How to cook kharcho soup at home: a recipe with a photo

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Kharcho is a national first course from Georgia. The classic version cannot be prepared without grated walnuts, beef and tklapi (dried thinnest plates of plum puree). The last product adds spice to the soup. Tklapi can be replaced with sour cherry plum, pomegranate juice, tkemali, but not with tomato paste! In this case, kharcho will no longer be a Georgian dish, but will become something incomprehensible.

How to cook kharcho soup or any other Georgian dish? Just add lots of greens. Georgian housewives use absolutely everything - from saffron to cilantro and the well-known parsley.

History of occurrence

It is still unknown when this first dish appeared in Georgia. A long time ago, beef cooked in walnut sauce and tklapi was called kharcho. Over time, rice was added to the composition, and at the moment, Caucasian housewives consider it a traditional kharcho, which is made from rice, tklapi, walnuts and beef. Nevertheless, in every Georgian village, any housewife will tell you how to cook kharcho soup tasty and with its own secret ingredient. The foundation of the foundations always remainsa tangy beef broth with a delicate touch of walnuts and an exciting aroma of herbs and spices.

The recipe has now been simplified and modified. Now in kharcho you can find pearl barley, vegetables unusual for him, and almost any meat, up to chicken.

The Soviet period has a strong legacy in Georgian cuisine. The People's Commissar for Foreign Trade of the USSR Anastas Mikoyan agreed with the cook of the dining room in the Kremlin, and he was separately served kharcho, cooked in lamb broth. Stalin, having learned about this situation, ordered the cooks to serve lamb soup to absolutely everyone. And even according to the Soviet GOST, kharcho is fixed as lamb soup.

So, how to cook kharcho soup?

Meat selection

The traditional recipe calls for beef broth, but since we are not in Georgia, we can choose the meat component according to our taste preferences and wallet. Whether it's lamb, beef, chicken or pork, it's important that the meat is fresh. The best parts of the carcass for kharcho are beef on the bone, pork ribs or boneless flesh, lamb brisket, neck or shoulder and chicken thighs and breast.

Films and tendons must be removed from thoroughly washed meat (required), and then, if desired, excess fat and bones are removed from the meat. There is an opinion that the broth on the bone is more saturated and fragrant. In the case of cooking a dish for losing weight, it is better to remove all the fat.

The finished meat is taken out of the broth, the latter is filtered through a sieve. The meat is cut into piecesat the same time, if there are bones, then they need to be removed, and thrown back into the broth. After all these actions, a soup base is obtained.

Cooking nuances

How to cook kharcho soup? At first glance, everything is elementary, but everywhere there are secrets.

In the already cooked broth, you can put any rice, but not steamed or crushed. For example, round-grain rice, even when boiled, will retain an attractive appearance.

It is during the cooking of rice that fried onions, bay leaves, slightly crushed black peppercorns, chopped walnuts, cherry plum or tklapi are added to the soup. Very rarely, but still, tomatoes are added to kharcho, but they must be without peel.

All spices and spices are added at the very end of cooking. Be it red pepper, saffron, suneli hops, adjika or coriander.

It is important to remember that if children will also enjoy soup, then there is no need to abuse hot spices.

After removing the soup from the heat, add finely chopped garlic, chopped rosemary, parsley, cilantro, celery.

It is also interesting that in each recipe not only the composition is different, but also the cooking time, as well as the sequence of adding certain products. In Russia and Belarus, potatoes, carrots and bell peppers are added. In Italy, olives and fresh basil are not spared. And in France, they modify the classic recipe for themselves and do not prepare soup without parmesan and cashew nuts.

Immediately after cooking, kharcho is not eaten, it needs time,to infuse - from half an hour or more.

Variety of recipes

How to cook traditional kharcho soup? There are a lot of options, and we will definitely focus on the most interesting ones. But first, consider the classic.

Classic of the genre

How to cook beef kharcho soup? The classic recipe is not so difficult to bring to life! As usual, let's start by checking the supplies in our kitchen.

Ingredients:

• beef on the bone - 400 grams;
• water - 2 liters;
• round grain rice - 4 tablespoons;
• cilantro - a pair of branches;
• parsley - a couple of branches;
• walnuts - half faceted glass (pre-roasted);
• garlic - one head;
• greens - optional;
• tklapi - one strip (or tkemali - 3 tablespoons);
• hops-suneli - 1 teaspoon.

Cooking

The washed meat is poured with two liters of water and boiled for at least two hours. Next, the meat is removed, and the broth is decanted. The meat is cut into pieces and returned to the broth. Rice is poured there, chopped parsley and cilantro are added. At the moment when the rice is already softened, fried walnuts are poured. Before removing from heat, finely chopped garlic, herbs, spices, and s alt are added to the soup. Kharcho cannot be without sourness, otherwise it is already some other dish.

Kharcho with lamb and prunes

How to cook kharcho soup with prunes at home? In fact, everything is much simpler thanit seems.

Ingredients:

• lamb brisket on the bone - one kilo;
• prunes - 100 grams;
• ground walnuts - glass;
• long grain rice - glass;
• ripe tomatoes - 5 pieces;
• onions - 6 heads;
• parsley - 50 grams;
• cilantro - 50 grams;
• garlic - 4 cloves;
• green chili pepper - 1 piece;
• tklapi - stripe 10 x 10 centimeters;
• laurel - 1 leaf;
• allspice - 1 teaspoon;
• spices - optional;
• s alt, black pepper - optional.

Cooking

Meat cut into medium-sized cubes and pour two liters of water. As soon as it boils, remove the foam and cook for two hours. After an hour of cooking, finely chopped prunes and s alt can be added to the broth. After the meat is cooked, the rest of the ingredients are added: onion cut into quarters, rice and bunches of herbs. All this should boil for at least fifteen minutes. Mince the garlic and rub it with s alt and pepper. Send hot pepper and finely chopped greens there, grind everything to a puree state. Pour walnuts, peeled tomatoes, lamb broth ladle into this puree and mix it all. Remove bunches of greens from the soup and add crushed mashed potatoes with broth. Sprinkle kharcho with pepper and add spices if they are lacking. Before removing from heat, the soup is flavored with tklapi, bay leaves and parsley.

Chicken kharcho soup

Howto prepare this soup and what is needed for this? A set of products can be intimidating, but the result is worth it!

Ingredients:

• chicken - 1 kilo;
• carrot - one piece;
• celery - optional;
• parsley - optional;
• vegetable oil - 2 tablespoons;
• onions - one head;
• wheat flour - one tablespoon;
• round grain rice - half faceted glass;
• peppercorns - one teaspoon;
• coriander seeds - one teaspoon;
• dried parsley, dried basil, dried mint, dried tarragon and suneli hops - half a teaspoon each;
• adjika - one teaspoon;
• ground cinnamon - optional;
• tkemali - 3 tablespoons;
• ground walnuts - half a faceted glass;
• garlic - 3 cloves;
• chopped greens - 4 tablespoons;
• s alt - optional.

How to cook kharcho soup? Both the recipe and the photo are a kind of helper. So let's start with the recipe.

Cooking

For this variation of kharcho, the broth is brewed from chicken, unpeeled onion head, celery root and carrots. After it boils, cook for at least one and a half hours, periodically removing the foam. While the broth is cooking, you can make the frying. Finely chopped onion fry in vegetable oil until light golden brown, along with grated parsley. After adding flour, fry for some more time. After an hour and a half, remove the meat and vegetables from the broth. In strained brothadd chopped meat, rice, s alt. Grind peppercorns and coriander. As the rice boils, wait 10 minutes and lay the nuts, all the spices and spices, adjika and tkemali. Stir, cook until the rice is fully cooked. Pour the crushed garlic into the soup removed from the heat and season generously with cilantro, celery and basil. You can see what the finished soup looks like in the photo below. Appetizing, isn't it?

Add a little spicy: with chili and beef

Since even a novice cook can cook kharcho soup at home according to this recipe, let's not be too distracted by unnecessary talk. Let's get started!

Ingredients:

• beef tenderloin with cartilage - 500 grams;
• water - 5 liters;
• round grain rice - half faceted glass;
• tklapi - a fifth of a faceted glass;
• garlic - 5 cloves;
• crushed walnuts - half faceted glass;
• parsley root;
• wheat flour - one tablespoon;

For the spicy dressing:

• chopped parsley - 2 tablespoons;
• chopped basil - half teaspoon;
• cilantro - tablespoon;
• hops-suneli - 3 teaspoons;
• ground coriander - half a teaspoon;
• red ground pepper - half a teaspoon;
• strings of saffron - optional.

How to cook beef kharcho soup? The algorithm of actions is simple.

Remove the film from the meat, cut into small pieces and fill with water, cook onfor two hours. Remove the boiled meat from the broth, strain the latter and load again with meat, but this time with rice. Add s alt and bring to a boil. Boil for at least 10 minutes. Fry onion half rings with flour in a pan and send to soup. Add parsley root, bay leaf, black pepper, coriander.

When the al dente rice is ready, add nuts and tklapi to the kharcho. Generously add greens and boil for another six minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to infuse under the lid. Crushed garlic and chopped cilantro and basil are added after the soup is infused. Bon appetit!

Pork variations: simple and delicious

How to cook pork kharcho soup? In principle, nothing complicated. An ordinary soup, only with an abundance of Georgian spices.

Ingredients:

• pork pulp with fatty streaks - 400 grams;
• round-grain rice - half a faceted glass;
• carrot - 1 medium size;
• onion - medium head;
• potato - one big one;
• garlic - whole head;
• tkemali - 100 grams;
• hops-suneli - 2 teaspoons;
• walnuts - 50 grams;
• sunflower oil - optional;
• greens - optional;
• s alt - optional.

How to cook kharcho soup? The recipe is simple.

Pork pour water, add s alt and put to boil. After boiling, remove the foam and boil for another half hour. Rinse the rice in several waters, cut the potatoes into cubes. After half an hour and rice and potatoesare added to the broth. Soup is prepared from onions and carrots. Walnuts are chopped and mixed with tkemali, crushed garlic, suneli hops. The spice mixture is added to the soup and mixed. Wait until kharcho boils and turn off the fire. Let it brew for at least half an hour, after that add a lot of greens and serve on the table in portioned plates.

In the slow cooker

We have already considered how to cook beef kharcho soup. The recipe can be taken from any of the widest range, adding certain seasonings and herbs as desired. Let's dwell on the next variation, and to help ourselves, we will attract the now so popular kitchen appliance.

Ingredients:

• beef - kilo;
• long grain rice - half faceted glass;
• crushed walnuts - half faceted glass;
• natural pomegranate juice - half faceted glass;
• onion - 3 heads;
• parsley - one root;
• cilantro - optional;
• hot pepper - 1 piece;
• tomatoes - 2 pieces;
• hops-suneli - one teaspoon;
• garlic - 5 cloves;
• laurel leaf;
• wheat flour - one tablespoon;
• sunflower oil - 2 tablespoons;
• s alt, pepper - optional.

How to cook kharcho soup? A step-by-step recipe involves doing the following:

Step 1. Cut all the necessary ingredients: onion - thin quarters, meat - medium pieces, grate parsley root,grind nuts with garlic and pepper in a mortar.

Step 2. Select the baking mode and fry the onion with parsley root in a bowl for 7 minutes until caramelized. Add the beef to the onion and fry for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Step 3. Dilute the flour in a glass of boiled water and pour into the meat.

Step 4. Add all the pomegranate juice and 2 liters of purified water there. Add grated tomatoes and nuts, spices, s alt and bay leaf to the soup.

Step 5. Switch to the extinguishing mode for an hour and a half.

Step 6. Add garlic with herbs at the end of cooking. Sprinkle with plenty of herbs before serving.

Cooking Tricks

How to cook kharcho soup? We analyze the process step by step and give advice:

1. You need the broth to be clear. To do this, after boiling the meat, the broth is filtered until transparent. While cooking meat, add onions, whole carrots to the pan.
2. You can add an extra flavor accent by first frying the meat in a bowl in which the broth will be cooked.
3. The combination of cherry plum and beef, even if the other ingredients required for the traditional recipe are missing, will turn any variation into a real kharcho.
4. Tkemali should be chosen as sour as possible. The ideal option would be a sauce made from unripe plums. For a variety of taste, you can mix tkemali and satsebeli in equal proportions.
5. Delicious kharcho soup will turn out when using polished orsteamed rice. The fact is that such processing of cereals helps it not to boil soft and maintain an attractive appearance in the first courses. But you can't get carried away with rice, otherwise the soup will turn into porridge with meat.
6. To awaken the appetite and give the dish a pleasant aroma, put crushed garlic after removing the pan from the heat.
7. Kharcho cannot be poured into plates immediately, he needs to be given time to infuse, absorb all the tastes and aromas.
8. Georgians don't put onions in their soup. They cut it into the thinnest half rings, scald it with boiling water and add it directly to the dishes before serving. Thanks to this approach, kharcho is filled with new flavors.

Homemade Tkemali

When Georgian women are asked about how to cook kharcho soup (after all, the recipes are different, sometimes changed beyond recognition, besides, they are known to be different in every family), they always answer that there is nothing without tkemali succeed. How is this famous Georgian sauce prepared?

Ingredients:

• dark plums - 500 grams;
• cherry tomatoes - 5 pieces;
• garlic - 4 prongs;
• cilantro - stem;
• s alt - optional;

Cooking

Plums and tomatoes are poured with boiling water, boiled over a fire until soft. Then they are rubbed through a sieve, laid out back in the pan. Suneli hops, garlic, cilantro and s alt are sent to the puree. Let it boil and pierce with a blender. The resulting mass is poured into a convenient dish and stored in the refrigerator.

Serving and serving kharcho

There are many articles on how to cook kharcho soup, and there are a lot of photos of ready-made dishes, but for some reason there is very little information on how to serve this dish. Let's fill this gap.

This first course is usually served in earthenware deep cups or pots. First, meat is laid out on the bottom, and then it is poured with soup.

A more modern version of serving - in a roll. First, they cut out the bread cover, and then they take out the bread crumb and pour kharcho in its place.

Armenian lavash is the accompaniment to the soup. In most cases, it is served empty, but chopped greens and soft cheese can be wrapped in pita bread. This filling will perfectly shade the sharpness of the kharcho. No less popular are garlic buns and light crackers.

Khachapuri (Georgian cheese flatbread) also goes well with kharcho.

Rarely, but still there are cases when onion, matsoni and wine vinegar are brought with soup. Onions are added to the soup. Matsoni serves as a sauce for pita bread or bread.

They also serve soup with corn porridge and herbs.

With kharcho it is allowed to drink chacha or red wine.