A classic recipe for beef "Kharcho soup" with a photo. How to cook kharcho soup at home Kharcho soup recipe

I continue to expand the arsenal of recipes collected on the pages of the site. Today I will tell you how to cook kharcho soup at home. Men like this Georgian dish and every housewife should have its step-by-step recipe.

The basis of the classic kharcho is dried plum, which gives a sour tint. The composition of the soup necessarily includes walnuts. Previously, kharcho was prepared exclusively from beef, now they use pork, lamb or chicken.

In today's material, we will consider common kharcho recipes, and I will start with the classics. It is problematic to recreate the classic Georgian delicacy, since it is impossible to find plum puree, which is the basis of the soup, in Russia. It is replaced with tkemali sauce, which is sold in supermarkets.

Classic kharcho recipe

The classic kharcho recipe involves the use of a large amount of seasonings, walnuts, cream sauce and garlic. The final result depends on the quality of the meat, which must be fat and fresh. For this purpose, the brisket is suitable.

Ingredients

Servings: 20

• beef 450 g
• Walnut 125 g
• water 3 l
• rice 250 g
• onion 2 pcs
• sauce 200 ml
• garlic 3 pcs
• hops-suneli 10 g
• Red pepper 5 g
• parsley 5 g
• peppercorns 5 grains
• salt to taste

per serving

Calories: 75 kcal

Proteins: 3.1 g

Fats: 4.5 g

Carbohydrates: 5.5 g

2 o'clock 40 min. Video recipe Print

Wash the beef thoroughly, remove the veins and cut into small cubes. Send to the pan, pour three liters of water and boil on low heat for 2 hours. Remove the foam with a slotted spoon during cooking.

Rinse rice groats several times in cold water and send to a pan with cooked meat. Boil fifteen minutes.

Finely chopped onion fry in oil until golden brown, add chopped walnut kernels to the pan and mix. After a minute, send the contents of the pan to the beef broth, cook for a quarter of an hour, add salt and spices.

Add sauce to soup. After ten minutes of cooking, turn off the fire, and send chopped garlic to the pan with kharcho. Set the soup aside to cool.

Lastly, put the washed and finely chopped parsley in the kharcho, which will be the final touch and give the dish a unique flavor.

If you plan to please the delights of children, reduce the amount of pepper.

How to cook beef kharcho

Considered the classic recipe. Now I will share a more modern technology for making beef kharcho. It is important that this version of the soup, despite the novelty, has a pronounced taste.

If ordinary soup or borscht is no longer enjoyable, use this recipe or check out 10 delicious beef broth soups. It will help diversify your daily diet and bring some bright colors.

Ingredients:

• Beef - 1 kg.
• Rice - 0.5 cups.
• Onion - 1 head.
• Carrot - 1 pc.
• Celery - 1 root.
• Tomatoes - 4 pcs.
• Garlic - 1 head.
• Walnuts - 0.5 cups.
• Dried cherries - 1.3 cups.
• Cherry plum paste - a piece of 10 by 10 cm.
• Paprika, parsley, laurel, lemon juice, vegetable oil.

Cooking:

1. Before cooking, wash the meat thoroughly, cover with water and boil the beef broth with the addition of a few bay leaves and chopped celery.
2. Strain the finished broth and dip the cherry plum paste into it to soak. Remove the beef from the pan, cut into small pieces and send back.
3. Remove the skin from the tomatoes using blanching. Stew the tomatoes to make a homogeneous paste. Send it along with cherries, chopped onions and diced carrots to the soup.
4. When the vegetables are softened, add rice to the kharcho and cook for 10 minutes. Next, add a paste consisting of chopped nuts and crushed garlic. It remains to add salt, pepper and paprika.
5. After 10 minutes, pour chopped greens into kharcho, and remove the pan from the stove. Before serving, the soup must be infused for about twenty minutes.

This soup will give a worthy rebuff even to the classic kharcho. What can we say about traditional soups and borscht, which have long become everyday food for us.

Lamb kharcho

As practice shows, none of the men is able to remain indifferent to this culinary product. A good meat dish is the strong point of the inhabitants of the East, and the lamb kharcho soup that we will cook is proof of this.

Ingredients:

• Lamb - 500 g.
• Rice - 4 tablespoons.
• Onion - 2 heads.
• Tomatoes - 4 pcs.
• Garlic - 3 cloves.
• Peppercorns, parsley, dill, basil.
• Cilantro, laurel and vegetable oil.

Cooking:

1. Start cooking by preparing the meat. Wash the lamb, cut into cubes, put in a small saucepan and pour two liters of water.
2. The duration of cooking the broth is one and a half hours. After an hour, add greens to the pan. Keep skimming off the foam while making the broth. Cook on minimum heat.
3. While the meat is cooking, prepare the tomatoes. Pour them with clean water and put in a container with boiling water. Remove the skin and cut the vegetables themselves as you wish.
4. Grind the onion and send it to the pan with hot oil. When it turns golden, pour a couple of tablespoons of broth into the pan and simmer over low heat. After 5 minutes, add chopped tomatoes, stir and simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Send the contents of the pan to the pan with almost ready meat. After boiling the broth again, add the rice. Five minutes later, add the laurel to the kharcho along with peppercorns and basil.
6. The finishing touch remains. Add the cilantro to the dish along with the dill, parsley and garlic. After two minutes, turn off the heat and let the soup brew for an hour. Start tasting.

If kharcho seems a little, cook lamb in the oven. It is suitable for the role of the second dish.

How to cook chicken kharcho

I think by this point you have understood that beef is used to prepare traditional Georgian kharcho. But not every cook has the opportunity to get a piece of meat. In this case, I advise you to cook chicken kharcho. The main thing is that replacing the main ingredient will not affect the richness of the soup and aroma.

Ingredients:

• Rice - 0.5 cups.
• Chicken breast - 1 pc.
• Onion - 1 head.
• Garlic - 3 cloves.
• Tomato sauce - 3 tablespoons.
• Tkemali sauce - 3 tablespoons.
• Parsley, ground pepper, suneli hops.

Cooking:

1. Boil the chicken breast until half cooked. Remove the meat, chop into small pieces and return back along with chopped onion and rice cereal. Boil the soup until the ingredients are fully cooked.
2. A few minutes before the end of cooking, send sauces, crushed garlic, seasonings and herbs to the pan. After two minutes, turn off the fire and set the kharcho aside to infuse.

This method of cooking kharcho soup is the fastest. No wonder, because the chicken is cooked instantly. With what to serve liquid food, decide for yourself, but I recommend supplementing it with pita bread or tasty croutons. Such a tandem will satisfy the needs of any gourmet.

Recipe in Georgian

Do you want to know the Georgian kharcho recipe? I think yes. The soup has a sour base. We are talking about fresh cherry plum or sour lavash, which is the dried pulp of plums. The fruits are mashed, which is subsequently dried and a large cake is obtained. Then small pieces are soaked and used to prepare all kinds of dishes, including kharcho.

If these ingredients are missing, replace them with tomato paste. But getting a real Georgian soup will no longer work. You can’t cook a delicacy without walnuts and beef on the bone.

Ingredients:

• Beef - 1 kg.
• Rice - 1 cup.
• Onion - 4 heads.
• Walnuts - 1 cup.
• Carrot - 1 pc.
• Tkemali - 1 glass.
• Garlic - 1 head.
• Dill, cilantro, coriander.
• Tomato paste - 2 tablespoons.
• hot pepper, suneli hops, salt.

Cooking:

1. Put the beef in a cooking pot, pour three liters of oxen and boil over low heat for about two hours. Remove the meat from the pan, remove the bones and cut into pieces. Return beef to broth.
2. The next step is to send the tomato paste to the pan along with the tkemali. After 5 minutes, enter the carrot into the dish, and after another 10 minutes - the onion. Cook for half an hour under the kharcho lid.
3. Make a refill. Toast the nuts in a dry frying pan and grind well in a mortar. Combine walnut powder with chopped garlic and mix.
4. Send rice to the soup, and after 10 minutes dressing from nuts and garlic. After fifteen minutes of cooking, pour salt and spices into the pan. Cook the dish for two or three minutes, add chopped greens, sweat for another two minutes and that's it.
5. Before serving, let the kharcho brew for 15-20 minutes.

The treat is best combined with pita bread, although many people eat it with bread. If there is no time for cooking, make meat okroshka. It cannot be compared with kharcho, but it also deserves attention.

Georgian kharcho is thicker than regular soups, which are half liquid. An integral part of the preparation is the use of a large number of spices.

Some believe that kharcho is a semi-liquid tomato porridge with the addition of bones, which is inconspicuous and not very tasty. I do not share this opinion, except for one point. The treat is really prepared with the addition of beef on the bone. As for the features, they are represented by an unusual aroma, high satiety and low calorie content. The latter is extremely important for people who follow the figure.

I hope I have fully revealed the topic of conversation and told all the secrets and subtleties of cooking Georgian soup.

An invaluable gift of excellent Georgian cuisine is the popular kharcho soup recipes, 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, the name of 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 the taste of this soup, moreover, it only adds piquancy and introduces 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, a kind of plum sauce - tkemali with the addition of fragrant garlic and spices can serve as an excellent alternative to tklapi. These basic ingredients are the basis of real Georgian food.

This truly deep flavor combination is achieved due to some cooking features:

1. 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 would be adjika, tomato sauce, the pulp of fresh plums, pomegranate juice, a spoonful of apple cider vinegar, tkemali (purchased in the store), as well as lemon when serving.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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, an abundance of various recipes for the execution of this delicacy is known. 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 toast the walnuts in a heated frying pan. 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 throughout the kitchen, which will be supplemented with bay leaves, suneli hops, salt, and 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 the traditional cooking recipe, 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. Heat the pan and fry the pieces of meat in melted butter until golden brown. In a mortar, grind coriander, allspice and red pepper, and salt to a homogeneous gruel. Sprinkle the meat with apple cider vinegar, put the onion on top, sprinkle with the prepared fragrant gruel and fry on the 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 a delicious delicacy due to its 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;
• Greenery;
• 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 you know, the classic version is made from beef, but the recipes for this dish that have gone beyond the borders of their homeland, at least, differ in the choice of meat. True connoisseurs of 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;
• Greenery.

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 paste with tkemali. Bring the mixture to a boil and turn off. Pour crushed greens into the finished dish 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 peppers, potatoes, tomatoes);
• Rice (1/2 multi-cup);
• Spices, herbs, salt.

Cooking in a multicooker:

Cut the meat into small pieces and fry in sunflower oil in the "Baking" mode for about 20 - 25 minutes. Then add chopped onions, green peppers, carrots and tomatoes to it. 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 the execution of the 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. When 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 the 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. Put the chopped fish into the vegetable broth.

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.

Irina Kamshilina

Cooking for someone is much more pleasant than for yourself))

Mar 28 2014

Content

If soup is an integral part of your diet, treat yourself to a new dish. Prepare kharcho soup the way it is done in its homeland, Georgia. Our step by step guide will help you with this.

Kharcho is a thick, rich and fragrant soup with meat. It is considered a traditional dish of Georgian cuisine. Even a child in Georgia knows how to cook this dish. To make it, you need beef, tklapi - a special dressing made from dried plum puree, and prunes. You will also need: rice, onion, garlic, spices and suneli hops.

The basis of kharcho is always tkemali or cherry plum - sour varieties of plums. In Georgia, the pulp of the berry is dried in the form of round cakes - pita bread, which is popularly called tklapi.

Of great importance is the choice of meat and rice. It is believed that the dish is best served from steamed fatty beef on the bone. Rice should be whole long-grain or round. Steamed and crushed rice should not be used.

How to cook classic kharcho soup: a step by step guide

You will need:­

• 300 g of fatty beef brisket;
• 100 g whole round rice;
• 2 medium sized onions;
• 3 garlic cloves;
• 1 hot pepper;
• 3 pcs prunes;
• 1 tbsp hops-suneli;
• 7 art. water
• 30 g tklapi;
• 30 g vegetable oil
• 2 tbsp tomato puree;
• salt to taste;
• fresh herbs to taste (cilantro, dill, parsley).

Cooking method:

1. After separating the meat from the bones and cleaning it from the films, cut into small pieces across the fibers. Put it in a pot and add water. Bringing the water in a saucepan to a boil over high heat, cook the meat for about 50 minutes over low heat.
2. Cooking rice. To do this, carefully sort and wash it. Then soak the rice for 15 minutes until it turns white.
3. Finely chop the onion, prunes, cilantro and garlic. We mix them with tomato paste, vegetable oil and suneli hops. We introduce tklapi and finely chopped hot pepper into the sauce.
4. We put the resulting mixture on a strong fire and sauté for 2 minutes.
5. Add rice to almost cooked meat. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
6. Add prunes and cooked sauce. At this stage, do not forget to salt.
7. Cook the soup for another 10 minutes over high heat.
8. Before turning off, we send finely chopped parsley and dill to the kharcho.
9. Ready soup should be infused for another 15 minutes.

Advice. If you could not find tklapi, then this seasoning can be replaced with tkemali sauce, which is sold in any supermarket. In the event that you do not have tkemali on hand, use pomegranate juice as an alternative.

Among all the culinary instructions, tomato kharcho occupies a special place. Its main advantage is accessibility. This soup does not use the famous tklapi sauce. It is replaced by tomatoes and popular seasonings. Soup according to this recipe is also loved by many.

Chicken kharcho has a slightly different taste, but it is also popular among lovers of such soups. The process of its preparation is slightly different from the classic version.

To prepare chicken kharcho, you will need the following ingredients:

• 500 g chicken or turkey meat;
• 200 g of shelled walnuts;
• 2 onions;
• 40 g wheat flour;
• 0.5 cups cherry plum puree or 3 ripe tomatoes;
• 3 garlic cloves;
• 2 tsp crushed cilantro seeds;
• 1 tsp seasoning hops-suneli;
• salt;
• greenery;
• spices to taste - cinnamon, hot chilli pepper, black pepper, cloves, allspice, Imeretian saffron, bay leaf.

In the process of preparing a chicken variation of the dish, there are several points that you should be aware of.

1. For soup, only fatty pieces of chicken meat are used.
2. Cilantro is not recommended as a green. It is better to replace it with parsley, dill or celery.
3. At the end of the preparation of the sauce, flour is added.
4. For the rest, you should follow the recipe for making classic kharcho.

How to cook kharcho from pork

Discuss

How to cook kharcho soup

Fragrant, hearty and rich kharcho soup is good for winter dinners when it's cold outside and you want to warm up. A popular Georgian dish, a cross 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 delicious kharcho soup at home in accordance 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 cook a dietary version of 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, onions, bay leaves, lightly crushed black peppercorns, crushed walnuts, pieces of cherry plum or fresh plum puree (prunes, tkemali, pomegranate juice) are added to it. 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 kharcho - suneli hops, red capsicum, saffron, coriander, adjika and any delicious spices. If you are cooking for children, do not add spicy seasonings to the dish. 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 prepared with bell peppers, carrots and potatoes, the Italians generously add olives and basil to the dish, and the French prepare 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 is obligatory - it is it that 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?

The Georgian name of this dish is translated as "beef soup". However, there is no canonical recipe for its manufacture. Not without reason, when mentioning kharcho, it is customary to indicate the area of ​​​​origin of the recipe (Georgian soup, Mingrelian soup, etc.). Changing the recipe of this dish only adds new colors to it and enriches the taste sensations.

However, the main features of kharcho remain unchanged - a sour, spicy base and a spicy oriental aroma.

Such a deep taste bouquet is achieved by some special details:

Kharcho soup recipes

In modern cooking, there are many different recipes for making kharcho. Each family in Georgia keeps its own unique recipe for this dish. We also offer you to please your loved ones with a hearty lunch, which originates from Georgian cuisine.

Georgian traditional kharcho soup recipe

The recipe for kharcho soup, like all other Caucasian dishes, involves a sedate and unhurried approach to the process. It will take you at least 2 hours.

For a serving for two, prepare the following ingredients:

• meat (beef or veal) - 400 g;
• long-grain rice - 50 g;
• carrots - 1 medium piece;
• onions - 2 pcs.;
• peeled walnuts - a little less than half a glass;
• garlic - 1 pc.;
• tkemali sauce (homemade or purchased) - half a glass;
• parsley;
• dill;
• cilantro;
• hops-suneli;
• coriander;
• black pepper or a mixture of "Four Peppers";
• hot pepper - 1 pod.

Let's start cooking:

1. First of all, take care of the broth. Traditionally, it is recommended to use fatty brisket. But there is a little trick - to use meat on the brain bone instead of brisket. This technique will make the soup more tender and rich.
2. Pour a piece of meat with cold water (about 1.5 l), bring to a boil. Turn off the fire and simmer. The water should boil slightly.
3. After 2 hours, take the beef out, separate the flesh from the bone and cut into small cubes. Throw the pieces back into the pot.
4. Peel vegetables (onions and carrots). Cut the onion into thin slices, holding the knife along the onion. This technique will prevent the onion from dissolving in the soup. Cut the carrot into small strips.
5. The crucial moment is the addition of tkemali to the broth. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of the sauce to the simmering broth. It is not necessary to use tkemali. Any sour tomato mixture will replace it. If you managed to get Georgian plum sauce (tklapi), add a piece about 10 cm in size.
6. Wait until it boils and add carrot straws.
7. After 10 minutes, put the chopped onion and cook for half an hour under the lid.
8. At this time, heat a frying pan without oil and lightly fry the nuts on it. After the appearance of a characteristic aroma, put them in a mortar and carefully grind until smooth. Use a blender if necessary.
9. Grate the garlic or use a garlic press. Mix the resulting mass with nut paste.
10. After half an hour of boiling the broth, pour in the rice washed several times and cook for 10 minutes.
11. Finally, it's time for the garlic nut dressing. After adding it, leave the soup for another 15 minutes.
12. At this stage, unique flavors are already spreading through the kitchen. Strengthen them by adding a couple of bay leaves, salt, pepper, hops-suneli (or, if available, ucho-suneli) - 1 teaspoon and coriander (incomplete teaspoon).
13. Try the soup to adjust the taste. You can strengthen the acid with pomegranate juice. Fresh sharpness will add a ground pod of fresh hot pepper. After adding spices, the soup should languish for 5 minutes.
14. Season the soup with cilantro, parsley and dill to taste. You can put a sprig of mint. Simmer for 2 more minutes, remove from heat and let steep for at least 5-10 minutes.

Lavash is best served with soup. It turns out incredibly tasty!

Kharcho with chicken

You can spend less time preparing soup by choosing chicken meat. Replacing beef with poultry reduces the fat content of the soup and adds new flavors to the dish. The method of preparation is fundamentally no different from the original. But still, chicken kharcho soup has its own little secrets.

Prepare a range of products:

• chicken (fillet or legs) - 300 g;
• nuts - 100 g;
• tomatoes - 5 pcs.;
• onion - 1 pc.;
• garlic;
• salt and spices;
• greenery.

The cooking process is as follows:

1. One of the secrets of the rich taste of kharcho is rich broth. Chicken broth is quite lean. In order to enhance the taste, fry the meat over high heat until golden brown, and only then cook the broth from it. It will be ready in about an hour. After this time, take out the meat and chop it into small pieces.
2. Another technique is to saute vegetables. It is better to add fresh vegetables to beef kharcho soup, as they will absorb beef fat during the cooking process. Vegetables for chicken kharcho are best stewed. Finely chopped onion and crushed garlic fry over low heat until translucent.
3. Dip the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute, then easily peel, cut into medium pieces and put in a saucepan.
4. Grind walnuts in a blender.
5. Add the resulting pasta to the pot and cook for 10 minutes.
6. Throw bay leaf into the pan, salt and pepper. Season with suneli hops, coriander, hot pepper.
7. Chop cilantro and other greens, sprinkle soup with it, cover with a lid and remove from heat after 2 minutes.

Soup kharcho with lamb

Tart lamb kharcho soup has a delicate, rich taste. This type of meat is not as fatty as pork or beef, so the recipe with it is no less common.

1. For soup, a low-fat brisket (500 g) is suitable, which must be cut into small pieces along the ribs. Quick frying in ghee with parsley root will help to reveal the taste of meat. Enough 2-3 minutes.
2. Then we shift the meat into a saucepan and fill it with cold water.
3. Finely chop the head of the onion, put in a bowl and pepper. Mix with your hands, pressing lightly.
4. After 40 minutes of boiling the broth, add the contents of a bowl with onions, half a glass of washed rice cereal, a teaspoon of tomato paste to it.
5. Cook until done. 5 minutes before removing from heat, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of tkemali, a teaspoon of adjika, chopped garlic, suneli hops, sprinkle with cilantro and parsley.
6. Try after 3 minutes. If the soup isn't spicy enough, add fresh chilli rings.

Soup kharcho from river fish

It is impossible to imagine how many ways there are to cook kharcho soup at home. This dish even allows fish. You will appreciate the taste of this intriguing treat.

1. We will cook the fish in vegetable broth. In 1.5 liters of water we put the bay leaf, parsley root and celery root, the whole onion, add salt and peppercorns. We put on medium fire.
2. While the broth is cooking, chop the onion.
3. After 20 minutes, remove the pan and strain the broth. We place in it the fish cut into large pieces (300 grams), pre-washed rice and onions and bring to a boil.
4. We continue to cook kharcho soup for another 15-20 minutes. At the end, add tkemali, pressed garlic and leave on fire for another 5 minutes.

Kharcho with rice and potatoes

Hearty and less spicy kharcho soup with potatoes and rice, although it violates all the laws of authenticity, will warm you in cold weather and fill your home with comfort. In addition to the main products (beef - 400 gr), rice (a little less than half a glass) and spices (suneli hops, garlic, salt, pepper, lavrushka), kharcho with potatoes and rice includes potatoes (2 pcs.), Tomatoes, tomato paste (2 tablespoons) and basil.

Cook this option like a regular kharcho:

1. Boil and strain the broth, after boiling again, add the tomato base.
2. After a few minutes, add pre-soaked rice and potatoes cut into large pieces.
3. Simmer until rice and potatoes are cooked. At the end, you can add seasoning to taste, let it brew and do not forget to add herbs.

Soup with pork

Another interesting variation of the recipe is pork kharcho soup.

From the ingredients you will need:

Do you want something interesting?

• 500 grams of pork;
• 4 things. Luke;
• ½ cup of rice;
• ½ cup walnuts;
• tkemali sauce;
• parsley root;
• hops-suneli;
• coriander;
• garlic;
• greenery.

Let's start the cooking process:

1. We cut the pork into cubes 3 by 3 cm, fill it with water and put it on a slow fire for 1.5 hours. During the cooking process, remove the foam.
2. We take the meat out of the broth. It is recommended to strain the broth and bring to a boil again.
3. Next, throw in rice, pieces of pork, grated parsley root, finely chopped onion.
4. From spices add bay leaf, coriander. After 15 minutes, put chopped nuts with a blender and 2 tablespoons of tkemali sauce into the soup.
5. After five minutes of cooking, it's time for suneli hops and chopped garlic. Can be supplemented with saffron and red pepper.
6. Finally, sprinkle everything with herbs and turn off the fire. The soup should be allowed to brew for 5-10 minutes.

Try cooking kharcho soup in a slow cooker. Following the following instructions, you can easily implement this idea.

1. Prepare food. Wash and cut the meat (for example, 500 grams of lamb), chop the nuts (100 grams) and the head of garlic, chop 3 onions and hot peppers.
2. Turn on the multicooker on the "Toasting" mode. Melt the mutton fat in a bowl, toss the onion for 6-8 minutes. Add meat and cook, stirring, 10 minutes. Dilute 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour in a tablespoon of cold water, pour into the multicooker bowl. After a minute, add 1 tbsp. a spoonful of tomato paste.
3. Add 2 liters of water and half a glass of pomegranate juice. Add suneli hops, salt, pepper, bay leaf. Cover with a lid and turn on the "Soup" mode.
4. After 1.5 hours, add herbs and garlic. Turn off the multicooker. Let the dish rest.

Soup kharcho, like the doors of a hospitable home, is always open to something new. And no matter which version of the recipe for this dish you prefer, you will undoubtedly be able to cook kharcho soup deliciously. Dare! Bon appetit!