Georgian cuisine is famous for its spicy and fragrant snacks. Moreover, almost all of them are prepared from simple products that can be found in any home. So what is the difference? It's time to find out!
Georgian Appetizers - General Cooking Principles
There is a whole group of Georgian snacks called “Pkhali”. They are small balls made from cabbage, spinach, various greens, and even beet tops, such a recipe is below. Additionally added nuts, garlic and always seasoning hops-suneli. Balls can be spread on a dish, decorate vegetables with them, serve on bread or flat cakes, make an addition to meat, fish.
Also in Georgian cuisine there are a lot of different snacks from eggplants, tomatoes and other vegetables. They are very similar to our dishes, but contain various aromatic additives that give a special taste.
What Georgians like to add:
• cilantro, parsley and other greens;
• hop-suneli seasoning;
• spicy adjika and pepper;
• garlic.
These flavored ingredients are found in hardly any recipe for national snacks. If you do not like a very sharp taste, then you can reduce the amount of pepper or garlic, but not green. Often it is almost the main ingredient, so you do not need to save.
Georgian appetizer “Pkhali” from fresh or frozen spinach
One of the most popular and useful options for Georgian snacks. You can use fresh or frozen spinach. Choose young and tender leaves, then it will turn out very tasty.
Ingredients
• 450-500 g of spinach;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• a bunch of parsley;
• a bunch of dill;
• 120 grams of walnuts;
• 1 tsp. hop-suneli condiments;
• 1 tbsp. l pomegranate seeds;
• 5 green onion feathers;
• 0.5 tsp. chopped hot pepper.
Cooking
1. Spinach put in a saucepan. If the leaves are frozen, first let them move, squeeze out excess water. In fresh spinach add a couple of spoons of water. Put on the stove, extinguish under the lid until soft, but do not overdo it, otherwise the mass will disintegrate. 2. Squeeze the prepared spinach from excess water, chop it with a blender or mince.
3. Chop all the greens into small chips. It is advisable not to grind the parsley with dill, otherwise the mass will be too juicy.
4. Peel the garlic, chop in any way. Pour to spinach with greens.
5. Pour the nuts into the pan, lightly dry, grind. Pour into the total mass.
6. Add hot pepper. If there is no fresh pod, then throw a pinch of dry hot pepper.
7. Thoroughly knead the green mass, roll small balls. Spread Georgian appetizer just on a plate, on lettuce leaves or on cabbage.
8. On top of each ball sticking pomegranate seeds. Serve to the table!
Georgian eggplant appetizer with nuts, tomatoes and cilantro
The classic recipe for Georgian eggplant snack. In Russian cuisine there are similar options, but for some reason without walnuts and cilantro greens. However, with them much more delicious!
Ingredients
• 2 eggplants;
• 0.5 purple onions;
• 60 g of nuts (only walnuts);
• bunch of cilantro;
• two cloves of garlic;
• two tomatoes;
• 0.3 pcs. hot pepper (can be less);
• 0.5 buns of dill;
• 40 ml of sunflower oil.
Cooking
1. If eggplants gorchat, they need to prepare in advance, cut and salt. If no bitterness, then cut immediately before cooking. Remove the tips, scrape off the peel, cut into long plates.
2. Heat the oil in a wide pan, lay out the eggplants, fry on both sides until cooked.
3. Rinse all the greens, chop with a knife very finely, pour into a bowl.
4. Grind nuts and garlic, chop hot pepper, add to greens.
5. Rinse the tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin, grind the pulp or grate. Season with tomato puree.
6. Cut a half of the purple onion into small cubes, send in the total mass, salt. If there is no salad onion, then chop up half of the usual head, put it in a colander, scald with boiling water, cool, pour into the total mass. Stir well.
7. On each eggplant at the edge put a teaspoon of cooked minced greens and nuts, roll up a roll. If it unfolds, you can fix the toothpick or tie a feather onions.
Georgian appetizer “Pkhali” from beet tops
Oh, these Georgians, they can even turn waste into an elegant dish. Here is another version of “Pkhali”, quite tasty, unusual and also very useful.
Ingredients
• 500 g of beet tops;
• 80 g of hazelnuts or walnuts;
• 1 bunch of cilantro;
• 2-3 cloves of garlic;
• 1 tsp. hops suneli;
• salt and pepper;
• garnet for decoration.
Cooking
1. To harvest the tops, cut off thick stems, you need 500 g of green leaves.
2. Boil a couple of liters of water. Add the washed beet tops, boil for two minutes.
3. Pour the beets into a colander, leave to drain water for 15-20 minutes.
4. Grind beet leaves in any convenient way.
5. Enumerate cilantro, wash, dry. Cut off all the leaves, throw the twigs. Chop finely. Add to shredded beet tops.
6. Grind nuts into a crumb, you can take hazelnuts or walnuts, add to the total mass.
7. Squeeze out fresh garlic, pour in the dry seasoning of hops-suneli, season with salt and pepper. You can use a mixture of black and red peppers.
8. Stir the prepared mass thoroughly, roll the neat balls.
9. Decorate each bead with a pomegranate seed. Usually stick one in the central part of the ball.
Georgian eggplant and pepper appetizer for the winter
The recipe is very simple to prepare, but quite tasty and fragrant Georgian snack, which can be prepared for future use for the winter. It is better to use red and yellow bell pepper, from green pods it turns out not so tasty.
Ingredients
• 2.4 kg of eggplants;
• 1 hot pepper;
• 10 pieces. Bulgarian pepper;
• 80 ml of vinegar 9%;
• 2 onions;
• 200 ml of oil;
• 2 tbsp. l Sahara;
• 2 tsp. salt.
Cooking
1. Remove the tails from the eggplant, cut into small cubes, pour in salt, leave for 15 minutes.
2. While eggplants are infused, free the Bulgarian pepper from the seeds, cut into chunks. Cut the sharp pod. Garlic is easy to peel. Skip all this through a meat grinder, put in a saucepan.
3. Rinse the eggplants, squeeze, divide about half. 4. Pour 100 ml oil into two large pans, heat.
5. Put the eggplant, fry over high heat until almost ready.
6. Turn on the saucepan with pepper, bring to a boil, boil for ten minutes.
7. Add all the spices and vinegar. Put eggplant, boil for another quarter of an hour.
8. Steam cans and boil over lids.
9. Spread out a hot snack, roll up.
10. Turn the jars, but you can not wrap, wait for complete cooling, then return to normal position, remove to a cool place for storage.
Georgian appetizer “Phali” from white cabbage
Pkhali can also be cooked from ordinary white cabbage, but it is important to pre-process the vegetable according to all the rules.
Ingredients
• 1.5 kg of cabbage;
• 1 head of garlic;
• 270 g of nuts;
• 0.5 tsp. coriander;
• 5 g hops-suneli;
• 2 bunches of cilantro;
• garnet for decoration;
• salt and pepper for taste.
• 1 tbsp. l wine vinegar;
Cooking
1. White cabbage to disassemble into leaves, cut off a thick core. Dip in boiling water. Boil until soft. Transfer to a colander, let the water drain.
2. Grind the cabbage with garlic. You can use a combine or a meat grinder.
3. Chop the cilantro, add to the cabbage. Pour wine vinegar. Fill up with seasonings. Stir.
4. Grind nuts, which can be pre-fry, add to cabbage. Stir the mass with your hands.
5. Form the balls. If suddenly the cabbage turns out a little watery, you can put it in a bag, cut off the tip and squeeze the turrets on a plate.
6. Decorate with pomegranate seeds, add snacks with whole sprigs of cilantro or other greens.
Georgian Ajapsandali Appetizer from Eggplant
Another option is a delicious eggplant snack, the recipe of which also belongs to Georgian cuisine. It is advisable to use tender and small vegetables, as the skin will not be removed from them. This snack can be cooked with meat and potatoes, but here is a vegetable recipe.
Ingredients
• 3 eggplants;
• 1 carrot;
• large onion;
• three cloves of garlic;
• butter, cilantro;
• 2 peppers;
• 5-8 basil twigs;
• 4 tomatoes. Cooking
1. On the tomatoes, incise the skin, pour boiling water over the tomatoes, soak for a minute. Cool under cold water. Remove the skin, chop the flesh blender, you can grind immediately with garlic.
2. Cut the carrots, peppers, and onions into strips.
3. Pour a little oil into the pan, put onions first, after a minute pour the carrot, then add the Bulgarian pepper to them, fry the vegetables.
4. Cut eggplants into circles, 0.5 cm thick.
5. Put the eggplants on the pan, fry on one and the other side. If you want to reduce the fat content of the dish, then fry on the grill.
6. Transfer the eggplant circles to the vegetables, add the tomato with garlic.
7. Chop the cilantro, chop the basil. Fall asleep in the dish immediately.
8. Salt, pepper, stir and cover.
9. Simmer the snack for 10-15 minutes until fully cooked, cool. It is served cold, you can additionally sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Georgian snacks - useful tips and tricks
• Often, cooking Georgian appetizers requires roasting eggplants. There is no need to add a lot of oil, the vegetables will absorb it indefinitely. It is better to pour a little, but warm up well.
• Greens before adding to snacks must be carefully dried. You can first shake vigorously to remove the drops, then spread them out on a napkin.
• If there is no red chilli pepper, then it can be replaced with powdered pepper powder, but the quantity will have to be adjusted independently, since its sharpness is different.
