Homemade kharcho soup recipe. Kharcho - classic recipes for the famous Georgian soup

An invaluable gift of excellent Georgian cuisine - popular recipes soup kharcho, which, due to their diversity and rich taste, are familiar to virtually everyone. By tradition, this is a thick, spicy first course, which is prepared from any type of meat (beef, lamb, chicken, pork, fish, etc.), with the addition of rice and seasoned with various spices. An unlimited number of recipes for this masterpiece of Georgian cuisine makes it possible for everyone to find their own version that will give an unforgettable taste pleasure.

Translated from Georgian name this dish means " beef soup”, but this does not mean at all that its preparation from other types of meat is impossible. No wonder when mentioning this dish it is worth specifying the area of its origin. But it is worth noting that changing the recipe for its implementation in no way spoils taste qualities this soup, moreover, it only adds piquancy and brings new colors, replenishing the taste experience.

However, it is worth remembering that the main taste feature of the spicy first course is the sour base and the characteristic spicy aroma of the East.

The basis of this soup is a special sour mixture - a Georgian flatbread called tklapi, which is made from unripe berries of the cherry plum tree. Thanks to the technology of its manufacture, tklapi is called cherry plum lavash. The puree prepared from the pulp of dogwood and plums is laid in special layers and dried in the sun. Also, an excellent alternative to tklapi can serve as a kind of plum sauce- tkemali with the addition of fragrant garlic and spices. These basic ingredients are the basis of real Georgian food.

This is truly profound flavor combination achieved through some of the features of the preparation:

As you know, finding tklapi outside of Georgia is a rather difficult undertaking. But this does not at all make cooking kharcho soup at home an impossible undertaking. An excellent alternative to replacing the sour component is adjika, tomato sauce, the pulp of fresh plums, pomegranate juice, a spoonful of apple cider vinegar, tkemali (store-bought), and a lemon when serving.
Hot red pepper will add a piquant spiciness to the dish. Do not forget that when cut, it can irritate your skin or cause a burn. To avoid this trouble, rubber gloves should be used.
In order to cook delicious kharcho soup, you need to use long white rice, but in no case steamed, you can replace it with round rice. Before use, rice should be insisted in cold water (about 2 hours), or rinse it well 5 to 7 times. This will wash off the excess starch, the excessive content of which can simply spoil the taste of the Georgian treat, making it viscous and cloudy.
A simple kharcho soup recipe includes adding an unlimited amount of greens. You will notice how the specific aroma of cilantro will burst with new notes, giving amazing piquancy to the dish and complementing the bouquet of dill and parsley. Also, a moderate addition of mint leaves will be completely useful.
The selection of seasonings for this dish is considered purely individual, but the main and mandatory will be suneli hops. The composition of this seasoning includes dried herbs: dill, mint, red pepper, basil, marjoram, coriander, savory, bay leaf and more. It is all these components that are responsible for the characteristic oriental spice of the dish. Sometimes in some recipes for true Georgian kharcho, utskho-suneli seasoning is found - this is a specific dried fenugreek that will give the dish a “tender” nutty flavor.
In some western regions of sunny Georgia, for example, in Megrelia, it is so thick that it seems more like a sauce or a second course than a soup. True Megrelian kharcho is an extremely spicy component of Georgian cuisine. This extreme delicacy is savored by dipping Georgian lavash in it.

To date, abundance various recipes fulfillment of this delicacy. Each family in Georgia has its own unique secret of preparing this fragrant treat, which they carefully keep, betraying their secret from generation to generation.

Classic kharcho soup recipe

In order to cook kharcho soup at home according to the classic recipe, you will need:

Meat (beef) - 430 g;
Rice (white long grain) - 55 g;
Garden fruits (carrots, hot red peppers, onions, garlic);
Half a glass of tkemali sauce;
A handful of walnuts;
Khmeli-suneli;
Greens (cilantro, dill, parsley).

The cooking process is as follows:

First, start preparing the broth. Immerse the piece of beef in water (about 1.5 liters) and bring to a boil. Just before boiling, do not forget to remove the foam from the broth, this will help make it transparent and attractive. Then reduce the heat to a minimum and leave for 2 hours. The water should bubbling slightly, but only slightly. After a couple of hours, the beef should be removed and the pulp separated from it, then cut into small slices and immersed back in the bubbling broth.

The next step will be adding tkemali to the broth, which is extremely responsible. Dip in a few spoonfuls of the sauce. At the same time, the use of tkemali is not fundamental, if this particular sauce is not available, you can replace it with any other sour tomato mass. If you were lucky enough to get a real Georgian layer of tklapi, then add it in a piece of about 10 - 12 cm. Cover with a lid until boiling.

After that, cut the vegetables - onions into thin slices, and carrots into strips and add to the boiled broth. Then fry in a hot pan walnuts. After the appearance of the appropriate smell, grind with a mortar to a fine, homogeneous slurry. Add minced garlic to it.

After half an hour of boiling the broth over low heat, you can add prepared rice to it and leave it on the fire for another 10-12 minutes. The next step is to add walnut-garlic paste. After this maneuver, magical aromas will spread through the kitchen, which will help to complement Bay leaf, suneli hops, salt, black pepper.

If desired, to enhance the acid, you can add pomegranate juice, and for sharpness, a crushed pod of hot red pepper is useful.

The final touch in the preparation of this Georgian masterpiece will be the addition of chopped greens. Cook for another 2-3 minutes and remove from heat, as the beef kharcho soup is ready. Let the delicacy brew for 10-15 minutes and start eating, adding Georgian lavash to the dish.

The best kharcho soup recipes

There are many different recipes for kharcho soup, they differ in the ingredients that make up the dish. We will consider the most popular and delicious cooking recipes. We will find out what ingredients we need, and also learn all the subtleties of the cooking process.

Kharcho soup from chicken breast

The current cooking has changed the recipe of this dish almost beyond recognition. deviating from traditional recipe cooking, you can cook a Slavic interpretation of the Georgian delicacy - this is kharcho soup from chicken breast.

For this you will need:

Chicken breast;
Rice (round or long grain);
Tkemali, tomato juice or themed paste;
Khmeli-suneli;
Vegetables (carrots and onions);
Butter;
Parsley.

Cooking process:

All ingredients listed are based on 2.5 - 3 liters of water. We put the kharcho soup to boil, starting with the preparation of the broth with chicken breast.

When the broth is almost ready, add thoroughly washed rice, vegetables, tomato juice or tkemali, salt, suneli hops, pepper.

At the end, add grated garlic, oil and crushed herbs. And kharcho chicken soup is ready.

Kharcho soup from a young lamb

To make lamb kharcho soup, you will need the following products:

Fat lamb brisket on the bone (0.7 - 1 kg);
Medium grain rice (160 grams);
Medium carrot and onion;
Ripe tomatoes (5 - 7 pieces);
Garlic;
Apple cider vinegar (1 - 1.2 tsp);
Melted butter;
Coriander, black and red pepper;
cilantro, parsley;
Salt.

How to cook:

How to cook kharcho soup from a young lamb? First, clean the lamb meat from the films. Then divide the brisket so that each of the pieces has 2 ribs. We heat the pan and fry the pieces of meat on the melted butter until ruddy. In a mortar, grind coriander, allspice and red pepper, and salt to a homogeneous gruel. Sprinkle the meat apple cider vinegar, put onion on top, sprinkle with prepared fragrant gruel and fry on fire for about 5 minutes.

While the meat is cooking, you need to grind the tomatoes through a sieve and send them to a boiling pan, followed by cilantro and water. We cook everything for about an hour. 10 - 12 minutes before readiness, pour in the prepared rice and after 10 minutes we finish cooking. We send greens and garlic there, insist 10 - 15 minutes and enjoy your meal.

Soup kharcho with potatoes

Kharcho soup with potatoes and rice cooked on a fragrant rich broth is delicious treat due to his Caucasian origin. To prepare it, you need to stock up on the following products:

Meat (any on the bone);
Round rice (100 grams);
Potatoes (200 grams);
Onion and garlic;
Tomato paste or adjika;
Butter;
A mixture of dried herbs;
Ground pepper;
Greens;
Salt.

Cooking process:

Prepare the broth in a familiar way, add potatoes and carrots to it in turn.

We fry part of the onion in cow's oil, and throw the other part raw into the boiling broth.

Add adjika or tomato mass to the fried onion, and then dried herbs. Mix everything thoroughly and sauté until cooked. Add rice, washed from starch, to the soup, leave on a meager fire for 10 minutes and set aside for further infusion.

When serving, you can sprinkle with herbs and season with cream.

As is known, classic version is made from beef, however, the recipes for this dish that have gone beyond the borders of their homeland, at least, differ in the choice of meat. True connoisseurs pork also did not miss the opportunity not to try the preparation of this delicacy according to their favorite recipe.

To make pork kharcho soup you need:

Pork on the bone (300 - 350 grams);
Rice round (0.5 cup);
Onions and carrots;
Peeled walnuts;
Tkemali;
Khmeli-suneli;
Sunflower oil;
Salt;
Greens.

How to cook:

In a boiling broth prepared on the basis of pork, place the rice. While it is cooking, we make frying from sunflower oil, onions, carrots. In a blender, grind nuts, tkemals and suneli hops. When the rice boils over low heat for 10 - 12 minutes, you can add frying and nut butter with tkemali. Bring the mixture to a boil and turn off. Pour chopped greens into ready meal and cover with a lid. After insisting 15 - 20 minutes, you can start tasting.

Soup kharcho in a slow cooker

The delicacy that we used to call "kharcho" definitely has nothing to do with a real Georgian treat. But as the saying goes, “even if you call it a pot, don’t put it in the stove.” But we have exactly the option when you have to put it in the oven, or rather in the slow cooker, where this Georgian spicy broth turns out to be the most fragrant and tasty.

Therefore, to make kharcho soup in a slow cooker, the following ingredients will be useful:

Meat (any) 500 grams;
Vegetables (onions, carrots, garlic, bell pepper, potatoes, tomatoes);
Rice (1/2 multi-cup);
Spices, herbs, salt.

Cooking in a multicooker:

Cut the meat into small pieces and fry sunflower oil in the "Baking" mode for about 20 - 25 minutes. Then add to it chopped: onion, Green pepper, carrots and tomatoes. Pass for another 20 - 23 minutes. Turning off the “Baking” mode, put potatoes and rice in a container with meat, which should be washed thoroughly before. Add your favorite spices and salt to everything. Set the "Extinguishing" mode and wait 1 - 1.5 hours.

Before serving, squeeze the garlic and sprinkle with herbs.

Given the excessive calorie content of kharcho soup, many gourmets who take care of their figure will appreciate a truly dietary broth without meat in it. After all, it is completely unnecessary to cook this delicacy in fatty meat broth. You can replace it with vegetable, and believe me, it will not lose its taste from this.

For execution lean version you will need:

Rice (1 - 1.5 cups);
Garden fruits (tomatoes, green peppers, garlic, carrots, onions);
Tkemali or spicy adjika;
Vegetable or butter;
Spices;
Fresh greens;
Salt;

Cooking:

Prepare vegetables and rinse rice. Fry the onion in oil and pour it with water, bring to a boil and lay out the rice. Then put tomatoes, green peppers, tkemali or adjika, spices and salt into the mass with onions and rice.

Boil and leave for 12 - 17 minutes. Serving lean broth, sprinkle it with herbs.

Kharcho with wine and smoked ribs

For real gourmets, we offer a recipe for a truly delicious soup with wine and smoked ribs.

You will need:

Smoked lamb ribs(0.5 kg);
Vegetables (onions, potatoes, carrots);

Then add water (2 liters) and potatoes, boil again. After simmering for twenty minutes over moderate heat, add the rice, salt and place in the oven. After 15-17 minutes, remove from oven and complement the dish with the aroma of garlic and herbs.

Kharcho soup with red fish

It is difficult to imagine such an intriguing delicacy as kharcho with red fish. But once you taste this truly amazing treat, you will no doubt add it to your personal list of favorite dishes.

For its execution you will need:

Chilled red fish (500 grams);
Rice round (55 grams);
Garden fruits (onions, peppers, tomatoes, carrots);
Spices;
Tkemali;
Pressed garlic;
Salt;
Parsley.

How to weld:

Boil all the prepared vegetables in 2 liters of water, put the onion whole, so that it will be convenient to pull it out later. AT vegetable broth lay out the chopped fish.

Boil and put rice in it. Boil rice for 10 minutes, then add pressed garlic, salt and spices to the mass. After switching off, add parsley.

As you can see, cooking kharcho soup is quite simple and fast. Probably, no soup in the world has as many analogues as this magnificent Georgian dish. And this is not all of his versions.

Fragrant, savory and rich soup kharcho is good for winter dinners when it's cold outside and you want to warm up. Popular Georgian dish, something in between meat soup and stew, has long taken root in Russian cuisine. It is difficult to resist it, especially if the kharcho is cooked according to all the rules. But in order to enjoy this dish, it is not at all necessary to go to a Caucasian restaurant. Let's talk about how to cook tasty soup kharcho at home in compliance with Georgian traditions.

What is kharcho

Nobody knows when the recipe first appeared in Georgian cuisine. It is known that once the word “kharcho” was used to refer to beef in a sauce of walnuts and thin slices of dried plum puree tklapi. A little later, rice was added to kharcho, and now in the Caucasus it is believed that real kharcho is cooked from beef, tklapi, walnuts and rice. During the summer months, plum puree is replaced with fresh plum or tkemali sauce. It is allowed to add other products to the dish, because in different regions of Georgia, kharcho is prepared in its own way, and each recipe claims to be a classic. Delicious beef broth with spicy plum sourness, delicate flavor of walnuts and spicy aroma of spices and herbs remains unchanged. Sometimes plums are replaced with prunes, tomatoes, tomato paste or pomegranate juice.

Cooking kharcho soup correctly: preparing meat

The classic kharcho soup is usually made from beef, but since there are many different recipes for this dish, it is permissible to use lamb, pork and chicken. The meat should be the freshest and highest quality. It is best to take beef with a bone, pork ribs or fillet, lamb brisket, shoulder or neck, and if you decide to cook chicken kharcho, both thighs and breast will do. The meat is well washed, cleaned of films and tendons, and whether it is worth removing bones and fat is a personal matter for every housewife. Some cooks believe that the bones make the broth rich and flavorful. If you are brewing diet option kharcho, then fat, of course, will be superfluous, although the soup turns out to be much tastier with it. The meat is removed from the finished broth, the broth is filtered, the meat is separated from the bones, cut into pieces and returned to the broth. The basis for the Georgian kharcho is ready!

Secrets of cooking kharcho

Well-washed rice of any kind, except crushed and steamed, is put in the finished broth. Round rice is ideal for this dish, which looks very appetizing when boiled. While the rice is cooking, sautéed rice is added to it. golden brown onion, bay leaf, lightly crushed black peppercorns, crushed walnuts, pieces of cherry plum or fresh plum puree (prunes, tkemali, pomegranate juice). In some recipes, tomatoes can also be found - they are usually used without skins in crushed form. But it is best to take cherry tomatoes, which give the soup originality. Toward the end of cooking, spices are introduced into the kharcho - hops-suneli, red capsicum, saffron, coriander, adjika and any delicious spices. If you are cooking for children, do not add to the dish spicy seasonings. After the soup is ready, finely chopped garlic, chopped parsley, cilantro, rosemary and celery greens are added to the pan.

The sequence of laying the products and the cooking time may be different - depending on the recipe. Sometimes kharcho is cooked with bell peppers, carrots and potatoes, the Italians generously add olives and basil to the dish, and the French cook kharcho with cheese and cashew nuts. The soup is insisted for 20 minutes to make it more spicy, spicy and rich.

Cooking classic beef kharcho at home

The classic soup is cooked in beef broth without onions, carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Boil the stock from 400 g of beef on the bone and 2 liters of water ─ this will take about 2 hours. Strain the broth, separate the meat from the bones, cut it into pieces and put it back into the pan. Add to the broth 4 tbsp. l. rice, a few sprigs of parsley and cilantro (be sure to remove them later), and when the rice is soft, add half a glass of roasted crushed walnuts to the soup. At the very end of cooking, a finely chopped head of garlic, the remaining chopped herbs, salt, 1 tsp are added to the kharcho. hops-suneli, a plate of tklapi or 3 tbsp. l. tkemali. Pleasant sourness in kharcho it is obligatory - it is she who gives the dish a unique Georgian flavor.

If you want to learn more about how to cook kharcho, look at our catalog with recipes and photos, experiment and surprise your guests. Kharcho soup is served with fragrant homemade bread or lavash. This dish is not only appetizing, but also healthy - maybe that is why there are so many centenarians in the Caucasus?

Soup kharcho is the most famous first course of Georgian cuisine. Soup kharcho for Georgians is like borscht for Ukrainians. This is an occasion to gather friends at the same table.

The basis of kharcho soup consists of: - beef (pulp and rib), round-grain rice, walnuts (chopped) and cooked from dried plums sauce - tkemali or tklapi (dried mashed tkemali plums), it is also called "sour lavash". Replace these products with others when cooking classic kharcho- it is forbidden.

Of course it is classic version kharcho. And many do not adhere to its preparation, especially when there is no beef at home, the recipe is already losing its classics, and it can contain lamb, pork, and even chicken. Here already, everyone is a cook for himself, and as he likes, he decides to cook kharcho at home. Especially not in a restaurant. So it turns out that most of the homemade recipes delicious kharcho, difficult to attribute to classic dishes. We will consider the real classic recipes, unchanged. And for your attention, we have prepared today's edition!

Kharcho is a very spicy and spicy soup, with a significant amount of garlic, spices, herbs and is much thicker than other soups. In each region of Georgia, soup is prepared according to its own recipe and technology, but in western Georgia it differs in its super sharpness.

I have analyzed a dozen recipes and I can bring to your attention the most delicious recipes for making kharcho soup.

Kharcho - 4 classic recipes with step-by-step cooking at home

Real kharcho soup from Russian cuisine (recipe with walnuts)

it delicious recipe soup kharcho from modern Russian cuisine. Even the photos are quite old, real)) You can’t find such recipes anywhere!

For this we need:

(based on a 4.5 l pot)

1 kg beef pulp
2/3 cup rice
2 onions
1 bell pepper, red
1.5 st. chopped tomatoes, skinless or own juice
3 tbsp tomato
100 g walnuts, chopped
3 tbsp tkemali sauce
1, st.l. hops-suneli
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp all-season spices
0.5 tsp ground black pepper
50 g vegetable oil
2-3 garlic cloves
Parsley, cilantro, dill, basil
2 pcs. bay leaf
1 tbsp Sahara
salt to taste

Cooking:

Prepared meat (ribs can be used), chopped big chunks, set to cook. Do not forget to remove the resulting foam. Boil for 40 minutes and add washed rice.

2. Pass the chopped onion until transparent, and then add the chopped bell pepper, simmer for 2 minutes.

3. Add tomatoes, tkemali sauce to the onion with pepper, tomato paste, after adding each ingredient, mix. Simmer for 3 minutes.

4. Roasting, suneli hops, bay leaf, chopped garlic, black pepper, coriander, spices and ground nuts are added to the broth. Then add sugar.

Bring to a boil, boil for 2 minutes, add greens and remove from heat. Let it brew for 20 minutes.

Georgian kharcho recipe. Step by step classic Georgian recipe with rice

This recipe belongs to the cuisine of Western Georgia, to the category of first courses.

When cooking soup according to this recipe, it is important to follow the rules: use beef meat; minimum of tomato; do not overdo it with rice and use ucho-suneli (fenugreek).

You will need:

500 - 600 g beef, pulp
1 onion (large)
2 tbsp round grain rice
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
5 garlic cloves
12 tablespoons tkemali sauce
100 g walnuts, crushed in a blender
Green cilantro, parsley, basil, celery leaves - 2 sprigs each
2 tsp ucho-suneli

Cooking:

1. Prepared meat, cut into pieces, 5 x 5 cm, and put on hot oil.

It needs to be fried until nicely browned. We put the meat in a bowl, pour boiling water over it, and put it on the stove. When the meat boils, salt.

2. Pass the chopped onion.

3. Wash the rice and put it in a saucepan with the meat, boil for 10 minutes.

4. Chop the garlic and add it. Chop all greens.

5. Send the finished onion to the boiling broth and season with tkemali sauce. We try the soup for salt and lay the chopped nuts, mix. We're throwing whole pepper chili, with a slightly cut tip.

6. Remove the soup from the stove, add greens. It remains to mix and leave for 20 minutes, insist.

Megrelian spicy kharcho

This recipe is also from the cuisine of the western region of Georgia - Megrelia, but it refers to the second courses rather than the first ones. The dish is very spicy, for an amateur. See for yourself.

For this you will need:

1 kg beef
7 pieces of onion
30 g butter
150 ml dry red wine
5 tbsp tomato juice
400 ml crushed tomatoes in their own juice
30 g parsley
1 tbsp Imeretian saffron
10 g coriander seeds
2 tsp hops-suneli
3 tbsp adjika
1 tbsp mixture of five peppers
80 g ground walnuts
Vegetable oil

Cooking:

1. We prepare the meat: cut the film, fat and cut into cubes 5-6 cm, with a section of 1.5 x 1.5 cm. For this recipe, it is better to take beef entrecote.

2. Chopped meat, pepper and grease with vegetable oil, mix and leave for a while.

3. In a preheated pan, spread the meat in one layer and fry on all sides, without oil. It is very important that the meat is in one layer, so we fry it in several batches. Transfer the cooked meat to a bowl.

4. Cut the onion into cubes (6-7 mm), sauté in a mixture of oils - butter and vegetable. When the onion acquires a beautiful golden color, pepper and pour in red wine.

5. Add the meat to the onion with wine, add salt and mix. After evaporating the wine, season with tomato juice and grated tomatoes in their own juice. Mix everything and simmer for 20 minutes.

6. In parsley, cut the leaves from the stems and chop finely. Crush the coriander seeds with a knife and chop.

7. When the meat is stewed, add saffron, coriander, suneli hops and adjika to it. You need to be careful with adjika, it is very spicy, so we regulate the spiciness of our dish with its quantity.

8. Add ground nuts and mix everything. At the last minute, add parsley and remove from heat. Let it brew.

Kharcho Georgian classic. Georgian Chef's Puree Soup

This soup is also prepared according to the recipe of the western region of Georgia, but according to a different technology, a puree soup is obtained.

For this you will need:

500 g beef meat
200 g minced onion
150 g beef fat
200 g walnuts, chopped
1 tsp ucho-suneli
2 tsp hops-suneli
1 tsp Imeretian saffron
1 tsp Red pepper
1 tsp Georgian salt
200 g grated tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp vinegar

Cooking:

1. Cut off the film and fat from the meat. large pieces cut the meat and boil it. After removing the meat, strain the broth and cool.

2. Put in the pan beef fat and melt it down. On it we pass the onion.

3. Pour cold broth into a bowl and season it with: walnuts, utskho-suneli, hops-suneli, Imeritin saffron, red pepper and salt. Mix everything, pour into a blender and interrupt.

4. Add grated tomatoes to the onion, mix and simmer for another 5 minutes.

5. We shift the frying, the mixture from the blender into the pan, mix everything and put it on the stove. Let it boil, put the boiled meat and boil for 5 minutes.

6. At the end, add garlic and pour in vinegar, mix.

Preparation of tkemali sauce

Since tkemali sauce is present in all the recipes presented, I decided to give the recipe for its preparation as well.

For this you will need:

500 g plums (hybrid of plum and cherry plum) dark color
5 pcs cherry tomato
4 garlic cloves
1 stalk cilantro
salt to taste
2 tsp hops-suneli

Cooking:

1. Pour boiling water over the plum and throw cherry tomatoes into it, and cook under the lid until softened.

2. Grind plums with tomatoes in puree through a sieve. We send it back to the saucepan and add 4 cloves of minced garlic, 1 tsp. suneli hops, salt and chopped cilantro, mix.

Remove from stove and blend with a blender. Pour into a bowl.

Store this sauce in the refrigerator. Used as needed.

Let me start with the polemic. I don't know with whom light hand on the Internet, a myth has been established about the most correct and real kharcho soup as cooked without fail with the participation of tklapi. This is not true! Soup kharcho on tklapi - wonderful recipe, but there are many kharcho traditions in Georgia, and soup with plum pita bread is not the only and not even the most common one.

About losses and compensation

However, there are some grounds for myth-making. Much has been simplified and adapted to mass tastes. So, in the original kharcho, a classic recipe, it is prepared from beef brisket, while any soup is allowed meat broth. The next lost part is the sour base of kharcho, reduced exclusively to tomato paste, as well as garlic-nut dressing.

There were no acquisitions. Potatoes are satisfying, cheap, familiar. Meanwhile, there are no potatoes in the Georgian original. And carrots, by the way, too ... From vegetables, they put onions in kharcho (they sauté or boil them whole, and then throw them away), garlic, a lot of greens and tomatoes (not always).

Soul kharcho - sour base, spices

Ask any elderly hostess or her daughter, who diligently absorbed mom's recipes, preparing to pave the way to the heart of a man, which distinguishes kharcho from other soups, and they will answer you without hesitation - "a good spoonful of tomato paste." Oh, how is kharcho without pasta?

But don't fall for the confident tone of a Soviet hostess when it comes to Georgian cuisine. Christopher Columbus was not yet born, who opened the way to American nightshade, when barefoot Georgian girls gathered on the slopes of the mountains wild plums to prepare the base for the spicy soup.

Tklapi- this is what kharcho could not be imagined without before the appearance of tomatoes on Georgian soil. Without a piece of sun-dried cake made from the pulp of cherry plum, which was the sour base of the classic kharcho.

Can replace tklapi fresh cherry plum broth or tkemali sauce. However, if you get to Georgia and try kharcho with tomatoes in a restaurant, I don’t advise you to be indignant that you were fed an insufficiently authentic dish. Tomatoes, including tomato juice and tomato paste, in classic recipes, kharcho is widely used today.

Herbs and spices- the second most important component of the soup. And yet, not even the second, but one of the first. Just like plum sourness, kharcho should have a piquant flavor that is created by a complex combination of garlic, nuts, spices and herbs. Just do not repeat the classic fallacy of people familiar with Georgian cuisine hearsay. Its peculiarity is spice, not sharpness, aroma - but not hotness.

In kharcho put cilantro, parsley, capsicum red pepper, basil and seasoning utskho-suneli (fenugreek). The popular mix of hops-suneli gives not quite the exact taste, but in the absence of ucho-suneli it will fit.

Garlic-nut dressing(the same is used in) maybe, or maybe only garlic, but nuts are very, very suitable for soup, you must definitely try it with nuts.

Kharcho soup, classic beef recipe

INGREDIENTS:

beef brisket - half a kilogram
rice - 1/3 cup
walnuts - 2/3 cup
onions - 2 large onions
parsley root - 2 pcs
garlic - 3-4 large cloves
cilantro and basil - a large bunch
sour base - lavash tklapi with a palm or its substitute to taste. You can focus on 4 tablespoons of tkemali sauce or a glass of grated tomatoes
hops or ucho-suneli - to taste
black pepper (freshly ground) - to taste
bay leaf, salt - to taste
vegetable oil
water - to yield three liters of ready-made soup

How to cook kharcho in Georgian

1. Chop the meat into medium pieces at the rate that each eater gets four things on a plate, dry it, put it in cold water bring the broth to a boil.
1. Lower the heat and carefully skim off the foam until it stops forming. After that, you can leave the broth to boil on its own over low heat for about two hours (depending on how quickly the meat is cooked). The broth should be rich and the meat soft, as the next steps will be short.
1. While the broth is cooking, saute vegetables in vegetable oil - finely chopped onion and parsley root.
1. Rinse the rice well.
1. Put rice in the finished broth, and when it boils a little - vegetables, bay leaf, crushed coriander seeds, pepper, salt, a palm-sized piece of tklapi or its substitute (tkemali, cherry plum, pomegranate juice, grated tomatoes), suneli.
1. Let the soup simmer quietly for another 10-15 minutes, and send the crushed garlic (plus nuts, if you make with them) and greens (finely chopped cilantro and basil) into the already prepared one. And finally adjust kharcho for salt-pepper-spices.
1. Leave the soup under the lid and serve hot.

How to cook tklapi

Tklapi is made from cherry plum, this is a kind of sour marshmallow from it. Cherry plum is poured with water, boiled for 15 minutes, and then the bones are removed and ground on a sieve to form a thick mass. The mass must be spread out on a flat wooden surface, slightly pressed, stretched, rolled out with a rolling pin into a sheet and dried in the sun. You can store it by rolling it with a handkerchief or a roll.

If there is no tklapi ...

The closest substitute for lavash tklapi is a decoction of cherry plum. Take it for this amount of soup two handfuls, remove the bones and boil well in a small amount of water. Pound it to make a thick gruel, or even better wipe it through a colander - this way the hard peel does not get into the soup.

But, again, fresh cherry plum happens in summer or early autumn, and hot spicy soup is most wanted in winter. In this case, stock up on a couple of grenades to get half a glass pomegranate juice. Another option is to buy it at any major supermarket. And finally fresh tomatoes, peeled and grated.

And finally, fresh tomatoes, peeled and grated.

Beef kharcho - a classic recipe with tomatoes

Megrelian kharcho soup

In western Georgia, there is the area of Samegrelo, which is inhabited by Mingrelians. This peculiar “tribe” has created its own language (Georgians from other parts of the country do not understand Megrelian) and their own unique traditions in literally every area of life, including culinary. Megrelians have a particularly spicy cuisine, brought to perfection, honed to perfection, verified to the grain of spice. There are many Megrelian varieties of kharcho soup, here is one of them - with adjika - for the collection. This soup is both spicy and spicy.

INGREDIENTS FOR MEGRELIAN HARCHHO:

beef or calf meat - 1 kg
walnuts (crushed) - half a glass;
onions - 3 onions;
adjika megrelian
cilantro - 2 bunches
Imeretian saffron - 1 tbsp. l.
ucho-suneli - to taste
ground coriander - a little
white dry wine– 100 g
butter - 2 tbsp. l.
ground black pepper
handful of rice (optional)
tomatoes - 2-3 pcs. (optional)

As you collect the ingredients for the soup, please note that Imeretian saffron is a powder of dried flowers of garden marigolds (the so-called "yellow flower"), and not ordinary saffron.

Megrelian adjika - special, very sharp look sauce, the recipe of which I will give below.

Megrelian kharcho with adjika

Wash fatty meat, dry, cut into cubes one and a half to two centimeters thick and fry in butter or vegetable (refined) oil. Put in a saucepan, add finely chopped onion to it, pour wine with a small amount water and leave to simmer for half an hour over low heat. If there is no fatty meat, put an additional piece of butter in the pan.

Grind the peeled nuts with a meat grinder, add them to the pan with stew, and with them - herbs and spices. Stir.

If you have a mortar and enough culinary passion, do not use a meat grinder or blender to grind nuts. In the mortar they give fragrant oil which significantly improves the taste of the soup. Crush the nuts with herbs and spices along with coarse salt.

If using rice, lightly crush it as well.

Try, if necessary, add salt, pepper, put adjika and tomatoes scrolled in a meat grinder (without peel), rice.

Simmer the soup for another 15-20 minutes.

Megrelian adjika recipe

dry pods hot pepper- 500 g (adjika is prepared for the future, if you need only one soup, you can proportionally reduce the mass of the ingredients).
garlic - 200 g
ground coriander seeds - 100 g
ucho-suneli - 50 g
coarse table salt

Remove seeds and tails from pepper pods, grind the pods in a meat grinder. Grind the garlic, mix with pepper, add seasonings and salt. They put a lot of salt in this adjika - “how much it takes”. Add gradually until it ceases to dissolve in the mass.

Soup kharcho a la international catering

Despite the slight irony caused by attempts to use a recipe that is difficult to prepare national dish for the menu of public canteens, it must be admitted that the simplified kharcho soup also has interesting taste and is good option everyday hot.
Therefore, for the sake of completeness, we will not limit ourselves to the original Georgian recipes kharcho, and here is an evolved recipe that has taken root in the expanses of the post-Soviet space.

There are a lot of recipes for such a soup with slight variations in composition and technology. We will present a typical one.

INGREDIENTS:

beef, lamb or any other meat on the bone - 300-400 g
potatoes - 2 medium potatoes
rice - 2 tbsp
onion - 1 pc.
garlic - 2 cloves
tomato paste - 2 tbsp.
salt and red pepper (ground)

In a liter of water over low heat, cook the usual broth. We take out the meat, remove it from the bones and return it to the pan.

Cook the diced potatoes in the broth until half cooked, add the washed rice and cook for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, put the diced onion into a preheated pan and pour over the top fatty layer of the broth. We boil it in this way for several minutes, transfer it to the soup, and put the tomato paste or peeled tomato cubes into the pan and also boil with the broth.

Adding tomato dressing in the soup, salt, pepper, put crushed garlic.
The classic "Soviet" kharcho soup is ready!

How to apply

To Georgian kharcho it is best to serve lavash. Not because this is a stereotype, but because they really fit together and literally become related to each other.

If the kharcho soup is thick (and the correct authentic kharcho is thick), and if it is hot and spicy (for example, Megrelian), in Georgia it is served with fresh corn porridge gomi (porridge like hominy or.

In bowls, soup can be additionally decorated with herbs and garlic served with it.

If you are expecting guests, a bottle of good wine will be useful.

Here he is, kharcho - a guest who came from the Caucasus mountains to please the children of the steppes and woodlands with the hot taste of a broad Georgian soul!

The name of this dish is familiar to almost everyone. Rice, beef are added to the soup, seasoned with cilantro and walnut is a prerequisite. You can experiment with meat, replacing beef with a different kind. As a result, every time you will receive new taste familiar dish.

Classic homemade kharcho soup recipe

According to the classic recipe, kharcho is prepared without potatoes and carrots, but always from beef.

Ingredients:

beef - 750 g;
paprika - 1 teaspoon;
onions - 3 heads;
hot red pepper;
rice - 7 tbsp. spoons;
black pepper - 15 peas;
walnut - 130 g;
basil - 20 g;
garlic - 7 cloves;
cilantro - 20 g;
hops-suneli - 3 teaspoons;
tkemali sauce - 8 teaspoons;
tomato paste - 3 teaspoons;
parsley - 20 g;
lavrushka - 3 sheets;
salt.

Cooking:

To make the broth the way it should be: rich and thick, use meat with a bone, brisket is well suited for this.
Rinse. Cut the pulp into pieces.
Take a saucepan with a volume of at least four liters, place the meat, pour water. Pour to the very top. The broth will cook for a long time and during this time the excess liquid will evaporate.
Periodically skim off any foam that appears during the boil.
Peel the onion, cut into thin strips.
Take the meat out after two hours. Take gauze, fold in three layers. Strain the broth. This must be done, during cooking, small bones may separate. Thanks to cheesecloth, you will get a clear broth.
Put the onion without frying.
When the meat has cooled, remove the bones, chop the flesh and send to the broth.
Boil for about an hour.
Rice wash several times, soak in water. Thanks to this cereal, a rich soup consistency is obtained.
Pour sauce, tomato paste, hot pepper. Boil five minutes.
Add Carefully hot pepper varieties are spicy.
Remove partitions from nuts, chop.
Remove the husk from the garlic, crush with a rolling pin.
Mix with nuts, grind.
Take a mortar, grind pepper.
Pour rice into soup.
Boil eight minutes.
Pour in a mass of nuts, paprika and suneli. Salt.
Chop greens, put in liquid.
Add bay leaf. Stir.
Boil for a few minutes. Remove from stove. Let it brew.

Ingredients:

chicken legs - 350 g;
walnuts - 120 g;
cilantro - 20 g;
coriander;
tomato - 6 pcs.;
rice - 100 g;
hops-suneli;
onion - 1 pc. ;
hot pepper - a pod;
garlic - 5 cloves;
parsley - 20 g.
lavrushka - 3 sheets;
pepper;
salt.

Cooking:

The main secret of a successful kharcho with rice is right broth, which must be rich. It's hard to get it from chicken. Therefore, you must first fry the legs until they turn golden. This will enhance the taste. Place them in a saucepan, cover with water, boil.
After an hour, take out the legs, cool. Remove meat, chop, return back.
Rinse the rice, add to the broth.
Chop the onion.
Peel the garlic, crush with a rolling pin.
Roast two vegetables.
Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, remove the skin. Send the chopped pieces to the pan.
Chop nuts, add to bowl.
Eight minutes later - bay leaf.
Salt. Add spices, chopped herbs.

With rice in a slow cooker

A slow cooker will help you make soup easier. With this device, it is not necessary to strictly control the cooking process, the main thing is to choose the right mode.

Ingredients:

smoked ham - 500 g;
rice - 1 multi-glass;
sunflower oil;
suneli hops - 1 teaspoon;
tomato paste - 4 teaspoons;
garlic - 5 cloves;
salt;
pepper.

Cooking:

Cut the ham into small pieces.
Peel the onion, chop.
Pour oil into a bowl, add the prepared ingredients.
Set half an hour on the "Baking" mode.
Pour in the tomato paste. Add chopped garlic, salt, suneli hops, pepper.
Pour the washed rice into a bowl. Set one hour on the "Extinguishing" mode.