Kharcho soup: classic recipes for kharcho at home

Prepared by: Marina Zolotseva

02/23/2017 Cooking time: 2 hours 50 minutes

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I want to invite you to make an incredibly rich, satisfying and appetizing soup from traditional Georgian cuisine for lunch for the whole family. It turns out so delicious that you really can’t stop eating!

Classic recipe for Georgian kharcho soup with beef and rice

This classic recipe for kharcho soup is very easy to prepare and known to one degree or another to every experienced housewife.

Main ingredients:

water – 1.5 l;
beef – 500 gr.;
rice – 100 gr.;
walnut kernels – 100 g;
tkemali sauce – 50 gr.;
onions – 2 pcs.;
sweet pepper – 2 pcs.;
vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. l;
ground red pepper – 0.5 tsp;
garlic – 2-3 cloves;
tomato paste – 2 tbsp. l;
“khmeli-suneli” - 1 tsp;
bay leaf – 1 pc.;
salt - to taste.

Cooking process:

Place the well-washed meat in a saucepan and fill it with the required amount of cold water. Cover with a lid and place on the stove over high heat.
After the pan has boiled, reduce the heat, remove the foam with a slotted spoon and cook for 1-1.5 hours over low heat. The cooking time for meat will depend on its quality, so if it is not young meat, it will take longer to cook.
When the broth is ready, carefully remove the meat into a separate container and leave to cool. In this case, it is advisable to strain the broth through a fine strainer, but if you do not do this, the taste will not be affected.
We take up the meat again: cut it into small pieces, and remove the bones. Then we send it back to the pan with the broth and bring to a boil.
Add well-washed rice to the boiling broth, stir and leave to cook over medium heat.
In the meantime, let's get to the rest of the products. We clean the sweet pepper, chop it finely and send it to the “common pot”. Then we clean and also finely chop the onions. Fry it in a frying pan with vegetable oil until golden brown.
At this time, prepare the nut paste with garlic. Take a mortar, press it down and grind the nut kernels and garlic in it.
While we were working with the mortar, the onion acquired the desired color and it was time to add tomato paste to it. We also put the nut-garlic mixture here. The gas station is ready.
Add the contents of the frying pan to the boiling soup with cooked rice and stir. Now it’s time for Tkemali sauce and spices.
Add all the spices from the list of ingredients and sauce to the soup. Cover with a lid and let it boil for just a couple more minutes.

It is delicious!
Please note that the amount of spices is not a strict constant and can be adjusted to suit your culinary tastes and preferences. Turn off the stove and let the dish sit for a few minutes. During this time, you will have time to set the table, gather the whole family, and maybe even a couple of neighbors, and enjoy the wonderful, fiery, tantalizing taste of the classic kharcho soup.

Required Components

There are a huge number of variations in the preparation of this dish. New spices and products appeared in it. But the recipe for real kharcho soup has mandatory ingredients that simply must be present in the soup:

Beef meat - in Georgian “kharcho soup” means “beef meat in broth”. But many people use pork, chicken and lamb. Although in the classic recipe, kharcho is prepared from meaty beef brisket on the bone, which produces a strong, rich broth.
Tkemali and tklapi sauce. Classic beef kharcho should not contain tomato paste. Instead they put tklapi - dried cherry plum paste of the Tkemali variety. But there is an alternative - tkemali sauce. It is much easier to buy it in stores. Just when choosing a sauce, make sure that cherry plum is the main component. If you don’t find either one or the other, feel free to replace these components with pomegranate juice. Below is a photo of tklapi.

What kind of rice is needed for kharcho soup? The round-grain, starchy variety of this cereal is best suited. In the classic kharcho recipe, this is the kind of rice that is used.
Another essential ingredient is walnuts. They are the ones who add zest to the soup and not only it. After all, Georgians love to add them to various dishes.
Seasonings for kharcho soup. Khmeli-suneli or, in Russian, “dry mixture” are added to this soup. It contains a bouquet of herbs and spices that are so necessary for cooking. Finding the original seasoning is quite difficult, so you can take them separately: cardamom, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, saffron, basil, cilantro and hot pepper.

Step-by-step recipe for kharcho soup with potatoes and rice

Unlike the previous recipe, this version contains potatoes and carrots. This moves it away from the classic Georgian dish, but adapts it to our usual way of preparing first courses.

Main ingredients:

water – 1.5 l;
beef – 400 gr.;
potatoes 3-4 pcs.;
garlic – 3 cloves;
dill – 1 bunch;
parsley - 1 bunch;
rice – 70 gr.;
onions - 1-2 pcs.;
carrots – 1 pc.;
tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l;
vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. l;
“khmeli-suneli” - 2 tsp;
salt - to taste.

Cooking process:

Place a well-washed piece of beef in a suitable pan. It is advisable that it has a bone for better fat. But if you only have pulp, it doesn’t matter, you can use what you have.
Let's wait until the meat boils and remove the foam with a slotted spoon. First of all, peeled and chopped potatoes will go into the broth. In this case, the shape of the cut is absolutely not important.
While the potatoes are cooking, peel the onion and cut it into small cubes. Peel the carrots and grate them on a coarse grater. Wash the rice and soak it briefly in water.
After this, take a deep frying pan, heat it, pour in vegetable oil. Add all the remaining ingredients, except garlic, to this frying pan: onions, carrots, tomato paste, 150 ml of water, rice, spices, salt. Mix all this dressing, close the lid and leave to simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes.
Once the beef is ready, remove it from the pan, let it cool slightly and cut it into small pieces. Throw these pieces back into the soup, then pour in the thickened dressing and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Shortly before the end of cooking, add chopped garlic and our aromatic and tasty kharcho soup is ready!

Add rice

Now it's time to add rice to the pan.

Before cooking, rice should be washed and soaked in cold water for 1 - 1.5 hours. You can cook it in two ways:

boiling it in broth is the traditional way
cook separately, rinse and add to the finished broth

The difference between these methods is that in the first case, the rice broth remains in the broth, and it becomes thick and rich. At the same time, many people do not like the sticky, stretchy consistency, so there is a second option. To be fair, it should be noted that even separately boiled rice will still hold the broth together after a while. Of course, the consistency of the broth depends not only on the cooking method, but also on the rice itself. You can use both round and long grain rice, just not parboiled.

In our case, the rice is cooked in broth. After adding it, increase the temperature, and as soon as it boils, reduce the heat again. Let it simmer (not bubbling, but bubbling) for about 8 - 10 minutes. If you prefer the second method of cooking rice, then immediately after the broth with rice boils, you need to turn it off.

Kharcho soup with beef and tomatoes

We also suggest you try kharcho soup using fresh tomatoes. Of course, this option is mainly seasonal, but while tomatoes are available, do not miss this opportunity.

Main ingredients:

water – 2.5 l;
beef – 500 gr.;
onions – 3 pcs.;
tomatoes – 50 gr.;
rice – 100 gr.;
walnut – 50 gr.;
garlic – 2 cloves;
vegetable oil – 2 tbsp. spoons;
hot pepper – 0.5 pods;
“khmeli-suneli” - 1 teaspoon;
greens, bay leaf;
salt - to taste.

Cooking process:

Prepare a pan with water, put the meat cut into portions into it and put it on the fire.
After boiling, turn the heat up to optimum and don’t forget to remove the foam with a slotted spoon.
While the beef is cooked for 1.5-2 hours, prepare the tomatoes: blanch them in hot water for 2-3 minutes, remove the skin and grind in a blender.
Now it's time for the onions. It must be cleaned and finely chopped.
Take another pan, pour vegetable oil into it and place it on the stove. After it has warmed up, add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown.
We take the meat out of the broth, transfer it to the onion and simmer for 15 minutes under the lid.
Let us remember our crushed tomatoes; they go after the meat into a common pot. Simmer for another 15 minutes and add strained broth.
Now it’s the turn of the rice: after washing it, pour it into the soup and boil for 15 minutes until cooked.
While the rice is cooking, prepare the walnut kernels, fry them a little in a dry frying pan and grind them to a smooth paste.
The finishing touches remain to give our dish an unforgettable taste. Chop the garlic and add it to the pan along with the spices. After the kharcho has boiled for a couple of minutes, pour in the chopped herbs and literally immediately turn off the heat.
Wait another 5 minutes until the dish sits and all the ingredients gather their aromas into a single, unique bouquet.

Try it!

Now it’s time to take a sample, and your efforts will be more than rewarded with a bright, hot, stimulating and tantalizing taste buds kharcho soup with beef and tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Classic beef kharcho

In order to prepare this soup, you need the following set of products:

Beef meat on the bone - 400 grams.
Tklapi - palm-sized leaf or tkemali sauce - three tablespoons.
Rice - four tablespoons.
Garlic - one head.
Walnuts - half a glass.
Khmeli-suneli - one teaspoon.
Coriander and parsley - one large bunch each.

The algorithm for preparing kharcho according to the classic recipe is as follows:

We wash the meat, place it in a saucepan, fill it with two liters of water and set it to cook. When everything boils, leave the heat on low and cook for two hours, skimming off the foam.
When the meat is ready, separate it from the bones and put it back into the broth.
Wash the rice and put it in the broth. Also take a third of the greenery and tie the bunches with thread.
The rice is cooked for about a quarter of an hour, during which time you need to crush the nuts and fry them without oil in a frying pan, stirring constantly so that they do not burn.
Chop the garlic and chop the herbs.
Now add tklapi or tkemali, a third of chopped herbs, walnuts, garlic and suneli hops to the boiling broth.
Turn off the heat and let the soup brew for about 15 minutes. Pour classic beef kharcho into plates. Sprinkle with the remaining herbs and invite everyone to the table.

Camping soup kharcho with beef in a cauldron

Perhaps the most unusual and interesting, in my opinion, way of preparing kharcho soup is the so-called “camping” version.

It is delicious!

Fans of outdoor activities, tourists, and just city dwellers who have escaped from the whirlwind of everyday work will certainly want to enjoy a delicious, rich, smoky-smelling soup.

Try to diversify your holiday and instead of the usual kulesh, try kharcho, adapted for cooking in the field.

Main ingredients:

beef – 700 gr.;
onions – 4 pcs.;
tomatoes – 500 gr.;
rice – 120 gr.;
tomato paste – 2 tbsp. spoons;
walnuts – 100 gr.;
garlic – 1 head;
“khmeli-suneli” - 0.5 tbsp. spoons;
pepper mixture – 1 teaspoon;
greens, salt - to taste.

Cooking process:

Place well-washed and cut into pieces meat into a small cauldron, pour in water (about 4 liters), cover with a lid and wait for the contents of the cauldron to boil.
Cook the beef for an hour, remembering to remove the foam in time.
While the broth is cooking, prepare the remaining ingredients of the soup. Peel the onion, cut into half rings and lightly simmer in a frying pan along with tomato paste diluted with boiling broth.
Wash the rice well and fill it with cold water.
Cut the tomatoes into small cubes. It is advisable to remove the skin from them before doing this, but if you do not have the opportunity to do this in nature, do not be upset, it will not worsen the taste of the dish.
Add crushed garlic to the chopped tomatoes, and cut the existing greens here.
Grind the walnut kernels and mix them with spices.
If the meat has not been pre-cut, now is the time to do it.
Dip the beef back into the soup, pour in the onion-tomato sauce, let it simmer for a couple of minutes, then turn for the nut-spicy mixture, add salt to taste.

We remove the cauldron from the heat, and while your company sits around the fire, the kharcho will have time to brew for a few minutes.

So the final preparations are completed, now everyone will receive a bowl of steaming aromatic kharcho soup and the conversations will subside for a while, giving way to layering of delicious soup.

Kharcho in a slow cooker

The recipe for kharcho soup in a slow cooker is a simple and slightly modified variation of the classic Georgian kharcho. Instead of tkemali, tomato paste is used here, which, like the original ingredient, provides the necessary sourness.

Ingredients:

0.5 kg beef.
1 tbsp. long rice
2 onions.
2 carrots.
2 bell peppers.
3 potatoes.
5 cloves of garlic.
2 tomatoes.
Greenery.
Vegetable oil.
Salt and spices to taste.
Walnuts optional.

Cooking process:

Rinse the beef with water and cut into medium-sized pieces.
Pour a little vegetable oil into the multicooker bowl and lower the meat into it, setting the “Frying” mode for 20 minutes.
Prepare the vegetables: grate the carrots, cut the onion into half rings, chop the bell pepper into pieces, cut the potatoes into bars. Remove the skin from the tomato and chop the pulp.
Add vegetables to the meat one by one: first onions, after a while - carrots and peppers, and then tomatoes. Fry everything together for 10 minutes.
Measure out the required amount of rice and rinse it in cold water several times. Be sure to take rice that does not fall apart when cooked.
Place rice and potatoes into the multicooker bowl and pour in about 2 liters of hot water.
Add salt and spices. Various types of pepper, bay leaf, ground coriander, and cumin go well with kharcho. There is also a special set of seasonings for kharcho soup.
Following the seasonings and salt, add chopped garlic to the soup. If you want to add walnuts, which are always present in the traditional recipe, add them along with the garlic, chopping them in advance.
Set the “Stew” mode for one and a half to two hours and close the multicooker with the lid.
Pour the kharcho soup into bowls and sprinkle with herbs. Serve with bread or flatbread.

Original recipe for kharcho soup with beef and plums

Finally, we want to offer you a rather unusual recipe for kharcho soup with plums.

The secret of this dish lies in the use of plums in the cooking process, which we usually wouldn’t even think of putting in the first dish. But kharcho is an exception and this component gives the soup a special, unlike anything else flavor.

Main ingredients:

water – 4 liters;
beef – 700 gr.;
rice – 100 gr.;
sour plums – 150 gr.;
onions – 2 pcs.;
tomatoes – 3 pcs.;
walnuts – 60 gr.;
garlic – 4 cloves;
“khmeli-suneli” - teaspoon;
mixture of peppers – 0.5 teaspoon;
bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
greens – 1 bunch;
salt - to taste.

Cooking process:

We prepare the piece of beef you like, it can be brisket, shoulder or shank. We wash it well, cut it into pieces, put it in a pan of a suitable size, fill it with cold water and put it on the stove.
After boiling, it is necessary to remove the foam that appears and cook the broth for 1.5-2 hours until the meat is cooked.
While the meat is cooking, wash the rice, wash the plums, remove the seeds, and cut into small cubes. We do the same with tomatoes.
Grind or chop the walnuts as you wish.
Finely chop the onion and greens.

If desired, you can use one fresh hot pepper instead of a mixture of peppers, having previously cleared it of seeds and also finely chopped it.

Pour vegetable oil into a separate pan and fry the onion a little until golden brown. Then add tomatoes to it and simmer for several minutes.
Pour the broth into the dressing; if desired, cut the meat into smaller pieces and return it to the pan.
Now it’s time to add the rice; when it’s cooked until half cooked, add the chopped plums to the kharcho and cook for another 10 minutes.
Season our dish with spices, add nuts, bay leaves, herbs, salt to taste and let simmer for a couple more minutes.

The most awaited moment has arrived. Delicious kharcho soup with beef and plums will certainly not leave you indifferent; this acquaintance will develop into a true friendship and will forever be among your favorite first courses.

Red bean soup

The following step-by-step recipe for kharcho soup contains an ingredient such as red beans. The soup turns out very nourishing and tasty.

We need:

Beans - 170 grams.
Beef brisket - 350 grams.
Onions and carrots - one piece each.
Large fleshy tomatoes - four pieces.
Walnuts - 40 grams.
Garlic - four cloves.
Khmeli-suneli - one teaspoon.
Tkemali - three tablespoons.
Salt, ground black pepper - to your taste.
Bay leaves - three pieces.
Vegetable oil - for frying.
Parsley - one bunch.

Cooking method:

Fill the beans with water and leave to swell overnight.
Rinse the meat and cook over low heat along with the bay leaf for two hours. Don't forget to skim off the foam.
Cut the onion and carrots into cubes and fry until golden brown, finely chop the garlic, chop the nuts, blanch the tomatoes and grind them into puree.
Separate the meat from the bones, cut it and return it to the broth.
Rinse the beans and place them in the meat. Also add nuts, tkemali sauce, roasted tomatoes, garlic to the broth and simmer for 30 minutes. Salt and add seasoning.
Turn off the soup, add chopped herbs and let simmer, covered, for about 20-30 minutes.

Video on how to cook real Georgian kharcho with tkemali

For all lovers of video recipes, I specially found a detailed and understandable culinary master class on making kharcho soup.

Even the classic recipe for Georgian soup may differ in the general composition of the ingredients from different housewives. At the same time, every housewife will assure that her recipe is the real one.

I offer you a simple way to determine the best version of this dish - try different versions of kharcho recipes and decide for yourself which one you like best.

Ingredients for a three-liter saucepan:

Fresh beef meat - 600 grams;
Onions – 2 onions;
Fresh tomatoes – 5 pieces;
Rice – 5 tbsp. spoon;
Walnut kernels – 100 gr.;
Tkemali sauce – 2 tbsp. spoons;
Fresh parsley – 1 bunch;
Hot pepper – 1 pod;
Garlic – 3 cloves;
Dried cilantro and basil - 1 teaspoon each;
Allspice – 1 teaspoon;
Khmeli-suneli – 1 teaspoon.

And now I invite you to see how to prepare this delicious Georgian dish.

Kharcho classic lean

This recipe can be classified as a modern gastronomic classic, since it preserves the principles of healthy eating without compromising the authenticity of the dish. Lenten kharcho is suitable for those who are on a diet or fasting, but this does not mean that such a soup will not be able to satisfy your hunger; you can quite get enough of it.

Ingredients:

1 cup rice.
1-2 onions.
Half a head of garlic.
Half a kilo of tomatoes.
1 tbsp. l. tomato paste.
3 tbsp. l. tkemali sauce or a handful of dried tkemali.
3 bay leaves.
Hot pepper pod.
100 g walnuts.
Cilantro and parsley.
Khmeli-suneli.
Salt to taste.
Vegetable oil.

Cooking process:

Fry diced onion in vegetable oil.
Cut the tomatoes on both sides and place in boiling water. After holding for a minute, remove the skin from them and cut into arbitrary-shaped pieces.
Rinse the rice until you obtain light, clear water. It is important to choose a variety that will not boil over and turn into mush.
Boil water (about 2-3 liters) and pour onion into it first, and then rice. Stir and reduce heat. Cook rice with onions for about 10-15 minutes. If you are not using the sauce, but the tkemali plums themselves, then at this stage you need to put them into the broth along with the rice, after washing them first. The finished sauce is added to the kharcho later.
Prepare the soup dressing: chop the herbs, garlic and walnuts. This is done using a knife or blender. Cut the seeded hot pepper. Mix the chopped ingredients with tomato cubes.
Add the resulting dressing to the broth. Then put tkemali in it. You can prepare the sauce yourself by stewing together the pulp of tkemali plums, chopped cilantro, mint, garlic and coriander.
Boil the soup together with the dressing and sauce for about 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and wait for the kharcho to steep for another 10-15 minutes.

Despite the absence of meat, the soup turns out aromatic, appetizing and amazingly tasty!

Homemade Kharcho

Try to cook this delicious, tasty and nutritious soup, a real treasure of national Georgian cuisine. It is traditionally prepared from beef, with the addition of tomato paste, adjika and garlic.

Ingredients:

Meat (beef) – 0.5 kg
Onions – 3 pcs.
Raw rice – ½ cup
Tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.
Bay leaf – 2 pcs.
Peppercorns – 5 pcs.
Adjika – 2 tbsp. l.
Garlic – 3 cloves
Vegetable oil – 3 tbsp. l.
Dill, parsley (fresh) – ½ bunch

Cooking process:

Rinse the meat well and then cut into plates about 1.5-2 cm thick. Cut each plate into small pieces. Don't make them too small. Try to get squares measuring 2 x 2 cm.
Place the meat in a deep pan and add 10 cups of water. Place the pan on the fire and bring the meat to a boil. Remove any foam that appears immediately to prevent the broth from becoming cloudy. As soon as the meat boils, reduce the heat and simmer the broth at a very low simmer until the meat is half cooked (about 40-50 minutes).
Peel the onion, rinse with water and cut into 2 parts. Cut each part into small cubes. Dip the chopped onion into the soup.
Rinse half a glass of rice under cold water until transparent, and then add it to the soup. Boil for 20 minutes.
Rinse the greens thoroughly, dry a little, and then finely chop with a sharp knife.
Add adjika, salt, some chopped dill (parsley), and pepper to the soup.
Pour vegetable oil and tomato paste into a heated frying pan. Stir well until the tomato paste dissolves in the oil. Pour into soup.
Peel the garlic, rinse with water and chop.
Add finely chopped garlic, bay leaf and the rest of the herbs to the soup.
Cover the pan with a lid and let the soup simmer for 5 minutes. The tasty and aromatic soup is ready. Bon appetit!