Ingredients:
How to cook eggplant rolls in Georgian:
Eggplants for cooking can be fried in a pan or baked in the oven. To cook eggplant rolls in Georgian style, I decided to use the oven - it is much faster and healthier this way. Wash the blue ones, cut the ponytails. Cut each eggplant lengthwise into 5mm slices. There is no need to peel the peel, it will be baked and the eggplant rolls in Georgian will turn out to be tender.
I usually do not first sprinkle the blue ones with salt, since after heat treatment there is no bitterness in them. In addition, it is important to use young eggplants, they do not taste bitter.
For baking, we will use a metal baking sheet or a fireproof dish. Lubricate the surface of the baking sheet with vegetable oil, put the chopped eggplants in one layer on it. Lubricate them with oil using a silicone brush, so that the Georgian eggplant rolls with walnuts turn out to be ruddy.
Put the baking sheet in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes. We will bake vegetables at an average level at 200 degrees. Then we transfer them to dry dishes and cool.
While the eggplants are cooling, prepare the filling. Dice the onion. Remove the seeds from the bell pepper and also cut it into cubes. Pour some sunflower oil into the pan and let it warm up. Then we will pour vegetables into it and sauté them until soft.
Then put them in a blender bowl. Pour in lemon juice to make the Georgian eggplant rolls with nuts even more flavorful. Add a handful of walnuts, garlic, parsley, salt and black pepper.
Grind the mixture into a smooth, thick paste and our eggplant roll filling is ready.
Spread the baked eggplant with the resulting vegetable paste, leaving one edge free so that the eggplant rolls stuffed with nuts are well wrapped.
Gently wrap the Georgian eggplant rolls with nuts, fix them with skewers or toothpicks if desired.
Eggplants have a place of honor in Georgian cuisine, and there are countless ways to prepare them. They are fried, baked, pickled, stewed or salted. It is cooked both separately, with garlic and nuts, and in combination with other vegetables or meat. White wine vinegar and garlic are often added to eggplant appetizers for a spicy and tangy flavor.
It is difficult to imagine Georgian cuisine without an abundance of greens. Cilantro, basil, green onions, parsley are present in almost every dish made from eggplants, which give food a unique taste, additionally enriching it with vitamins and useful microelements.
Nuts are not the last place in Georgian cuisine. The favorites of which are undoubtedly walnuts. Numerous sauces and seasonings are prepared with them, which go well with meat, fish and vegetables. Especially often nuts are added to eggplants, in the form of a crushed mass with herbs and garlic.
Georgian eggplants - the best recipes
This is a delicious national Georgian dish, although its variety can be found in other oriental cuisines, such as Azerbaijani. It's easy to cook in the sense that you don't have to stand over it and stir constantly. Vegetables only need to be cut and put in a bowl. While they are boiling on the stove, you can do other things. Buglama belongs to the first courses, but it is prepared with the addition of a small amount of water. It can be cooked on the stove in a cauldron or in the oven in portioned pots. The recipe includes utskho-suneli - these are blue fenugreek seeds ground into powder, which add a hint of light and pleasant nutty taste to the dish. If you don't find utsho-suneli, add any other spices you like. It's not quite right, but it's still better than nothing.
Ingredients: 4 pcs. fairly large eggplants and potatoes, 600 g of meat (lamb or any other), 2 pcs. bell peppers, tomatoes and onions, 1 piece each of carrots and hot peppers, cilantro, dill and basil (or another, according to your taste), 3 cloves of garlic, salt, utskho-suneli.
Cooking method
Put in a cauldron the first layer of meat, cut into small pieces, on top - potato wedges. The next layer is the eggplants, cut into circles. Sprinkle with salt. Next, alternately lay onion half rings, salt, circles (or cubes) of tomatoes, carrots chopped on a grater, bell peppers, cut into slices or strips.
Pour 2 cups of broth or water into a cauldron with vegetables and meat, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer with the lid closed for about two hours.
10 minutes before the end of cooking, add utskho-suneli, chopped garlic and herbs, add salt if necessary and add chopped hot pepper pod. Buglama is served hot.
This dish is prepared on the basis of baked eggplants, so it is important to choose fruits that are large in size, but not overripe. Large, because when baked, the eggplants greatly decrease in size, and it is important that in the end not only the skin and tails remain, but also a lot of tasty pulp.
Ingredients: 2 large eggplants, 1 onion, 150g of shelled walnuts, 3 medium cloves of garlic, cilantro and parsley, juice of a small lemon, half a teaspoon of spices - basil and suneli hops, to taste hot ground pepper and salt, a pinch sugar, pomegranate grains.
Cooking method:
Bake whole eggplants in the oven (200C) for about 40-45 minutes until soft. Cool, peel, chop the pulp with a knife.
Finely chop the onion, chop the garlic (on a track or with a garlic squeezer). Add lemon juice, all spices, together with sugar and salt, mix.
Grind the walnuts in a mortar, blender or meat grinder. All ingredients are thoroughly mixed with each other and put in the refrigerator for a day. Of course, you can eat it right away, but if the dish is infused, it acquires a special and unique taste. Therefore, it is better to have a little patience, at least at least 12 hours. Before serving, generously sprinkle the appetizer with pomegranate seeds.
To make it clearer what kind of dish it is, you need to find out what the word "ajapsandal" means. In a figurative sense, it means a mixture of a large number of ingredients, items. In Russian there is a similar definition - "vinaigrette". That is why in this dish, depending on the specific recipe, many different vegetables can be mixed - tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, carrots, but the main product is eggplant. Those. for one part, they take half, or even a third of the rest of the products.
Ingredients: eggplant - 1 kg, half a kilogram of bell peppers and tomatoes, 250 g each of green beans, onions and carrots, 1 bunch of cilantro, parsley and basil each, pepper and salt to taste, a pinch of saffron and ground coriander, vegetable oil - half a glass, 1 chilli pod (hot pepper), 4 cloves of garlic, 1 bay leaf.
Cooking method
Cut onions into small cubes, pepper into strips, eggplants into slices (or halves of slices), coarsely grate carrots.
Fry the eggplants (you do not need to peel them, but soak them in salted water before frying will not be superfluous), put them in a colander to let the oil drain. In the same pan, sauté the onion, add the pepper and carrots, fry everything together for 10 minutes, then transfer the vegetables to the eggplants.
Cut off the tails of the beans, break each pod into 2 or 3 parts with your hands, boil in water until half cooked, discard in a colander. Remove the skin from the tomatoes, after pouring boiling water over them, then chop them.
Grind the garlic with cilantro in a mortar and mix with the tomatoes. Chop the remaining greens with a knife, chop the chili thinly, removing the seeds. Send all the vegetable slices to the eggplant cauldron, as well as bay leaves with spices and salt. Stir and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
Eggplant with peanut sauce is an original Georgian appetizer. She acts as an invariable attribute of any festive feast. It is easy to cook and delicious to eat. Try it.
Ingredients: 4 eggplants, 150 g of walnuts (peeled), 1 bunch of parsley and cilantro, 1-2 medium onions, 3 cloves of garlic, a pinch of ground hot chili and coriander, salt, white wine vinegar (apple cider is possible) - 3 tbsp .l., vegetable oil.
Cooking method
Cut the eggplants into longitudinal tongue slices, put them in salted water for half an hour. Then dry (squeeze) and fry in oil.
For the filling: chop the nuts (in a mortar, through a meat grinder or in a blender), add finely chopped herbs, salt to them, pour in vinegar, add spices and squeeze out the garlic. Mix the mixture thoroughly.
Place a spoonful of filling on hot eggplant slices and fold in half. Cut the onion into thin rings. Put eggplants with nuts on a grater, shifting each roll with a ring of onion. Now let them cool down and stand for a while to soak. Garnish with pomegranate seeds and parsley leaves before serving.
You can cut the eggplants not into longitudinal tongues, but into transverse circles. Then the filling should be placed between two fried circles, and a ring of onion should be placed on top.
While relaxing in nature, try to cook a barbecue according to one of the recipes of Georgian cuisine. Mtsvadi is a kebab in eggplant. For one serving, you will need 1 eggplant and 150-200 g of meat (in the original lamb, but you can also pork or poultry). Cut the eggplant lengthwise, place pieces of meat (salted and peppered) in the cut and string on a skewer so as to pierce all the pieces and the eggplant itself from both ends. Fry over coals until cooked like a regular barbecue, periodically greasing the eggplant and meat with vegetable oil.
Eggplants are loved in many countries of the world, but in Georgia they have special feelings for blue ones. There are many eggplant dishes in the national cuisine. At first glance, they are unpretentious: rolls, stews, fried spicy "washers" ... But do not rush to judge if you have not tried. As soon as you eat them, a seemingly simple dish is revealed as a work of culinary art. Repeat the simple Georgian eggplant recipe at home and see for yourself.
Easy to prepare
Georgia is famous for its feasts. They love to cook and treat guests here. No meal is complete without eggplant snacks. In the "Georgian" version, the blue ones are especially tasty. An incredible aroma of spices, piquancy, unusual combinations of ingredients, a lot of greens - for this, vegetable dishes of Georgian cuisine are loved all over the world.
In Georgia, eggplants are prepared in different ways: baked, stewed, fried, boiled. The blue ones are served with nut sauce, eggplant is poured with tomato gravy, seasoned with spicy dressings. Eggplant dishes are usually placed cold on the table. Spicy appetizers whet your appetite, preparing you for the "meeting" with meat.
Eggplant is called a longevity vegetable. Blue ones have a beneficial effect on the work of the heart, strengthen blood vessels, "monitor" sugar levels and remove cholesterol. Judging by the fact that there are many long-livers in Georgia, the violet "elixir of life" really works.
A delicious dish can only come from quality ingredients. Ideally, to create culinary masterpieces, you need to buy organic vegetables from farmers or take home-grown eggplants. But in life everything is much more prosaic: for the blue housewives they go to the market or to the supermarket. It is important not to miscalculate and buy young fruits, because overripe ones are tasteless and even dangerous. There is a lot of corned beef in them, which can be poisoned. Remember four tips to make your choice easier.
If you cut open an eggplant and see dark seeds, you shouldn't eat it. A dark color signals that a lot of dangerous corned beef has accumulated in the vegetable.
Georgian cuisine has a recognizable taste. Do you want to cook not just eggplants, but necessarily "in Georgian"? Follow these four tips.
Georgian chefs use not simple rock salt, but Svan salt with spices. It can be made at home, but only on condition that there are seasonings typical for Georgian cuisine. To get the legendary salt, you need to mix a kilogram of rock salt with a glass of utskho-suneli, add saffron, red pepper, dill and cilantro seeds (half a glass each) and cumin (a quarter of a glass). The mixture of ingredients is ground in a mortar. Store in a glass jar.
The easiest way to experience the taste of Georgia without leaving your home is to cook eggplant rolls in Georgian style. The dish is familiar to many housewives. Blue rolls with various fillings are often served on holidays. The appetizer prepares quickly, looks beautiful, does not require expensive ingredients. But not all eggplant rolls can be called Georgian. In Georgia, nuts, herbs, garlic and many spices are necessarily added to them, without which the local cuisine cannot be imagined. This appetizer is called Pkhali Badrijani by Georgian chefs. A variant of the traditional nut filling is the nut-cheese filling.
Georgian rolls are a great option for a picnic. You can prepare the filling at home and take it with you outdoors, and grill the eggplant base.
Peculiarities. Georgian eggplant with nuts is a win-win snack option. The dish is prepared quickly, but an additional half hour is needed to soak the eggplant plates - so they lose their bitterness. Greens and spices can be taken to your taste, but if you want to cook an appetizer like in Georgia, then suneli hops and cilantro are a must. When serving, the appetizer can be sprinkled with pomegranate seeds.
Ingredient set:
Cooking
If the nut filling seems dryish, housewives recommend adding a little pomegranate juice to it. This is a traditional ingredient of Georgian cuisine: you don't have to be afraid to upset the harmony of taste. Spicy lovers can add chili pepper or a teaspoon of adjika to the filling.
Peculiarities. Blue with cheese in Georgian style - a quick, tasty, affordable snack. In addition to cheese, nuts are added to the filling. It is they who evoke associations with Georgia. You can make a simple cheese filling, but then it will already be a "fantasy on the theme."
Ingredient set:
Cooking
Feel free to experiment with ingredients. Try filling with feta cheese or cottage cheese. Instead of purchased mayonnaise, take homemade, replace the sauce with sour cream or low-fat yogurt. The filling will taste different every time!
There are different ways to cook Georgian eggplants. The national cuisine is famous not for rolls alone. In Georgia, stuffed eggplants are served, spicy stews are made from blue ones, and spicy snacks are prepared from fried or baked vegetables. All dishes are necessarily flavored with a traditional set of spices (hops-suneli, coriander, garlic, black pepper) and herbs (cilantro, parsley). Try to cook a Georgian dish from blue ones according to a proven recipe - guests will be pleasantly surprised by their culinary talent!
Peculiarities. Stuffed blue ones are an option for those who want to surprise guests. Traditional satsivi nut sauce is used as a filling. The dish turns out to be hearty. The appetizer is served cold.
Ingredient set:
Cooking
Try stuffing baked blue ones with nut sauce. Make longitudinal cuts in the fruit, remove some pulp with a spoon, sprinkle the vegetables with olive oil, bake at 180 ° C until soft. Another option is to bake an assortment of vegetables (blue, carrots, bell peppers), and then mix with nut sauce.
Peculiarities. Georgian-style fried eggplant with garlic is a simple appetizer, but that does not mean that it is not suitable for a festive menu. The piquant taste and stunning aroma of the dish will be remembered by the guests. The Georgian spicy eggplant recipe is easy to repeat. The appetizer is not served immediately: it must be soaked in the dressing. After cooking, send the dish to the refrigerator for two hours, but do not forget to cover the plate with blue ones with something, otherwise other foods will absorb the flavor of the snack.
Ingredient set:
Cooking
To reduce the calorie content of the dish, do not fry the eggplant slices, but bake in the oven. Sprinkle the "washers" with vegetable oil, put them on parchment and send them to the oven heated to 180 ° C. The process will take about 15 minutes.
Peculiarities. Georgian eggplants with tomatoes will conquer gourmets with their rich taste and amazing aroma. Spicy little blue ones in tomato sauce go well with meat dishes.
Ingredient set:
Cooking
If you don't know the tastes of your guests, do not make the appetizers too spicy. To please everyone, add a mild "spice" to the dish, and when serving, place chopped chili peppers next to the appetizer - for the "fire" lovers.
Peculiarities. A colorful vegetable dish with a stunning aroma that provides herbs and spices. Blue should remain the "first violin" in the stew, so watch the proportions of vegetables. Stew the stew in a large cauldron. You cannot add water: vegetables should languish in their own juice - then the taste will be rich. The dish tastes even better the next day than right after cooking, so cook a lot.
Ingredient set:
Cooking
Do you think "stew" sounds undignified? Introduce a Georgian-style dish to your guests. In Georgia, a snack prepared according to this recipe is called ajapsandali.
Georgian eggplants can be cooked in hundreds of ways. If you don't know how to surprise your households, serve the blue ones in the form of caviar, but not classical, but with Georgian notes. To prepare a dish, you need to bake the blue ones in the oven until tender, and then grind the pulp with a blender. Add crushed nuts, garlic, cilantro, spices to the eggplant puree - the caviar is ready. The traditional combination of eggplant and nuts sounds with new accords thanks to the consistency of the snack. To be mentally transported to hospitable Georgia, spread caviar on hot khachapuri.
A la focaccia with basil flatbread will serve as an excellent addition to a soup or main course as a bread. And it is also a completely independent delicious pastry, similar to pizza.
Try this wonderful vitamin salad made from raw beets with carrots and nuts. It is ideal for winter and early spring when fresh vegetables are in short supply!
Tart Taten or flip-flop is one of my favorite recipes. This is a gorgeous French pie with apples and caramel on shortcrust pastry. By the way, it looks very impressive and will successfully decorate your festive table. The ingredients are the simplest and most affordable! The pie does not contain eggs or milk, this is a lean recipe. And the taste is great!
Today we have a recipe for an unusual vegan soup - a fish soup without fish. For me, this is just a delicious dish. But many say that it really looks like an ear.
I suggest you prepare an unusual cream soup with baked pumpkin and apples. Yes, exactly the soup with apples! At first glance, this combination seems strange, but in fact it comes out very tasty. This year, I have grown portioned pumpkins of the variety ...
Cooking vegan (lean) ravioli with herbs. My daughter named this dish Travioli - there is grass in the filling :) Initially, I was inspired by the recipe for Uzbek dumplings with greens kuk chuchvara, but I decided to modify the recipe in the direction of acceleration. Making dumplings takes too long, but cutting ravioli much faster!
I propose a recipe for vegetable zucchini and cabbage cutlets with chickpea flour. This is a lean recipe and is gluten free.
Georgian eggplant with nuts is an excellent dish for eggplant lovers with a spicy taste. The combination of eggplant with nuts is surprisingly harmonious!
If you have not yet cooked such eggplants, I recommend cooking them with me in a traditional Georgian classic form. The dish is good both hot and cold. I usually serve Georgian eggplant with walnuts as a cold appetizer to the festive table.
Let's prepare all the ingredients according to the list.
It is better to take longer eggplants for this dish, but not old ones. We cut them into strips 2 mm thick. Sprinkle the eggplant with coarse salt. Leave them in salt for 10-15 minutes. During this time, the eggplants will give off their bitterness. After that, wash them under running water, dry them with paper towels to get rid of moisture.
I will cook a dietary version of the dish, I will fry the eggplants in a dry grill pan. Firstly, the eggplant turns out to be juicy, and secondly, during the frying process, a beautiful pattern is obtained on the eggplant strips, which will ultimately give the dish a beautiful appearance. Fry the eggplant on both sides for 3-4 minutes.
You can fry eggplants in vegetable oil in a frying pan, on coals, and on a wire rack.
Let's prepare the nut filling. Put walnuts, cilantro and parsley leaves, garlic cloves, suneli hops and water in a blender bowl. We punch everything in a blender until puree.
Add wine vinegar, salt and ground black pepper to the finished walnut puree.
So, let's prepare the fried eggplant and nut filling and start rolling the rolls.
Put a teaspoon of nut filling from the wide edge of the strip and gently roll the eggplant into a roll. We do this with all the eggplant strips.
Ready-made eggplants with nuts in Georgian style are served hot or let them brew in the refrigerator and serve as a cold snack.
Eggplants according to this recipe are incredibly tasty and satisfying. Bon Appetit!