an hour;
- salt, add capsicum;
- cooked for about a quarter of an hour, putting a bay leaf in the pan at the end.
Serve hot Georgian tatariahni soup, sprinkled with chopped herbs, with crushed garlic. It is especially well combined with traditional shotis puri bread, which is baked in a special oven.
Kharcho Fish Soup
Georgia is located on the seashore, and there are plenty of rivers there, so fish dishes are also represented in the national cuisine of this country. For example, they cook sturgeon kharcho or stellate sturgeon with walnuts. His recipe includes:
- Β½ kg stellate sturgeon or sturgeon;
- 1 liter of water;
- 4 onion heads;
- 1 tsp Georgian seasoning hops-suneli;
- 3 sour plums tkemali;
- 1 carrot;
- salt;
- 1 tbsp. young nuts;
- some parsley and celery;
- 2 tooth. garlic
- 1 pc. ripe tomato and capsicum;
- 1 tbsp. l flour roasted until golden brown;
- Bay leaf;
- fresh greens;
- 3 peppercorns.
Cooking fish kharcho
Sturgeon (stellate sturgeon) with walnuts is prepared as follows:
- salted fish and boiled until half cooked in a whole piece, putting in a bowl 1 onion, carrots, peppers, roots and bay leaf;
- fat is removed from the broth;
- fish are removed and finely chopped, removing bones;
- Tomatoes and plums scald and peeled;
- boil in 1 tbsp. water and rubbed through a sieve;
- gently chopped onions are passaged on the removed fat and flour is added;
- pour the strained broth, finely chopped greens, capsicum and boil;
- spread fish, crushed cilantro seeds and garlic, as well as suneli hops and a mixture of tomatoes and tkemali in soup;
- after 5 minutes, crushed walnuts are added and boiled for another 10 minutes.
Serve soup, sprinkled with herbs.
Fresh or frozen cherry chriantelles
There is also one unusual fruit soup in Georgian cuisine , and it differs from compote in that it is salted and garlic added.
For 6 servings of chriantelles you will need:
- 100 g of fresh cucumbers;
- 150 g fresh or frozen cherries;
- salt;
- 1 head of onion and a clove of garlic;
- 30 g of walnuts;
- freshly ground black pepper;
- a few twigs of tarragon and parsley.
Order of preparation:
- if fresh cherries are taken, they are pre-soaked in salted water and the bones removed;
- knead the berries in a pan;
- pour 2 tbsp. water and put on a slow fire;
- boil cherries for 15 minutes;
- cut peeled onion into 2 parts;
- filter the cherry broth;
- boil, adding half the onion, without covering the dishes with a lid;
- wash greens and chop;
- take out the halves of the onion and reduce the fire;
- add greens, salt and pepper;
- cover the saucepan with a lid and keep on fire for about 5 minutes;
- finely chopped pre-peeled cucumbers;
- walnuts are crushed in a blender;
- add them with a pod of hot red pepper to the soup;
- after 3 minutes remove the pan from the heat;
- remove the pod of red pepper;
- cool the soup.
Before serving, put cucumbers in plates, a little crushed garlic and sprinkle with herbs.
Bozbashi
For this hearty soup you will need the following ingredients:
- Β½ kg of mutton;
- salt;
- 200 g eggplant (preferably seedless) and green beans;
- 2 pcs. tooth garlic and onion heads;
- 2 bell peppers;
- 4 tomatoes;
- 3 sprigs of cilantro.
Bozbashi cooking is done in the following order:
- fatty mutton is boiled in 6 glasses of water;
- take out the meat, fry and pour in pre-filtered broth;
- the onions are fried in oil;
- peel and chop tomatoes;
- the broth is again set on fire;
- add tomatoes, eggplant, sweet peppers and beans to it;
- cook until vegetables are ready;
- add chopped garlic and cilantro;
- salt.
Bean soup
This light soup, which can also be used during church fasting, consists of the following ingredients:
- 300 g of beans (red);
- pepper;
- 2 onion heads;
- salt;
- several branches of greenery;
- half a glass of walnuts, preferably recently picked.
Cooking:
- washed beans are boiled in 10 glasses of boiling water until tender, and then knead with a fork;
- finely chopped onion;
- the kernels of nuts are crushed with a blender;
- mix all the ingredients and cook for another 10 minutes;
- add chopped greens;
- salt and pepper;
- cook a couple more minutes.
Mushroom Shechamanda
For this soup you will need:
- Β½ kg of mushrooms;
- 3 onion heads;
- Β½ tbsp nuts
- pepper;
- 1 tbsp. l flour (preferably corn);
- greens (any other than tarragon), salt and garlic to taste.
This delicious and satisfying soup is prepared as follows:
- fresh mushrooms are sorted, cooked until cooked and filtered;
- mushrooms and cut into strips;
- chopped onions and stew in butter;
- flour bred in Β½ tbsp. mushroom broth;
- greens finely chopped;
- put mushrooms in a decoction, add flour dressing;
- crush garlic;
- mix and boil;
- add herbs, capsicum, garlic and salt;
- kernels of nuts are crushed in a mortar;
- remove the soup from the fire;
- add crushed nuts and chopped dill.
As you can see, Georgian cuisine is not only kebabs, khinkali and khachapuri. Try to cook one of the many light or hearty soups according to the recipes presented above, and please your home. With the exception of hash, they are all quite easy to prepare, and eaten quickly and with great appetite!