Beef kharcho is a delicious Georgian soup prepared according to classic and new recipes. Classic kharcho soup with rice and potatoes

How to make beef kharcho soup at home

To prepare kharcho soup we will need:

• about 1 kg of beef;
• 3 large potatoes;
• half a glass of rice;
• 2 medium onions;
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste;
• vegetable oil;
• bay leaf;
• salt and spices;
• garlic.

Kharcho soup - homemade recipe

Kharcho soup belongs to Georgian cuisine. It is very tasty, rich, satisfying. At the same time, preparing it is not so difficult! Let's get started...

Delicious beef kharcho soup according to a classic recipe

1. Cook our kharcho soup in the second broth, like all other soups. First the meat, then drain the first broth, wash the pan, place the meat in it and fill it with water again, put the pan on the stove.

2. When the meat is cooked, take it out, cool it, separate it from the bone and divide it into pieces.

3. At this time, peel, wash and cut the potatoes into cubes, lower them into our broth.

4. When the potatoes boil, rinse half a glass of rice with cold water and add it to the potatoes. Let it boil and turn the heat down.

5. Pour the chopped meat into the broth.

6. While the potatoes and rice are cooking, thinly slice the onion into half rings.

7. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and place it on the stove. Add the onion and begin sautéing it over low heat. Here we also add allspice, a spoonful of tomato paste and a couple of spoons of soup broth from our pan (where the potatoes and rice are cooked). There should be a lot of onions in the kharcho.

8. Add our onions to the soup pan and add salt. Put in a bay leaf.

9. Boil everything again.

10. Use a garlic press to squeeze 5 cloves of garlic into our kharcho soup. Mix everything and remove from heat.

11. If you have fresh herbs, cut them and add them to the soup. Let the kharcho brew for 10 minutes.

Serve to the table and enjoy the pleasant aroma and taste of this wonderful soup - kharcho.

Bon appetit!

Step-by-step recipes for kharcho soup with rice from chicken, beef, pork, lamb, potatoes and other vegetables

Grade
recipe

Time
(min)

Portions
(persons)

In 100 grams of the finished dish

3 gr.

5 gr.

Carbohydrates

90 kcal.

Option 1: Kharcho soup with rice - classic recipe

Kharcho soup with rice is hearty, rich, aromatic and simply incredible in taste, it will satisfy your hunger in an instant, rest assured. Today we will prepare kharcho soup with rice; we will give preference to beef as meat. In general, you can use any meat - lamb, chicken and even pork - it all depends on your preferences.

Kharcho soup is cooked without adding potatoes, which is unusual for our soup recipes, but believe me, the soup comes out so rich, with a silky yushka structure, that potatoes would simply be superfluous here. Serve the kharcho with a handful of chopped nuts. The color of the soup is amazing, I hope you like it.

Ingredients:

• Water - 2 l
• Beef - 0.5 kg
• Rice - 1 glass
• Onions - 2 pcs.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Walnuts - a handful
• Salt, pepper - to taste
• Khmeli-suneli - 1 tbsp.
• Bay leaf - 1 pc.
• Vegetable oil - 3 tbsp.
• Tomato paste - 1 tbsp.
• Kiza, dill - 4 sprigs each

Cooking process

Prepare all products according to the list. Choose a good piece of beef or veal, rinse the meat under cool water, and dry. Cut the meat into small pieces. Next, fry the meat in a frying pan until

Boil water on the stove, lower the meat and cook the broth for about one hour and a half over low heat.

During the cooking process, season the broth with salt, add pepper and suneli hops, and throw in a bay leaf.

When the broth is cooked, add the washed rice. Cook rice in broth for 20-25 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables - peel a couple of onions, rinse and dry. Cut the onion into small cubes.

Peel, wash and dry the carrots. Grate the carrots on a medium grater.

Fry the vegetables in a spoon of vegetable oil, then add tomato paste to the pan. Our version uses homemade pasta; you can add tomatoes chopped in a blender. Add some broth from the pan to the pasta.

Simmer the dressing for a couple of minutes.

When the rice is ready, transfer the dressing from the frying pan into the pan, add a handful of nuts, crushed in a coffee grinder, to the pan. Next, throw the chopped greens into the pan.

Let the soup sit for a couple of minutes, pour into bowls and sprinkle with nuts - serve hot.

Bon appetit!

Option 2: Quick recipe for chicken kharcho with rice

Kharcho without meat is not tasty. If time is short, you can use a bird. In this version of the recipe for chicken and rice kharcho, you can use breast or thighs.

Ingredients

• 800 g chicken;
• 150 g rice;
• 90 g onion;
• 70 g nuts;
• three tomatoes;
• 30 ml oil;
• one carrot;
• 4 cloves of garlic;
• cilantro and seasonings.

How to quickly cook chicken kharcho

It is better to immediately cut the bird into portioned pieces, so as not to take it out later and waste time. Place it in a saucepan, add a couple of liters of water, cook the chicken broth for no more than half an hour, do not forget to remove the foam.

After half an hour, add the washed rice, be sure to stir so that nothing sticks to the bottom.

Place a frying pan, add a little oil, add onions, fry, add carrots, and cook together. Grate or chop the tomatoes and add. Simmer for about five minutes.

Finely chop the nuts and add to the almost finished rice. Let it simmer for two minutes, add vegetables from the frying pan. Salt and pepper the kharcho and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. Add cilantro and garlic and, without letting them boil, immediately turn off the stove.

If chicken breast, that is, fillet, is used for the broth, then the rice can be added after just two minutes of boiling, that is, the cooking time for the kharcho will be even shorter.

Option 3: Kharcho with potatoes and rice

One of the most popular options is kharcho soup with potatoes and rice. It turns out nourishing, tasty, and not very expensive. Potatoes are available in every home. You can cook with absolutely any type of meat at your discretion.

Ingredients

• kilogram of meat (lamb, pork, beef);
• three potatoes;
• two onions;
• 3-4 tomatoes;
• head of garlic;
• 0.5 tbsp. rice;
• 3.3 liters of water;
• a little oil;
• cilantro, suneli hops, allspice.

How to cook

Place the meat in cold water and send it to cook. Throw in allspice. As soon as foam appears, and it definitely will, you need to collect everything. Cook until the meat is soft, then remove it and cut into pieces.

We peel the potatoes, cut them, throw them into the broth, you don’t have to return the meat yet, let the pieces retain their shape. Cook the potatoes for about ten minutes, then add rice and salt.

Fry the onion in oil, add chopped tomatoes. Sometimes carrots are also placed here, then it needs to be sautéed with onions, then seasoned with tomato. Fry together, add suneli hops.

Check the rice, once it is cooked, remove the meat and vegetables from the pan. Bring to a boil.

Chop the garlic. Add cilantro, which is often replaced with parsley, to the pan. Turn off the stove and let the kharcho stand for a while.

By the way, this version of kharcho can be served with sour cream or mayonnaise, unlike other types of soup, with which popular additives are not always combined.

Option 4: Pork kharcho with rice (ribs)

One of the most satisfying options for kharcho with pork and rice. To prepare it, you can take any meat, here for example ribs. They are convenient because they are immediately cut into portions.

Ingredients:

• 800 g ribs;
• 100 g round large rice;
• 2-3 tomatoes;
• a pair of onions;
• spoon of pasta;
• one carrot;
• 2/3 tbsp. nuts;
• cilantro, hops-suneli;
• a head of fresh garlic;
• 50 g fat (you can use butter).

Step by step recipe

We cut the ribs into pieces, throw them into a saucepan, add a couple of liters of water, and prepare a regular broth. Unlike other cuts of meat, ribs cook quite quickly; after 40-50 minutes, add washed rice to them.

In a large saucepan, fry chopped onion and carrots. First add tomato paste. After a minute it will reveal color, pour in grated or diced tomatoes. Simmer until then. Until the rice is cooked.

Chop the nuts, add them to the pan with rice, and add salt to the kharcho. After two minutes, add the vegetables. Simmer everything together over low heat for another ten minutes.

There is just time to peel and chop the garlic and chop the herbs. Season the nut soup with pork and rice, turn off the stove.

You can cook kharcho not only with fresh pork and rice, but also with the addition of smoked meats. It is enough to throw a couple of ribs or other pieces into the pan for the Georgian soup to reveal new aromas.

Option 5: Lamb kharcho with rice

A rich version of Georgian kharcho with lamb, rice and walnuts. The ingredients indicate simply seasonings; you can use a khmeli-suneli mixture or choose something else to suit your taste.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg lamb;
• 1.5 tbsp. rice;
• 5 onions;
• 200 g nuts;
• 1 carrot;
• 2 peppers (bell peppers);
• 150 g tomato paste;
• oil, spices, garlic.

How to cook

Wash the lamb, add three and a half liters of water. Prepare a rich broth. After this, take out the lamb, cut it, and add washed rice instead.

Chop the onion into strips, carrots and peppers in about the same way. There are a lot of vegetables, so we take the largest frying pan. Heat the oil, fry the onions and carrots, add the pepper, and after another two minutes the pasta. Lightly fry with tomatoes, scoop out a ladle of broth and add to the sauté.

Chop the nuts, throw them into the pan, return the meat, let it boil well, add the vegetables with tomato paste.

Grind the herbs, garlic, prepare seasonings. Place it all in a saucepan and stir. Kharcho is ready!

This recipe makes a lot of soup. If the family is small or the dish is being prepared for testing, then it is wiser to make half the norm.

Option 6: Pork kharcho soup with rice

Another recipe for pork kharcho with rice, but the technology here is different. It is best to prepare this soup in a cauldron; the meat will roast appetizingly in it, and the broth will delight you with a magical taste.

Ingredients

• 600 g pork (pulp);
• 120 g rice;
• 5 cloves of garlic;
• 1 tsp. khmeli-suneli;
• 0.5 tbsp. nuts;
• 120 g onion;
• 200 g tomatoes;
• 1 carrot.

How to cook

Cut the pork into cubes, like for a shish kebab. Place in a preheated cauldron and lightly fry. If there is no fat on the meat, you can add a little oil. As soon as a crust appears on the meat, pour boiling water over it, cook for 50-60 minutes, add rice, salt.

Fry the dressing in a frying pan: sauté the onions and carrots, add grated tomatoes or replace them with paste, and let simmer.

A couple of minutes before the rice is ready, add nuts to the rice, let it simmer, add vegetables and spices. Let's turn down the fire. Simmer the kharcho under the lid for about ten minutes. Turn off the stove, open the cauldron, add garlic and herbs. Let the kharcho soup sit for a little longer.

You can also cook kharcho with ribs in the same way, that is, pre-fry them. Because they produce a lot of fat. Some can be removed before adding boiling water and used for frying vegetables.

Option 7: Kharcho with beef and rice

To prepare kharcho soup with rice and beef, you can use meat on the bone. It produces the richest broth. Rice, as it should be, is better to take large and round.

Ingredients

• kilogram of beef (more possible);
• 5 tomatoes;
• 4 spoons of pasta;
• 4 onions;
• a glass of round rice;
• 0.3 tbsp. oils;
• 3 bell peppers;
• a bunch of cilantro;
• head of garlic.

How to cook

Fill the washed beef with water and make broth. Remove the meat and add washed rice. We cut the beef, remove the bone.

Chop the onion into half rings, fry until golden brown, do all this over high heat. Add the pepper, cut into large strips, continue to fry, add the paste, and after a minute, the tomatoes. Now turn down the heat and simmer the vegetables until soft.

We transfer everything from the frying pan into a pan with kharcho, add salt, and after boiling, add the beef. Let it cook for a couple of minutes, add garlic and herbs, turn off the stove.

All kharcho recipes include fresh garlic. But if you don’t have it at home, then feel free to replace it with a dried analogue. In this option, you can even bring the garlic to a boil, but it’s better to just let the kharcho sit for a little longer.

Option 8: Kharcho soup with rice and salted tomatoes

This recipe is ideal for winter, when fresh tomatoes do not taste good, and their price is simply astronomical. For the dish, we simply use salted tomatoes or in their own juice.

Ingredients

• 700 g meat (any);
• 150 g onion;
• 400 g tomatoes;
• 1 carrot;
• a handful of nuts;
• seasonings, oil;
• 100 g rice.

How to cook

Prepare the broth with two liters of water. Cook until the meat is soft, the time will depend on the type chosen. We take out the meat, chop it, return it, add rice to it, stir, and immediately add salt, but only a little.

Chop onions and carrots as desired and fry in oil. As soon as they are browned, add chopped canned or salted tomatoes. They can be cut or ground in a blender. Simmer for five minutes.

Throw chopped nuts into the kharcho, let it boil, add vegetables. Boil for another two minutes. Season the kharcho with herbs, garlic, pepper and laurel.

Kharcho without cilantro is not kharcho, but in our latitudes people very often dislike this greenery and replace it with parsley, dill and even onions. This is not correct, you can try adding cilantro in parts, starting with small portions, gradually its taste will become less outlandish.

Option 9: Classic kharcho soup with rice and beef broth

To prepare the classic kharcho soup with rice, you can take any pieces of beef, but the weight of the meat without the bone is indicated. You can additionally add them to obtain a rich broth. It is advisable to choose large and round rice for kharcho; you can use unrefined types, they are healthy and do not get overcooked.

Ingredients

• 0.5 kg beef;
• 140 g rice;
• 4 tomatoes;
• 2.5 liters of water;
• 2 onions;
• 100 g walnuts;
• 40 g cilantro;
• 40 ml oil;
• 25 g garlic;
• 1 tbsp. l. khmeli-suneli.

Step-by-step recipe for classic kharcho soup with rice

You need to start preparing the soup with broth. Fill a glass with more water than indicated in the recipe, as some will boil away. Place the washed beef in and cook for at least two hours until soft. Then we take out a piece.

Pour the washed rice into a pan with hot broth and begin to cook it. It is important to thoroughly rinse or even lightly soak the cereal in cold water to remove excess starch, which increases the turbidity of the broth.

As soon as the rice is poured in, let's start with the vegetables. Chop the onion into strips, don’t let the quantity scare you. Heat the oil, add the vegetable, fry until golden brown.

Pour boiling water over the tomatoes for a couple of minutes, peel off the skin and cut into cubes. First add the hop-suneli seasoning to the onions so that it reveals the aroma, and then pour in the tomatoes. Cook until the tomatoes are soft.

Only walnuts are used for kharcho; it simply cannot be any other way. The kernels need to be crushed. It is best to grind with a blender or coffee grinder. But if there is nothing like that, then just finely chop and grate. Pour them into a pan with half or 70% cooked rice. Fat from the walnuts will immediately appear on the surface, this is good.

Cut the meat and return it to the kharcho. Checking the rice. Is he cooked? We transfer the vegetables from the frying pan, let it boil well and immediately turn it off. Add chopped garlic and chopped bunch of cilantro. Stir, cover, leave for two minutes. Kharcho is served with black bread, tkemali sauce, and additional cilantro would be useful.

If suddenly the tomatoes are light or not aromatic enough, then you can additionally add a couple of spoons of tomato paste to the sautéing, this will only improve the look and taste of the kharcho.

The historical homeland of Kharcho with rice and beef is considered to be sunny Georgia. It was there, among the mountain slopes of the Greater Caucasus, that this rich soup was born. Over time, the classic recipe for the favorite dish of the inhabitants of Transcaucasia spread throughout the world. Very often the recipe was modified, adapting to the traditions of local cuisine, and sometimes the composition of the transformed soup only vaguely resembled real Kharcho. It contained products uncharacteristic for Georgia, such as:

• carrot;
• potato;
• tomatoes.

But walnuts, tkemali plums and cilantro, on the contrary, disappeared.

The attitude towards the meat used also became more loyal; traditional beef at home began to be replaced with lamb, pork, poultry, and sometimes even fish.

In most cases, this was due to the lack of the necessary ingredients in the public market. Today, when the shortage of food has sunk into oblivion, everyone has the opportunity to prepare beef kharcho soup according to the traditional Georgian recipe.

Cooking kharcho is absolutely not difficult. To properly cook this southern dish, you only need to follow the culinary recommendations exactly. And to make your task easier, you can always use a step-by-step recipe with photos.

Tkemali or tomato

Tkemali is a classic Georgian sauce, with an unusual piquant taste and spicy aroma, which is an essential ingredient in many national dishes. Real tkemali is prepared in Caucasian style from:

• sour cherry plum;
• cilantro;
• ombalo (mint growing near swamps);
• oregano;
• garlic;
• hot pepper.

The color of the finished sauce depends on the type of cherry plum used, and includes all shades of green, red and yellow.

Looking at the list of products used to prepare tkemali, it becomes clear that in taste it does not even remotely resemble tomato paste. That is why Georgian beef kharcho with tkemali and kharcho with tomatoes are 2 completely different dishes. What to give preference to and how best to make it depends only on the culinary preferences of the eaters. Everything is learned by comparison. Cooking does not tolerate restrictions and prohibitions and requires regular experiments.

Required Products

This recipe uses tomato paste as the main ingredient, and tkemali is simply a toning composite that makes it easy to enhance the taste of the finished dish.

Ingredients:

• beef – 0.5 kg;
• rice – 1 glass;
• tkemali – 2 tbsp. l.;
• granulated sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
• hot pepper – ½ pod;
• salt - to taste;
• bay leaf – 1 pc.;
• tomato – 70 g;
• onion – 200 g;
• garlic – 4 cloves;
• walnut kernels – 100 g;
• khmeli-suneli – 1 s. l.;
• cilantro, parsley - a bunch;
• black peppercorns – 5 pcs.;
• water – 2.5 l.;
• carrots – 100 g;
• parsley root – 50 g;

Cooking method

Instructions with step-by-step photos.

The taste of kharcho soup largely depends on how well the broth is prepared. Therefore, this seemingly insignificant step should not be neglected.

When cooking meat, you need to remember one simple rule. If the goal is to prepare a rich, aromatic broth, then the meat is placed in cold water. And vice versa, if it is necessary to cook a piece of meat, preserving all the taste, then immerse it in liquid only after boiling.

1. 1. Step 1

Wash the meat, place it in a saucepan, fill it with water and put it on the fire. Usually the cooking process takes 1.5 -2 hours, during which time some of the liquid has time to boil away. So that at the end you don’t have to adjust the amount of broth by pouring out excess or, conversely, adding water, fill a 3-liter pan to about 2/3 of its volume.

Despite the fact that the classic recipe for kharcho soup does not include carrots, at home, when cooking the broth, add onion, carrots, parsley root and celery. If any ingredients are unacceptable to you, skip them. To ensure that the finished broth has a pleasant golden hue and the aroma of root vegetables is clearly visible in it, before putting the vegetables in the pan, bake them in a frying pan without oil, or directly on an electric burner to form a crispy crust. Don't forget the salt and peppercorns.

Try not to miss the moment when the broth boils. Too intense bubbling leads to its “washing out”; the liquid very quickly acquires an unpleasant cloudy hue with floating flakes and this is quite difficult to deal with. As soon as the liquid begins to boil, turn the heat to minimum; the boiling should be slow, almost invisible. Be sure to skim off any foam that forms while the beef is cooking.

1. 1. Step 2

Remove the boiled meat with a slotted spoon and cut into portions. Strain the broth through several layers of gauze to get rid of boiled vegetables, herbs and spices. Place everything back into the pan and bring to a boil again.

1. 1. Step 3

While the broth is boiling, peel the onion and cut it into thin half rings. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the onion until transparent.

Add tomato paste and granulated sugar. Out of habit, it may seem that sugar is an absolutely unnecessary ingredient in the soup. There is no need to rush to conclusions; in this case, it does not play the role of a sweetener, but serves as a kind of flavor enhancer. 1 spoon of granulated sugar will not add any sweetness, but it will help the taste of tomato paste to fully reveal itself. Saute, stirring constantly for 1 - 2 minutes.

Add 100 ml of broth and leave to simmer for another 5 - 8 minutes. The longer the sauté is cooked, the more sour it will become.

1. 1. Step 4

Rinse the rice and immerse in boiling broth.

To prepare kharcho soup, choose round-grained varieties of rice that soften well during the cooking process. Krasnodar rice, or rice intended for risotto, is ideal for this purpose. But you will have to refuse long-grained, steamed ones. You should not give preference to rice for pilaf. In these cases, it will not be possible to give the soup the necessary thickness, even doubling the filling rate, because they do not contain a sufficient amount of starch.

1. 1. Step 5

After 10 minutes, add sauté to the cooking rice, turn the heat down and continue cooking.

1. 1. Step 6

Peel the walnuts and remove the partitions. You should have approximately 100 grams of kernels. Fry them in a frying pan without oil or in the oven for a few minutes.

Crush the cooled nuts in a stone mortar until a homogeneous, oily mixture is formed. Don’t despair if your arsenal of kitchen utensils lacks a much-needed item like a mortar. Nuts can be ground in a meat grinder or chopped in a blender. As a last resort, you can use the simplest method - grate it on a fine grater.

1. 1. Step 7

Peel the garlic. Finely chop and add to the walnuts to thoroughly crush in a mortar.

Remove the seeds from the hot pepper and chop finely, then add it to the nut-garlic mixture.

1. 1. Step 8

7 - 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add the nut-garlic mixture, tkemali sauce, paprika and suneli hops to the soup. Fans of spicy food can supplement the list of necessary spices with ground red pepper. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes.

1. 1. Step 9

Finely chop the greens.

The most beloved greens in Georgia are cilantro and parsley. Both of these seasonings have a lot of useful properties, but perhaps the most important of them is the activation of the digestive process when digesting meat products. The basis of Caucasian cuisine is predominantly spicy meat dishes, each of which is certainly served with delicious cilantro. And the mountaineers know a lot about proper nutrition, it’s not for nothing that there are so many long-livers among them. Cilantro is not very popular among admirers of European and Slavic cuisines. The specific aroma requires gradual getting used to. Therefore, if you do not like its smell, feel free to replace it with dill, basil, parsley or green onions.

2-3 minutes before readiness, add chopped greens to the kharcho soup.

1. Step 10

After finishing cooking, cover the delicious kharcho soup with a lid and let it brew for at least 20 minutes.

Serve to the table, sprinkled thickly with herbs.

Bon appetit.

Instead of an afterword

For those who do not accept soups without potatoes and carrots, I suggest not denying yourself the pleasure and supplementing the beef kharcho soup recipe with your favorite ingredients. This will only enhance the taste of the finished dish, although it will lose some of its Georgian flavor.

If you decide to cook kharcho with potatoes, place them before the rice. By the time you add the tomato sauté, the potatoes should be completely cooked. Otherwise it will remain damp. It is almost impossible to bring vegetables to readiness in an acidic environment, which is what tomatoes and tkemali are.

The aromatic tomato soup kharcho is one of the representatives of Georgian cuisine, which has long conquered the hearts and stomachs of many people outside its homeland. Despite the fact that this dish has a rich taste and aroma, it is not at all difficult to prepare. Kharcho soup has undergone many changes during its “travel” around the world - it is made from chicken, lamb and pork, and potatoes are added. We offer a recipe for kharcho soup with beef, rice and walnuts as close as possible to the classic one.

Of course, the recipe we presented for Georgian kharcho soup with beef is just one of many delicious recipes for this dish. You can see another one of them, where tomatoes are used instead of tomato paste, in the video below.

I was visiting my aunt once. And she fed me a rich and spicy soup - it’s called Kharcho. In principle, I am not a fan of Georgian cuisine, but I really liked Kharcho’s version of it. And the most interesting thing is that there is nothing complicated in the mechanism for creating such a dish. The first time I made a wonderful Georgian beef Kharcho, the main thing is to follow the recipe.

Kitchen appliances and utensils: gas or electric stove, two 3-liter saucepans, a frying pan, a ladle, a cutting board, a good sharp knife, a mortar for chopping garlic, a spatula and a tablespoon, a slotted spoon, a fine sieve.

Ingredients

Ingredient Selection

To make Kharcho soup rich, beautiful and tasty, it is very important to choose the right ingredients:

• You can choose beef in the market, or you can buy it in the meat pavilion at the market. The most important criteria are that the meat must be fresh and on the bone.. Good beef is rich red or burgundy in color (depending on the age of the animal), does not ooze blood, and has a slight milky smell (especially if it is meat from a cow or a young bull). When buying beef at the market, do not be lazy to ask for a veterinary certificate for the meat - this way you will make sure that it comes from a healthy animal.
• When choosing rice, pay attention to its purity. Good white rice, little “flour” in the package. Do not use steamed rice - regular rice, which boils well, will be better for soup. Check the expiration dates - and the rice has them.
• It is better to take walnuts immediately chopped. Take a good look at the nut kernels - there should be no plaques, “cobwebs”, or dark spots on them. If you take nuts in the shell, pay attention to their cleanliness and the integrity of the shell - the quality of the nut kernel depends on this.

• When buying sauce and tomato paste, pay attention to the condition of the container in which they are sold - it must be clean and intact. Take the time to check the expiration dates and storage conditions of these products.
• Choose a medium-sized onion– such a vegetable will not turn out to be rotten inside. The husks should be a nice golden-orange color and fit tightly to the bulb. It is advisable to choose a vegetable without green shoots on the top.
• Every housewife has vegetable oil at hand. It is important to remember that it must be transparent, without sediment, with an unexpired shelf life and in a whole container.
• It is advisable to buy sweet peppers from the market and try them– suddenly he’s not sweet. Even if you buy it in a store, pay attention to the appearance of the vegetable. Whether yellow or red, it should be without stains, rotten areas, elastic, with a smooth shiny surface.
• Garlic is usually sold in heads. A good head is white, without spots, hard. Take garlic without sprouts - sprouted garlic is toxic.
• When choosing spices, always look carefully at their packaging.. There should be no tears, the bag should not be worn out. Check if the seasoning is pouring inside the container and if there are any lumps - this is easy to determine by touch. Don't forget to look at the expiration dates.

When you have everything ready and you have stocked up on the necessary products, you can safely start cooking.

Step-by-step preparation

Before preparing beef Kharcho soup, you need to rinse the beef thoroughly under running water. Otherwise, all the debris that stuck to the meat during transportation to your kitchen will be in the soup, and this is not very good. And then everything is point by point.

1. Place 500 grams of beef in the prepared pan, add 1.4 liters of water, add two bay leaves, and place over high heat. Be sure to cover with a lid - it will boil faster.
2. When the meat has boiled, remove the foam with a slotted spoon and reduce the heat. Now the meat should be cooked for at least an hour over low heat under the lid. Ideally, an hour and a half, but you don’t always have time to wait that long, I know from myself.
   
   
3. When the broth is ready, you need to catch the meat and leave it to cool. Strain the broth itself through a fine sieve into another pan - this way the soup will come out clear.
   
   
4. Cut the cooled meat into small portions, remove the bone.
   
   
5. Return the chopped boiled beef to the broth, place the pan over medium heat and wait until it boils. Don't forget to cover with a lid.
   
   
6. Rinse 100 grams of rice well, add it to the boiled broth with meat, let it boil.
   
   
7. Wash and peel 150 grams of sweet pepper, cut it into cubes and add to the pan immediately after the rice. You can also cut into strips - do as you like.
   
   
8. While the rice is boiling, fry 100 grams of finely chopped onion in a frying pan with 15 grams of oil until soft and golden brown.
   
   
9. While the onions are frying, prepare the nut-garlic mixture. To do this, crush 100 grams of chopped walnuts and 10 grams of garlic in a mortar.
10. Add 70 grams of tomato paste to the fried onions directly into the frying pan and mix thoroughly.
    
    
11. Turn the heat down, add the prepared mixture of nuts and garlic to the dressing, stir and remove the pan from the stove.
    
    
12. Add the freshly prepared dressing to the boiling soup and stir.
    
    
13. Add 60 grams of Tkemali sauce, 5 grams of ground red pepper, 10 grams of Khmeli-Suneli seasoning, chopped small bunch of cilantro, salt to taste, stir, cover with a lid.
    
    
14. After two minutes, turn off the stove. The soup is almost ready. He just needs to brew for about 10-15 minutes under a closed lid. Bon appetit!
    
    
    

How to decorate Kharcho soup

Due to the rather large pieces of meat, bright orange color and golden shine, in my opinion, the soup already looks beautiful and appetizing. But my aunt garnishes it with fresh chopped herbs. When I eat Kharcho or any other from my mother, she decorates it with a tablespoon of sour cream. As you like, the final choice is yours.

How to Serve Soup

Kharcho soup can and should be served for lunch as a first course. But don’t forget – it must be steeped before serving! I really like to eat it with white bread; my aunt always serves it with pampushki rubbed with garlic. In my opinion, this is too much, there is enough spiciness in the dish itself. But if the donuts are without garlic, then that’s even great.

Video recipe for making beef kharcho soup

This video demonstrates in detail and clearly the entire process of preparing Georgian beef Kharcho soup. It shows step by step what to add to the saucepan.

• If you carefully skim off the foam, you don’t have to strain the broth - you’ll save time.
• It is better to cook any beef soup using meat on the bone - this way the broth will be rich and satisfying.
• Rice needs to be washed at least three times, draining the water - this way there will be less dirt in it and the sand won’t squeak on your teeth.
• Carefully remove seeds from bell peppers - they taste bitter in the soup.
• Instead of tomato paste for any spicy vegetable soup with rice, you can use fresh tomatoes. First scald them with boiling water and peel them from the skin and stalks - it will turn out even better than with tomato paste.
• My aunt crushes nuts and garlic in a mortar. To save time and effort, you can “entrust” the nuts to a coffee grinder, and a garlic grinder can handle the garlic in a second. I tried it - the grinding method did not affect the taste, and it’s really easier and faster.
• It is better to add spices based on your own considerations. If you want a spicy sensation, add more pepper. If you want a more spicy taste, increase the amount of Khmeli-Suneli seasoning.
• Don’t worry if there are a couple of servings left – on the second day this soup tastes even better than freshly cooked soup. This is one of the few dishes that really needs to sit for full flavor.

Cooking options

Today there are many variations on the Kharcho theme. If you want a richer dish, you can cook it. For those who like leaner soup options, you can prepare soup. My aunt, apart from peppers, tomatoes or tomato paste and onions, does not recognize other vegetables in the dish. And mom sometimes puts potatoes and carrots there.

I once ate this soup at a friend’s place; instead of ground pepper, she puts a small pod of fresh red pepper in it, and replaces Tkemali sauce with cherry plum. She browns the pieces of meat before returning them to the pot. Some cooks use regular ground pepper instead of red pepper, allspice in a pot, and replace cilantro with regular parsley. In this case, during cooking, in addition to bay leaves, celery root is added to the broth. Sometimes my aunt adds smoked meat to the beef in the soup - so the taste of the soup becomes even richer.

How many housewives - so many options for preparing this Georgian soup. If you know how to make the given recipe even better, write. And if you have your own unique variation on the theme of Georgian beef Kharcho soup, share it with me in the comments!