Recipe for a delicious spicy beef soup with tkemali and walnuts. Kharcho soup is a traditional dish of Georgian cuisine. This soup is much thicker than the soups we are used to. Kharcho soup has a sour base - I use tkemali, sometimes fresh chopped sour plums or tkalpi ("sour lavash") - which is dried pulp of tkemali or cornelian cherry. The fruit puree is dried in the form of large flat cakes - lavash. Then pieces are broken off, soaked if necessary, and added to kharcho or other dishes. If none of the mentioned ingredients are available, you can use tomato paste (but the taste of the soup will be different). The soup is made only with beef (preferably on the bone) and, of course, walnuts.
Beef
2.2 lbs (on the bone)
Garlic
1 head
Carrots
1 pc
Onion
4 pcs
Rice
1 cup
Dill
1 bunch
Cilantro
1 bunch
Tkemali
1 cup
Tomato paste
1 tbsp
Khmeli Suneli
1 tsp
Coriander
1 tsp (ground)
Hot Pepper
0.5 tsp
Salt
to taste
Walnuts
1 cup
To prepare kharcho soup, it will take some time. Put the meat in a pot, cover with 3 quarts of water, and simmer for 1.5-2 hours. Then remove the meat from the broth, take out all the bones, and cut into pieces. Return the meat to the boiling broth.
Dice the carrots. Slice the onion thinly lengthwise (this will preserve the onion fibers, and it will not overcook).
Add tkemali and tomato paste to the boiling broth. After five minutes, add the diced carrots. Ten minutes later, add the onion and simmer covered over low heat for 30 minutes.
While the broth is cooking, prepare the walnut dressing for the kharcho soup. Lightly toast the walnuts in a dry skillet. Then crush them in a mortar until smooth. Add minced garlic (pressed through a garlic press) and mix everything.
If you don't have a mortar and pestle, you can use a blender.
Return to the broth and add the rice.
After 10 minutes, add the walnut-garlic dressing. Cook the soup for another 15 minutes, then add spices and salt to taste. Simmer for another 5 minutes, add herbs, and let it boil for another two minutes.
Kharcho soup is ready! Let it sit for a while before serving. Freshly baked lavash bread goes great with kharcho soup.