Kharcho
Georgia's most famous soup, its flavour built on the trinity of Georgian cooking — walnuts, garlic and coriander — plus a sour sauce of tkemali plums. Walnuts pounded to a paste thicken the soup and give it silkiness without flour or cream. The key is adding them at the end of cooking: cooked long, they turn bitter and release oil that floats in greasy patches.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Beef broth 120 min
- Walnut paste 10 min
- Cooking with rice 25 min
- Herbs and resting 10 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSimmer the beef until tender
Cut the brisket into bite-sized pieces, cover with cold water, bring to a boil and skim for 10 minutes. Add the bay and simmer 1.5–2 hours, until tender. The meat pieces stay in the soup.
Ingredients: 700 g beef brisket · 2500 ml water · 2 pcs onions · 2 pcs bay leaves · 2 tsp salt
Bite-sized pieces stay in the soup.Fry the onion with tomato purée
In the oil soften the finely chopped onion 10 minutes, add the tomato purée and paprika and fry a minute, until the purée darkens. Add to the broth.
Ingredients: 700 g beef brisket · 2500 ml water · 2 pcs onions · 2 pcs bay leaves · 2 tsp salt
Add the rice
Add the rinsed rice to the broth and cook 15 minutes, until tender. Short grain rice breaks down slightly and thickens the soup together with the walnuts — kharcho should be thick, almost a stew.
Ingredients: 100 g rice · 120 g walnuts · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato purée · 3 tbsp tkemali sauce or tamarind · 2 tbsp oil
Pound the walnuts with garlic and spices
Pound the walnuts with the garlic, ground coriander, fenugreek and a pinch of salt in a mortar to a coarse, moist paste. A mortar brings out the walnut oil and keeps texture — a blender turns them to nut butter.
Ingredients: 100 g rice · 120 g walnuts · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato purée · 3 tbsp tkemali sauce or tamarind · 2 tbsp oil
A mortar gives oil and texture — not nut butter.Loosen the paste with broth
Loosen the walnut paste with a ladle of hot broth into a thick sauce. Dropped into the pot undiluted, it clumps and the walnuts never disperse evenly.
Ingredients: 100 g rice · 120 g walnuts · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato purée · 3 tbsp tkemali sauce or tamarind · 2 tbsp oil
Stir in the walnuts and tkemali at the end
Pour in the loosened walnut paste and the tkemali (3–5 tbsp, until distinctly sour) and simmer only 5 minutes. The soup thickens and turns rust red. Season with salt. Cook no longer — the walnuts turn bitter and the oil rises to the surface.
Ingredients: 100 g rice · 120 g walnuts · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp tomato purée · 3 tbsp tkemali sauce or tamarind · 2 tbsp oil
Walnuts and sour plum — just five minutes' cooking.Add the herbs off the heat
Take off the heat and add chopped coriander and parsley — plenty, a whole bunch of coriander — and the chilli flakes. Cover and rest 10 minutes. Coriander in kharcho is no garnish but one of three main flavours.
Ingredients: 2 tsp ground coriander · 1 tsp blue fenugreek (utskho suneli) · 1 tsp sweet paprika · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1 bunch fresh coriander · 3 tbsp parsley
Serve with bread
Serve hot with Georgian shoti bread or lavash and an extra clove of garlic crushed into the bowl. Kharcho is thick — served in deep bowls, with bread dipped into it.
Ingredients: 2 tsp ground coriander · 1 tsp blue fenugreek (utskho suneli) · 1 tsp sweet paprika · ½ tsp chilli flakes · 1 bunch fresh coriander · 3 tbsp parsley
Before you start
Tkemali, the sour plum sauce
Tkemali is a Georgian sauce of sour green or red plums with dill and garlic — it gives kharcho its sourness. Caucasian shops sell it. Tamarind paste, or prunes with lemon juice, come closest.
Khmeli-suneli
The Georgian spice blend khmeli-suneli contains fenugreek, coriander, marigold, dill and paprika. If you have it, use two teaspoons instead of the separate spices — the simplest route to authentic flavour.
Three days in the fridge
Kharcho keeps three days and thickens as the rice drinks the broth. Loosen it with boiling water or stock when reheating and add fresh coriander — yesterday's darkens and loses its aroma.
