Georgian cuisine is famous for its spicy and aromatic appetizers. At the same time, 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 snacks - general principles of preparation
There is a whole group of Georgian snacks called Phali. They are small balls made from cabbage, spinach, various greens and even beet tops, such a recipe is below. Additionally, nuts, garlic and necessarily seasoning hops-suneli are added. Balls can be laid out 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 eggplant, tomatoes and other vegetables. They are very similar to our dishes, but contain different aromatic additives that give a special taste.
What Georgians like to add:
• cilantro, parsley and other herbs;
• seasoning hops-suneli;
• spicy adjika and pepper;
• garlic.
These fragrant ingredients are found in almost every recipe for national snacks. If you don’t like the very pungent taste, then you can reduce the amount of pepper or garlic, but not the greens. Often, it is almost the main ingredient, so you do not need to save.
Georgian appetizer "Phali" made from fresh or frozen spinach
One of the most popular and healthy 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 spinach;
• 2 cloves of garlic;
• a bunch of parsley;
• a bunch of dill;
• 120 g of walnuts;
• 1 tsp condiments hops-suneli;
• 1 tbsp. l pomegranate seeds;
• 5 feathers of green onions;
• 0.5 tsp chopped hot pepper.
Cooking
1. Spinach put in a stewpan. If the leaves are frozen, first let them move away, squeeze out excess water. Add a couple of tablespoons of water to fresh spinach. Put on a stove, put it out under the lid until soft, but do not overdo it, otherwise the mass will decay.
2. Squeeze the cooked spinach from excess water, grind it with a blender or mince.
3. Chop all the greens into small crumbs. It is advisable not to grind parsley with dill, otherwise the mass will be too juicy.
4. Peel the garlic, chop in any way. Sprinkle with spinach and herbs.
5. Pour nuts into a frying pan, slightly dry, grind. Pour into the total mass.
6. Add hot pepper. If there is no fresh pod, then we throw a pinch of dry hot pepper.
7. Thoroughly knead the green mass, roll up small balls. We spread the Georgian appetizer simply on a plate, on lettuce or on cabbage.
8. From above, we stick pomegranate seeds into each ball. We serve to the table!
Georgian eggplant appetizer with nuts, tomatoes and cilantro
The classic recipe for Georgian eggplant appetizer. In Russian cuisine there are similar options, but for some reason without walnuts and green cilantro. However, it’s much tastier with them!
Ingredients
• 2 eggplants;
• 0.5 purple onion;
• 60 g of nuts (only walnuts);
• a bunch of cilantro;
• two cloves of garlic;
• two tomatoes;
• 0.3 pcs. hot pepper (less possible);
• 0.5 bunch of dill;
• 40 ml of sunflower oil.
Cooking
1. If the eggplant is bitter, then they need to be prepared in advance, cut and salt. If there is no bitterness, then cut immediately before cooking. We remove the tips, peel off the peel, cut into long plates.
2. Heat the oil in a wide pan, lay out the eggplant, fry on both sides until tender.
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 herbs.
5. Pour the tomatoes with boiling water, remove the skin, grind the flesh or grate. Season the filling with tomato puree.
6. Cut the half of the purple onion into small cubes, send to the total mass, salt. If there is no salad onion, then chop a half of the usual head, put 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 meat from greens and nuts, twist with a roll. If it unfolds, then you can fix it with a toothpick or tie a feather with a bow.
Georgian appetizer "Phali" from beet tops
Oh, these Georgians, they can even turn waste into a posh dish. Here is another version of "Phali", quite tasty, unusual, also very useful.
Ingredients
• 500 g of beet tops;
• 80 g hazelnuts or walnuts;
• 1 bunch of cilantro;
• 2-3 cloves of garlic;
• 1 tsp hops-suneli;
• salt and pepper;
• pomegranate for decoration.
Cooking
1. Sort the tops, cut off the 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 beets into a colander, leave to drain for 15-20 minutes.
4. Grind beet leaves in any convenient way.
5. Go through the cilantro, rinse, dry. Tear off all the leaves, throw the branches. Chop finely. Add to chopped beet tops.
6. Grind nuts into crumbs, you can take hazelnuts or walnuts, add to the total mass.
7. Squeeze out fresh garlic, add dry seasoning to the suneli hops, salt to taste and season with pepper. You can use a mixture of black and red pepper.
8. Thoroughly stir the cooked mass, roll up neat balls.
9. Decorate each ball with a pomegranate seed. Usually they stick one into the central part of the ball.
Georgian appetizer of eggplant and pepper for the winter
The recipe is very simple to prepare, but quite tasty and fragrant Georgian snacks, which can be prepared for the future for the winter. It is better to use red and yellow bell peppers, from green pods it turns out not so tasty.
Ingredients
• 2.4 kg of eggplant;
• 1 bitter pepper;
• 10 pieces. bell pepper;
• 80 ml of vinegar 9%;
• 2 onion heads;
• 200 ml of oil;
• 2 tbsp. l Sahara;
• 2 tsp salt.
Cooking
1. Remove the ponytails from the eggplant, cut into small cubes, pour with salt, leave for 15 minutes.
2. While the eggplant is infused, release the bell pepper from the seeds, cut into pieces. Cut a sharp pod. Garlic is easy to peel. Pass all this through a meat grinder, put in a pan.
3. Rinse the eggplant, squeeze, divide approximately in half.
4. Pour 100 ml of oil into two large pans, heat.
5. Put the eggplant, fry over high heat until almost done.
6. Turn on the pan with pepper, bring to a boil, boil for ten minutes.
7. Add all the spices and vinegar. Put eggplant, cook another quarter of an hour.
8. Steam the cans, pour boiling water over the lids.
9. Lay out a hot snack, roll up.
10. Turn the cans over, but you can not wrap them up, wait until they cool completely, then return them to their normal position, put them in a cool place for storage.
Georgian appetizer "Phali" from white cabbage
"Phali" can also be prepared from ordinary white cabbage, but it is important to pre-process the vegetable in accordance with all the rules.
Ingredients
• 1.5 kg of cabbage;
• 1 head of garlic;
• 270 g of nuts;
• 0.5 tsp coriander;
• 5 g suneli hop;
• 2 bunches of cilantro;
• pomegranate for decoration;
• salt and pepper for taste.
• 1 tbsp. l wine vinegar;
Cooking
1. Disassemble white cabbage into leaves, cut a thick vein. Dip in boiling water. Boil until soft. Put in 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 in wine vinegar. Fall asleep seasoning. Stir.
4. Grind nuts that can be pre-fried, add to cabbage. Knead the mass with your hands.
5. Form the balls. If suddenly the cabbage turns out to be slightly liquid, you can put it in a bag, cut off the tip and squeeze the turrets onto a plate.
6. Garnish with pomegranate seeds, supplement the appetizer with whole sprigs of cilantro or other greens.
Georgian eggplant appetizer "Ajapsandali"
Another variant of a delicious eggplant appetizer, the recipe for which also belongs to Georgian cuisine. It is advisable to use tender and small vegetables, since the peel will not be removed from them. This appetizer can be cooked with meat and potatoes, but here's a vegetable recipe.
Ingredients
• 3 eggplants;
• 1 carrot;
• large onion;
• three cloves of garlic;
• oil, cilantro;
• 2 peppers;
• 5-8 branches of basil;
• 4 tomatoes.
Cooking
1. On tomatoes, cut the skin, pour the tomatoes with boiling water, stand for a minute. Cool under a stream of cold water. Remove the skin, chop the pulp with a blender, you can grind immediately with garlic.
2. Cut carrots, peppers and onions into strips.
3. Pour a little oil into the pan, put onions first, add carrots in a minute, then add bell pepper to them, fry vegetables.
4. Cut eggplant in circles, 0.5 cm thick.
5. Put the eggplant in a frying pan, fry on one and the second side. If you want to reduce the fat content of the dish, then fry on the grill.
6. Arrange eggplant slices for vegetables, add tomato and garlic.
7. Chop the cilantro, chop the basil. Pour into a 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 optionally sprinkle with fresh herbs.
Georgian snacks - useful tips and tricks
• Often, to cook Georgian snacks, it is necessary to fry the eggplant. You do not need to add a lot of oil, the vegetables will absorb it indefinitely. It is better to pour a little, but warm it up well.
• Greens must be thoroughly dried before being added to snacks. You can shake it intensively at first to remove drops, then spread it on a napkin.
• If there is no red capsicum, then it can be replaced with powdered ground pepper, but the amount will have to be adjusted independently, since it has a different sharpness.
