If you need to prepare a win-win first course, the classic recipe for kharcho soup will help. There are many variations in preparing this soup. Surely everyone has tried one of them, but only a few managed to taste this rather spicy Georgian dish in its classic version.
How to quickly and tasty cook kharcho soup
Many people argue about what meat to use when preparing kharcho soup. The authentic recipe used beef meat, but kharcho soup is no less tasty using chicken. In addition, the food contains absolutely simple and familiar ingredients. This is also a completely budget-friendly way to tasty and, most importantly, quickly feed the whole family.
How to cook beef kharcho soup
Ingredients:
- beef – 300 g;
- rice - 3-4 tablespoons;
- onions – 3 pcs.;
- tomatoes – 4 pcs.;
- sunflower oil;
- Bay leaf;
- allspice peas – 3–4 pcs.;
- garlic - a few cloves;
- salt;
- greens, suneli hops, basil, coriander, tarragon - to taste.
Cooking method:
Peel the beef from the films, wash it and cut it across the grain into small pieces. Place in a saucepan, add allspice, salt, bay leaf, add water, bring to a boil, reduce heat.
Remove the skin from the tomatoes, after making cuts on the vegetable and putting it in boiling water, chop the tomatoes.
Chop the greens and garlic and add them along with the tomatoes at the end of cooking. After this, the dish should sit.
Kharcho soup is usually served with fresh lavash.
Kharcho soup: chicken recipe
Required products (based on 3 liters of water):
- chicken breast – 1 pc.;
- tomatoes (you can use tomato sauce) – 3 pcs.;
- rice – 100 g;
- garlic – 2–3 cloves;
- hops-suneli, parsley.
How to cook chicken kharcho soup:
Wash the chicken, dry it, and let it cook.
After 15 minutes, add the washed rice along with finely chopped onion. Continue cooking for about 20 minutes.
Kharcho soup: recipe with fish
Fish is a very healthy dietary product, but in Georgian cuisine it is significantly replaced by other types of meat. We suggest preparing an unusual dish based on fish.
Ingredients:
- carp, silver carp – 1 kg;
- rice – 130–150 g;
- onions – 1–2 pcs.;
- tomato paste – 30 g;
- walnuts – 100 g;
- garlic, bay leaf, herbs, salt, pepper - to taste.
Recipe for making kharcho soup:
The fish must be cleaned, washed, and cut into portions.
Boil the fish with the addition of bay leaf.
Fry the onion in butter, add washed rice and tomato.
After a few minutes, add a little fish broth and simmer the rice over low heat.
Chop the nuts, grind with garlic and peppercorns, then add to the broth.
At the very end, add chopped herbs.
Common mistakes during cooking
There is no need to add too much rice; it will increase in size during cooking and also during storage.
You shouldn’t serve the dish right away, it needs time to brew, all the ingredients should become friends with each other.
To ensure that the taste of garlic and some herbs is pronounced, add them at the very end, or divide the spices into two parts and add the second before turning off.
You will need:
- 300 g fatty beef brisket;
- 100 g whole round rice;
- 2 medium-sized onions;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 1 hot pepper;
- 3 pcs. prunes;
- 1 tbsp. khmeli-suneli;
- 7 tbsp. water
- 30 g tklapi;
- 30 g vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp. tomato puree;
- salt to taste;
- fresh herbs to taste (cilantro, dill, parsley).
Cooking method:
- Having separated the meat from the bones and cleaned it from the films, cut it into small pieces across the grain. Place it in a saucepan and add water. Bring the water in a saucepan to a boil over high heat and cook the meat for about 50 minutes over low heat.
- Cooking rice. To do this, carefully sort and wash it. Then soak the rice for 15 minutes until it turns white.
- Finely chop the onion, prunes, cilantro and garlic. Mix them with tomato paste, vegetable oil and suneli hops. Add tklapi and finely chopped hot pepper to the sauce.
- Place the resulting mixture on high heat and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add rice to almost cooked meat. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Add prunes and prepared sauce. At this stage, do not forget to add salt.
- Cook the soup for another 10 minutes over high heat.
- Before turning off, add finely chopped parsley and dill to the kharcho.
- The finished soup should sit for another 15 minutes.
Advice. If you are unable to find tklapi, then this seasoning can be replaced with tkemali sauce, which is sold in any supermarket. If you don't 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 its 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 similar soups. The process of its preparation differs slightly from the classic version.
To prepare chicken kharcho you will need the following ingredients:
- 500 g chicken or turkey meat;
- 200 g shelled walnuts;
- 2 onions;
- 40 g wheat flour;
- 0.5 cups of cherry plum puree or 3 ripe tomatoes;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 2 tsp crushed cilantro seeds;
- 1 tsp khmeli-suneli seasoning;
- salt;
- greenery;
- spices to taste - cinnamon, hot pepper, black pepper, cloves, allspice, Imeretian saffron, bay leaf.
In the process of preparing the chicken variation of the dish, there are several points that you should know about.
- Only fatty pieces of chicken are used for soup.
- Cilantro is not recommended as greens. It is better to replace it with parsley, dill or celery.
- At the end of preparing the sauce, flour is added.
- Otherwise, you should follow the recipe for preparing classic kharcho.
How to prepare pork kharcho
You will need the following ingredients:
- 300 g pork
- 1 onion
- 100 g tkemali
- ½ tbsp. rice
- 1 PC. carrots
- 2 tsp Khmeli-Suneli seasonings
- 50 g walnuts (shelled)
- 50 g sunflower oil
- greens to taste
- salt.
The procedure for preparing the soup is the same, with the only exception that this version offers a vegetable dressing. It is prepared by successively frying onions and carrots in sunflower oil. Add to soup along with prepared tkemal sauce.
Lamb kharcho soup is prepared in the same way. All of the recipes listed are quite traditional for thick meat soup. The vegetarian soup kharcho stands out from this series.
Cooking vegetarian soup kharcho
The main difference between this dish is the absence of meat. To prepare it you will need:
- 100 g rice
- 4 tbsp. water
- 3 large tomatoes
- 50 g walnuts
- 1 large onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 30 g butter
- hot pepper
- greenery
- spices.
Step-by-step instruction:
- First, put a kettle on the stove to prepare boiling water.
- Peel and finely chop the onion.
- In a saucepan (preferably with a thick bottom), bring the butter to a melted state. It will replace animal fat for us.
- Sauté the onion in oil.
- Finely chop the cilantro, hot pepper and garlic.
- We crush the nuts. To do this, it is recommended to use a blender or do it yourself by finely chopping the nuts with a knife.
- Next you need to mix the nuts with cilantro, pepper and garlic.
- Pour the resulting mixture into a saucepan with onions and fill with water from the kettle.
- Then prepare the rice: wash it and pour it into the pan.
- Salt and cover with a lid. Leave on medium heat for 10 minutes.
- Prepare the tomato mass. To do this, cut the tomatoes into cubes and place them in a frying pan to simmer. Pass the stewed tomatoes through a sieve and return to the frying pan to evaporate excess water. After the mass becomes thick (like ketchup), it is transferred to a saucepan.
- Cook for 5 minutes.
- Finely chop the parsley and dill and add them to the soup.
- Remove the pan from the heat.
- Let it brew for 10 minutes.
- Pour into plates and serve.
In addition to traditional cooking methods, kharcho is also cooked in a slow cooker.
If it is easier for you to imagine preparing a dish when someone else is preparing it, watch the video instructions for preparing kharcho.
What kind of rice, how much and when to add to kharcho
Standard proportions are 1.5 tablespoons of rice per 1 liter pan. For real kharcho soup, round grain rice is used; it must be added to the soup 25 minutes before the end of cooking the soup.
Kharcho can turn out too thick mainly due to the large amount of rice. If this happens, you should take a slotted spoon and scoop out the excess rice. It can be used in meatballs or meatballs. Another option would be to cook more broth in a separate pan and put some of the grounds into it. Then the soup can be frozen. But it is not recommended to leave kharcho soup too thick - by the morning after cooking, the soup will swell to the consistency of porridge.
What is traditionally put in kharcho soup?
- spices - suneli hops, coriander grains, hot pepper, saffron, barberry;
- walnuts crushed in a mortar (50 grams of peeled);
- instead of tomatoes, pomegranate juice (ideally fresh squeezed, without sugar), fresh cherry plum (half a glass), tkemali from sweet varieties of plums or tklapi (3 tablespoons) - cherry plum marshmallow - are added to the classic kharcho soup. As a last resort, add chopped prunes (8-10 pieces).
- from greens, parsley (greens and roots), marjoram, basil, mint, coriander and/or cilantro are added to kharcho soup. It is believed that there is no such thing as too much greenery in kharcho.
- Additionally, you can add a quarter cup of soy sauce to the soup to give the kharcho some spice.
What else can I add?
- for flavor when cooking meat, it is recommended to add 2-3 onions to the soup, and after the meat is cooked, remove the onions from the broth.
- for greater satiety, you can fry the onion and add 1 tablespoon of flour to the onion while frying - then the soup will be a little higher in calories.
- although you don’t put potatoes in real kharcho soup, you can add a couple or three to make it more filling. As a result, the soup will no longer meet traditions, but will become very nutritious. Add diced potatoes 20 minutes before the end of cooking the soup.
- if the kharcho is too sour, you can add salt, pepper, herbs or sugar.
- a classic version of serving kharcho soup - with a lot of lavash or other Georgian bread.
About the consistency of kharcho
- Onions in classic kharcho are cut along the growth of the onion to maintain its shape and prevent it from turning into porridge during cooking.
Too spicy kharcho soup can be diluted with boiled water or broth, or provide a large portion of sour cream, bread and drinks each time you serve kharcho. It will be more labor-intensive to strain the rice, select it and return everything else to the kharcho, and cook new rice in the kharcho.
What kind of meat is kharcho soup made with?
- Traditionally, kharcho soup is cooked with beef meat (ideally, with beef brisket on the bone or on the marrow), it is allowed to use lamb, pork on the bone, and chicken (fatty parts).
If lamb ribs are used for kharcho, it is recommended to fry them a little in butter with the addition of a couple of tablespoons of dry white wine.
The cost of ingredients for cooking classic kharcho soup is from 400 rubles, for cooking simple kharcho soup - 300 rubles. (average for Moscow as of February 2018).
Georgian cuisine is so original in its taste that it has become popular all over the world. But a real housewife will make her own adjustments to any of the recipes, following her own tastes. Kharcho soup (a simple recipe, you must agree!) has long been prepared with chicken, but this has not made the dish lose its appeal.
A few words about the features of kharcho
If you look into the translation of the name of the dish, it sounds like “beef soup.” Which suggests that the classic kharcho soup is prepared from cow meat (although many believe it is from lamb). The dish is also satisfying due to the rice it contains.
What makes this soup special is the ability of Georgian chefs to choose the right spices. After all, the kharcho should not be spicy, but pleasantly spicy. Without this condition, ordinary rice soup seasoned with tomato will be cooked. Although allspice will give flavor, it is better to place the main emphasis on herbs: basil, coriander, saffron, cilantro, cumin. Don't forget also about bay leaf, cardamom and garlic.
In this case, you don’t have to worry too much about collecting herbs, but buy a ready-made mixture in the store, selected specifically for seasoning kharcho. Or opt for the traditional “khmeli-suneli”. Then even chicken will not prevent the soup from becoming a Georgian dish.
Kharcho with chicken broth
Many people prefer chicken broths due to their easy digestibility. So in this case, chicken kharcho can be safely classified as a dietary dish.
If you decide to cook kharcho with chicken, our classic step-by-step recipe with photos will come in handy.
So, first you should stock up on all the necessary components in advance
Below is a list of ingredients that you will need to prepare kharcho soup based on chicken broth. This will be enough to cook 3 liters of aromatic, delicious food for lunch.
- Chicken – 0.5 kg
- Rice - 1.5 cups
- Onions – 1 pc.
- Garlic – 1 head
- Tomato paste – 2 – 3 tbsp.
- Salt, spices to taste
To prepare kharcho, some people also use carrots, fresh tomatoes and potatoes, but this is at the discretion of the housewife.
Cooking process
First you need to rinse the chicken and cook broth from it. Here it is necessary to take into account this point - if you need to get a rich broth, then the bird is dipped into boiling water. By filling it with cold water and putting it on the fire, you will get a weaker broth, but the chicken will cook faster and become softer.
When the meat is ready, it is removed from the pan, cooled and cut into portions. Then they proceed according to the following algorithm.
The finished broth should be strained through 2 layers of gauze - this will make it transparent.
If you plan to add potatoes to the soup, now is the time to put them in the pan. Tubers should be no more than 1/3 of the total volume of the dish. You can cut it into small cubes or into longitudinal strips (as you like).
After boiling the potatoes until half cooked, add washed rice to the broth. It is better to take cereals that are not steamed or crushed, but choose a starchy variety.
At the same time, frying is done in vegetable oil - from chopped onions and tomato paste. You can also fry grated carrots, as well as slices of fresh tomato (they will give the kharcho the necessary sourness). First, remove the skin from the tomato by dousing the vegetable first with boiling water, then with a stream of cold water.
Before removing the roast from the heat, add garlic. If the goal is to make the soup spicier, then the cloves should be chopped (preferably crushed). Leaving them whole results in a richer aroma. But then, when serving the soup, you need to carefully ensure that the garlic cloves do not fall into the plate.
When the rice is ready (it needs about 7 minutes, no more), the soup is salted and the frying is added, and spices are added.
Now all that remains is to turn off the heat and let the kharcho brew for a few minutes. When serving, put chicken meat into each serving plate, add a little butter and crush with fresh herbs.
But you can put this whole addition on the dining table so that everyone can use these ingredients to their own taste. Perhaps someone would like to add a spoonful of sour cream to the kharcho.
Nice variations
In order for the chicken kharcho soup to be exactly like a Georgian dish, you should make some additions to the recipe described above.
- You can add a pleasant sourness if you mix tomato paste with Tkemali sauce, or add a little plum of this variety to the soup (as you do when preparing real kharcho).
- If someone prefers pomegranate juice, then you should not add it to the fry, pour a little directly into the pan at the end of cooking.
- In Georgia, spices are first mixed with salt and only then the mixture is added to the soup. And the bay leaf is placed in the pan at the beginning of cooking, when the broth is still being cooked (then the bay leaf should be removed).
- You don’t have to add grated carrots to the roast, but put them in the broth before removing the chicken from it.
- If someone doesn’t like cilantro, it can be replaced with a more familiar spice - tarragon or parsley.
- A real recipe for chicken kharcho soup is inconceivable without walnuts. They go great with chicken dishes. It is recommended to pre-roast the nuts (but do not overcook them). If you chop the kernels before adding them to the soup along with spices, the nuts will give the dish an unusual aroma.
Well, in order to completely correspond to the national cuisine of Georgians, instead of bread, real lavash should be served at the table.
This article is searched for:
- Kharcho soup simple recipe
- simple kharcho recipe
- soup kharcho
- simple kharcho recipe
Simple and delicious soup recipes for every day
If you like experimenting with first courses, and you love Georgian cuisine, the recipe for making kharcho soup at home will become a fixture in the family menu.
2 hours
75 kcal
4.9/5 (10)
True gourmets should definitely try the Georgian meat dish - kharcho soup. It is thick like a stew. It is prepared with rice and walnuts. All products are simple and affordable. As with many Georgian dishes, the highlight here is in the seasonings and the mood in which you cook. Dozens of variants of kharcho are known. The peculiarities of their preparation depend on the locality of Georgia to which the recipe belongs.
If soups are regularly present on your home menu, kharcho will diversify it. Men will especially like it. A Georgian dish must be meaty and peppery. And the right food must contain rice.
Ingredients for kharcho soup with rice
Traditional Georgian soup is made with beef. We will follow this custom too. So, put on an apron and take out the following ingredients from the refrigerator, cabinets, jars:
How to cook beef kharcho soup step by step - classic recipe with photos
We begin to conjure our gastronomic set.
Cooking meat
- Wash the beef, remove the film, cut into small pieces.
- Pour 2 liters of water into a saucepan and immerse the meat, bay leaf, and allspice into it.
- Preparing broth for kharcho 1,5 hour. Don’t forget to check it periodically, skim off the foam, and don’t let it boil too much.
- The aroma of meat broth spreads throughout the kitchen, and we remove the pan from the stove. We take out the meat and strain the broth.
Cooking rice
- Wash the rice thoroughly and place it in a saucepan with broth. Return the boiled meat to the container.
- While the rice is cooking and saturated with meat broth, preparing the dressing.
Preparing the dressing
Combining the ingredients
The most attentive housewives have already calculated that it takes approximately two hours. This is because beef likes to cook for a long time. In order not to waste time, we advise you to immediately prepare the dressing as soon as you send the meat to cook.
All products can be bought at the market or supermarket. If there are no components from the greens, it’s okay. You can also do without walnuts.
- Real kharcho is prepared with tklapi sauce. It adds a spicy taste to the dish. It is almost impossible to find it in our stores. It can be adequately replaced with tkemali sauce or pomegranate juice. Instead of tkemali, sometimes they use tomato paste - it’s also delicious.
- Suitable for making kharcho round or long grain rice, but not steamed.
- It is better to remove the skin from tomatoes. In cooking it's called blanching. A cross-shaped cut is made on the tomato. Then the boiling water will do its job. The skin is easily removed and will not bother you in the soup and spoil its consistency.
- The amount of spices can be adjusted. If you don't like it too spicy, reduce the amount of pepper and garlic.
- Can be used instead of beef any other meat. But this will be a variation on the theme, and not a truly Georgian dish.
- In contact with 0
- Google+ 0
- OK 0
- Facebook 0
