Georgian Cuisine

Georgian cuisine came to Israel with an ancient Jewish community, and it is known here far beyond family homes: bakeries sell khachapuri, restaurants serve khinkali, and walnuts, cilantro, tarragon and pomegranate are already in every market. In Israel the older name “Gruzini” (in Hebrew, “גרוזיני”) is still common, but the country’s official Hebrew name is Georgia, so this collection is called Georgian cuisine. Although the dishes are rich, the cuisine is not just dough and cheese. It has a whole table of vegetables and herbs, walnut spreads, beans, chicken and meat stews, and sourness from fruit.

The list includes two genuinely different versions of khachapuri, alongside khinkali and less familiar home-style dishes. Each recipe uses a product sold in Israel or gives an explicit substitute. When a substitute changes the flavor — for example plums instead of tkemali, or a cheese blend instead of Imeretian cheese — this is noted, not hidden.

The ten dishes and a calorie estimate

Four principles of Georgian flavor

• Walnuts are a raw material, not a garnish. They are ground into a paste with garlic, cilantro and spices in pkhali and in the eggplant. A rancid walnut will ruin a whole dish; taste before grinding.
• Sourness comes from fruit too. Tkemali is a sour plum and the sauce that bears its name. In Israel you can buy tkemali sauce in Georgian delis, or balance unripe green plum with a little lemon — a practical substitute, not an exact copy.
• Herbs go in by the handful. Cilantro, parsley, tarragon and dill are part of the structure. In chakapuli, don’t replace all the tarragon with another herb.
• Dough needs rest. In khinkali, resting allows thin rolling without tearing; in khachapuri, rising gives rims light enough to carry a lot of cheese.

Shopping in Israel and kashrut

Khachapuri is dairy; khinkali, kharcho and chakapuli are meat. They are not served at the same meal in a kosher kitchen, and butter is not used in a meat pan. The walnut dishes and lobio are pareve as long as the ingredients and utensils are suitable. Traditional recipes around the world sometimes use pork or a pork-and-beef mix; here the meat versions use beef, lamb or chicken and suit an Israeli Jewish kitchen.

About the calorie calculation

The calculations are based on the weight of the raw ingredients before cooking and on the stated number of servings. In churchkhela, the batter that actually sticks is counted, not all the batter left in the pot; in the eggplant, the absorbed oil is counted. Cheeses and meat vary between brands and cuts, so a deviation of 10%–20% is reasonable. The value for adjaruli khachapuri is for a whole individual boat — in restaurants it is often shared.