Pkhali from spinach Izo Dzandzava

5 Culinary Etude 03.12.2018

I love easy and creative snacks made from vegetables, herbs and nuts. A few simple ingredients, very little preparation time, and the result is a real masterpiece. Today we will talk about pkhali. The recipe for the famous Georgian dish is very variable. And this is its special charm.

Today Irina Rybchanskaya, the host of our “tasty” column Culinary Etude, will tell us about a dish that is mysterious to many. I give her the floor.

Hello, dear readers of Irochka Zaitseva’s blog! Among the high snow-capped mountains, from which crystal clear rivers rush in turbulent streams into fertile valleys, lies beautiful Georgia.

Georgian food is worthy of a poet's lute just like its nature and people. Khachapuri, chakhokhbili, ajapsandal, kharcho, lobio. The list can be continued for a very long time. Pkhali is a dish not so well known to many. Let's look at it in more detail.

What is pkhali in Georgian cuisine

Making pkhali is very simple. The main product (a vegetable or leaves) is simmered, boiled or blanched. Then it is ground to a paste. After this, it is combined with a spicy mass, which includes nuts, cilantro, onions, garlic, spices, wine vinegar and salt.

In fact, we have more than just a recipe. This is an assortment of different dishes, united by the same cooking technology and dressing of herbs, spices, garlic and nuts.

The calorie content of Georgian pkhali is quite low. The dish can easily be classified as a wholesome, healthy food. If there are no contraindications for any products, of course.

Calorie content of pkhali

Not a single oriental feast is complete without an appetizing and aromatic dish.

What is pkhali most often prepared from?

Spinach is considered the undisputed leader in modern cuisine. In my homeland, in Sochi, people most like to use ekala and lakhan. Ekala is a wild vine. Its shoots (tops) are used for food. Lakhan - kale. It is also called “phali”.

Apologists for authentic cuisine believe that only lakhan is used to make food that can be called “phali.” We won't be so categorical. After all, there are so many delicious greens and vegetables in nature that you shouldn’t limit yourself to cabbage. Even if so exotic.

In spring, cook from chard, tops and fresh leaves of red radish, young beets, dandelion, nettles, and wild garlic.

The most popular vegetable base is beets. It is followed by green (green) and grain beans, eggplants, bell peppers, carrots, and dried pumpkin.

An interesting feature is that there can only be one base in a pkhali. It is not customary to mix, for example, spinach with anything else. It is better to cook several different types with different sets of spices.

​ With mushrooms

You will need:

• 500 g mushrooms;
• a bunch of cilantro and dill;
• bulb;
• 150 g walnut kernels;
• 1–2 cloves of garlic;
• spices to taste: red pepper, suneli hops, ginger;
• pomegranate seeds;
• salt.

Preparation:

If you add a spoonful of vegetable oil to almost finished mushrooms and lightly fry them, the taste of pkhali will acquire additional interesting shades.

Video: Assorted pkhali

Video: How to cook pkhali from spinach, young beets and beet tops?

Pkhali is a win-win option for any table. For those losing weight, it will allow them to eat tasty food without extra calories. For fasting people and vegetarians, diversify the menu without resorting to forbidden foods. Those who are in austerity mode will be pleased with the food due to the availability and cheapness of the ingredients, with the possible exception of nuts. In addition, you can be known among your friends as a real cook and connoisseur of Georgian cuisine, one of the most delicious and popular in the world. Why not try a new recipe?

How pkhali is served

Pkhali is served like this: small cutlets, balls, and quenelles are formed from the mass by hand. A small hole is made with a finger in the upper part of the structures. Ripe pomegranate seeds are placed in it. Less commonly, the paste-like mass is simply placed in a low, wide bowl and a diamond-shaped pattern is applied with a knife.

Another way to serve pkhali: spread nut dressing on a plate of baked vegetables (eggplant, pepper) and roll it up.

Pkhali is most often eaten as an independent cold appetizer - spread on bread or eaten with flatbread.

Let's start cooking. I will present to you just a few proven home recipes. This is how I cook pkhali. And my aunt, the stately crustacean Nino Rekhviashvili, taught me how to make them.

Making pkhali from frozen spinach

Spinach pkhali in Georgian style, the recipe will not take much time, but a dish that will appeal to many people. Place the pan on the fire and add a small amount of salt. Add spinach and simmer for three minutes. Place on a sieve and rinse with running water. Wait a while until the spinach has cooled completely.

Chop the greens. Finely chop the garlic. Grind the nuts in a blender. Cut the pepper in half and remove the seeds. Combine all products in a deep container. Add seasonings. Add salt if required.

Form into round balls and add a few pomegranate seeds for decoration. The result is an ideal Georgian dish pkhali, the recipe, as you can see, is quite simple.

You can serve it on the table! Bon appetit!

Far, far away, in the sunny country of Georgia, where snow-capped peaks are adjacent to green valleys, stormy rivers run down from the mountains, and nature is such that Middle-earth has never even dreamed of, an unusual cabbage grows on a high stalk with spreading dark green leaves and small yellow flowers. It would seem that cabbage is growing and growing, what a miracle! Ah, no. After all, it was this simple vegetable that became the basis for a whole phenomenon in Georgian cuisine - the juicy, fragrant and original snack pkhali. And how many recipes have been invented for it!

Pkhali is not just a dish, but a whole complex of diverse, healthy and tasty snacks

Georgian spinach pkhali - step by step recipe with photos

Classic recipe for pkhali in Georgian style. Spinach is considered by many to be “boring”, featureless and tasteless. But in the company of such bright comrades as garlic, nuts and cilantro, he turns into a fairy-tale prince.

I give the recipe with a photo and describe all the technological operations step by step.

Ingredients

• Large bunch of spinach (90 g);
• two cloves of garlic;
• 40 g walnut kernels;
• a small bunch of cilantro;
• coffee spoon utskho - suneli or chamana;
• half a coffee spoon of ground coriander;
• a coffee spoon of finely chopped hot red pepper;
• small onion;
• a coffee spoon of wine vinegar (5-6%);
• several grains of ripe pomegranate;
• salt.

How to cook

Sort the spinach and rinse. If it has tender not only leaves, but also stems, then you can use the whole raw material.

Place in boiling water. After a minute, remove and place in a sieve or colander. Cool, squeeze (without excessive force).

Dry the walnuts in a dry frying pan or in the oven. Dry it, not fry it.

Then there are several options for the development of events. The fastest way is to grind spinach, peeled onions and nuts in a meat grinder.

Slower - finely chop the onion with a sharp knife. Grind the nuts in a mortar.

Grind finely chopped garlic and cilantro, hot red pepper in a mortar with utskho-suneli, coriander, wine vinegar and salt.

Mix with spinach-nut mass or chopped spinach and crushed nuts.

Season with salt, vinegar and spices.

Form small balls. From the specified amount of products I get four small balls.

Press down the top a little and add a seed (or several seeds) of a ripe ruby ​​pomegranate.

In the photo - finished spinach pkhali.

My comments

• You can use frozen spinach for cooking.
• Utskho-suneli in Russian is called blue fenugreek, and chaman is hay fenugreek. The spices taste similar, but they are not the same.
• Special gourmets recommend rubbing dried walnuts between your palms to remove the skins.
• Add some ground black pepper if desired.
• Instead of wine vinegar, use a little pomegranate juice.
• If you grind everything in a meat grinder or blender, a large amount of moisture may be released. When shaping the pkhali, the mass will need to be squeezed out a little.

From white cabbage

To prepare you will need:

• head of cabbage;
• 30 g cilantro;
• 3-5 garlic cloves;
• 300 g nuts, walnuts;
• 90 g onions;
• 5-6 g coriander;
• 5-6 g hops-suneli;
• salt;
• 20 ml 6% wine vinegar;
• pepper, ground;
• pomegranate seeds.

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Using a sharp knife, cut the cabbage into medium-sized pieces and boil for 5 minutes. The cabbage leaves should retain a crunchy texture.
2. Drain all the water through a colander and let the cabbage cool.
3. Crank through nuts, cilantro, garlic and onion. This can be done using a meat grinder or blender.
4. Add spices, vinegar and salt. Do this to taste and in accordance with individual preferences.
5. Take a meat grinder of any design. Pass the cooled cabbage through it. Make sure that all excess water drains from it, otherwise the finished dish may turn out watery.
6. Combine everything and mix.
7. Place the pkhali mixture in the cold for two hours, after adding pomegranate seeds.
8. You can eat it spread on bread (lavash) or as an independent dish.
9. If you decide to serve as a separate dish, then before serving, neat little balls are formed from the cooled mixture, and only then decorated with pomegranate.

Bon appetit!

Beetroot pkhali - a recipe from family stashes

Pkhali made from dark burgundy, sweet beets - also very Georgian. The taste of such a snack is very familiar to us. It resembles the taste of beet salad with garlic and walnuts.

Ingredients

• One medium maroon beet;
• 12 - 15 sprigs of fresh cilantro;
• a clove of garlic;
• small onion;
• 60 - 80 g walnut kernels;
• a small piece of hot red pepper;
• a large pinch of utskho-suneli, chaman or khmeli-suneli;
• two - three prunes;
• 5 - 7 ml of wine vinegar;
• salt.

How to cook

1. Wash the beets, boil or bake in the oven, cool, cut off the peel, cut into pieces. I like baked beets better. It has a special, “caramel” taste.
2. Peel the garlic and onion.
3. Sort the cilantro, wash it, remove the roots, if any.
4. Wash the prunes and remove the seeds.
5. Dry the nuts.
6. We choose the most “lazy” cooking method. Place all ingredients in the bowl of a powerful blender. “Whack” and you're done! If a blender allows, grind in a pulsating mode and periodically check the consistency.
7. Try the prepared mass. If necessary, adjust with salt and spices.
8. One beet yields approximately 7 - 8 balls. The photo shows ready-made beetroot pkhali.

My comments

• Adding prunes to the ingredients is my initiative. In the family storerooms there was a recipe that used not prunes, but pieces of tklapi (lavash made from tkemali plums). Not everyone can get tklapi, but prunes are much easier to buy.
• The perfect twist: add a little ready-made grated horseradish and a pinch of caraway seeds to the mixture. Let the connoisseurs of Georgian cuisine scold me, but it’s incredibly tasty!

With green beans

Spinach pkhali in Georgian, a recipe with a lot of nuts can hardly be called dietary, but can be made even more satisfying if you add a protein ingredient in the form of green beans to the appetizer.

Composition of ingredients

For a healthy green vitamin dish you will need the following components:

• 250 g green beans;
• 1 large bunch of spinach;
• 3-4 cloves of garlic;
• 0.5 pods of hot green pepper;
• 50-70 g peeled walnuts;
• 1 large bunch of green onions;
• 1 small bunch of green cilantro;
• 10 g fresh parsley leaves;
• 1 tsp. salt;
• 1 tsp. ready seasoning khmeli-suneli;
• 0.5 tsp. crushed coriander seeds;
• 1 bunch of fresh dill;
• 1 tsp. olive or nut oil;
• 1 tbsp. l. sesame seeds.

Step-by-step cooking process

First you need to sort through all the greens, clean the bean pods from the tails and rinse everything in cold running water:

1. Green young beans should be boiled for 5 minutes. in salted water, then drain in a colander.

2. Cleaned spinach should be boiled for about 2-3 minutes, then poured with cold water to preserve its bright color, after which it should be dried or lightly squeezed by hand.
3. Now you need to grind the peeled walnuts with fresh herbs, chopped green beans and spinach leaves in a meat grinder 2-3 times.
4. You should also chop a pod of green hot pepper and cloves of garlic, add to the total mass along with salt and spices, thoroughly knead all the components with your hands until a homogeneous consistency.
5. Then you need to add vinegar, form small balls, sprinkle with olive, or even better, nut oil, roll each of them in chopped dill and sesame seeds.

What can I add?

You can add it to the minced meat instead of vinegar, and then sprinkle the finished balls with narsharab pomegranate sauce. Fat sour cream also goes well with beans, which will give the dish additional tenderness and a light creamy aroma.

How to serve a dish

Before serving, give the dish a little time to brew. The finished balls can be placed in a heap on a flat plate and additionally decorated with chopped walnut pieces and pomegranate seeds.

Pkhali recipe from grain beans

For cooking, grain beans of any color with a thin skin are suitable. This time I had red beans - I bought them at the nearest supermarket. The purchase turned out to be very successful. Boiled beans have an unusually tender, buttery consistency.

Ingredients

• 250 g beans;
• 60 - 80 g walnuts (without shells);
• a clove of garlic;
• 15 - 18 sprigs of fresh cilantro;
• a little red hot pepper;
• small onion;
• 5 ml lemon juice;
• utskho-suneli (chaman, khmeli-suneli);
• salt.

How to cook

1. Sort the bean grains, discard the spoiled ones, soak for 8 - 10 hours, boil until soft in boiling water.
2. Drain the water and place in a sieve or colander.
3. Finely chop the peeled onion.
4. Dry the walnut kernels and grind them in a mortar.
5. Finely chop the peeled garlic, cilantro, hot pepper. Grind in a mortar with spices, salt, lemon juice.
6. Mash the boiled beans with a fork and combine with the rest of the prepared ingredients. Season with salt and spices.

My comments

• To speed up the cooking process, you can first process nuts, garlic, spices, herbs, and onions in a blender. Then process the boiled beans separately and beat everything together again.
• Passing all the ingredients through a meat grinder twice is also an option.
• Depending on the method of grinding the ingredients, the taste of pkhali will differ slightly.
• Instead of grain beans, you can take fresh green beans. It should be boiled, squeezed a little, cooled, processed in a blender or passed through a meat grinder. Then cook according to the recipe.

Composition of the first version

Of greatest interest are the classic recipes, which are used most often in Georgia itself. In some countries, the dish undergoes changes due to the peculiarities of local cuisine. Gourmets prefer cooking according to traditional recipes that have stood the test of time. To prepare pkhali in Georgian the first way, you will need the following ingredients:

• spinach (0.5 kg);
• peeled walnuts (50 g);
• onion (1 pc);
• finely chopped coriander (0.5 teaspoon);
• garlic (3 cloves);
• a quarter of a pomegranate;
• black pepper to taste (if you don’t like spicy dishes, you don’t have to add it);
• khmeli-suneli (0.5 teaspoon);
• vinegar (preferably wine) (up to 2 tablespoons);
• a small bunch of cilantro (50 g);
• red pepper - to taste.

Pkhali - a simple vegetable dish from Georgia

Pkhali is a traditional Georgian dish that is easy to prepare. All recipes are almost identical to each other, only the main ingredients change. The basis of the dish is finely chopped vegetables and herbs, as well as walnuts and spices.

This appetizer goes great with meat and fish dishes. Its calorie content averages 130 kcal per 100 g, so it is quite light. Let's look at the recipe for pkhali at home in several versions step by step and with photos.

Spinach pkhali

Pkhali is a vegetable salad seasoned with herbs and including walnuts. The dressing itself is acidified with wine vinegar or pomegranate juice. The basis of the salad can be green beans, eggplants, cabbage, spring greens - beet tops, nettles, chard, ekala. The main ingredient in this recipe is spinach.

Garlic, onions, and various dry herbs are added to the spinach mixture.

Components:

• One onion;
• Fresh spinach – 1 kilogram;
• Walnuts – 120 g;
• Pomegranate – 50 g;
• White wine vinegar - large spoon;
• Fresh nettle – 200 g;
• Fresh parsley and cilantro – 30 g each;
• Dry coriander – 5 g;
• Garlic – three cloves;
• Suneli hops and ground red pepper - 1/2 teaspoon each;
• Salt – two pinches;
• Pomegranate seeds for decoration.

Cooking process:

1. Wash the spinach thoroughly, boil it for three minutes in slightly salted water, press the leaves with a slotted spoon, then let the water drain;
2. Wash the nettles and use only the tops and leaves. Boil the plant for 10-12 minutes;
3. Garlic and nuts must be ground;
4. Let the spinach cool and then squeeze it out with your hands;
5. Then chop it, add parsley, cilantro, onion and blend everything in a blender;
6. Add spices to the ground mass - red pepper, suneli hops, coriander, as well as wine vinegar, salt, nuts and garlic;
7. Mix the salad. Georgian spinach pkhali is almost ready;
8. Squeeze and chop the nettles. Separate a third of the resulting mass, add nettles, stir and form into balls;

Place the food on a beautiful dish and garnish with pomegranate seeds.

Eggplant pkhali

Vegetable lovers will love this aromatic lean dish. Eggplant pkhali is always prepared with a spicy dressing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3NGQGieYbY

Product composition:

• Walnuts – 100 g;
• Two eggplants;
• Pomegranate – 20 g;
• Garlic – three cloves;
• Fresh cilantro - a bunch;
• Salt – 1/2 teaspoon;
• Ground coriander - a small spoon;
• Olive oil – 20 ml.

Cooking plan:

1. We make punctures in the eggplants with a fork, lightly grease their surface with vegetable oil and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at a temperature of 190 degrees;
2. Place the baked vegetables in a deep bowl, cover with a lid, and let cool;
3. We remove the skin from them and then cut them into halves;
4. We form boats from eggplants. Take out the middle with a spoon, chop it with a knife and put it in a bowl, add salt;
5. We peel the walnuts, combine them with cilantro and garlic, then grind everything together with a blender or put it through a meat grinder;
6. Mix the eggplant core, ground coriander, olive oil and the resulting mixture from the previous step in a container, add salt and mix well;
7. Fill the boats with vegetable dressing and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds. The food is served warm.

This snack is not only tasty, but also healthy. Vegetarians will especially like it.

Recipe with green (asparagus) beans

This is an easy-to-prepare and very popular pate-snack from Georgian cuisine, which is prepared from vegetables and seasoned with aromatic herbs and spices. Thanks to the green color of the beans, the dish turns out to have a pleasant pistachio hue.

You will need:

• Walnuts – 0.5 cups;
• Cilantro - a bunch;
• Green beans – 300 g (frozen or fresh);
• Garlic – 3 cloves (to your taste);
• Small head of onion;
• Salt - to taste;
• Hot ground red pepper - a pinch;
• Wine vinegar - large spoon;
• Khmeli-suneli - a small spoon.

Step-by-step recipe for bean pkhali:

1. Boil the bean pods for 10 minutes, adding salt to the water. Then put them in a container with very cold water for five minutes;
2. Squeeze the cooled product and grind it using a meat grinder or use a blender;
3. Grind the nuts in a blender and add to the bean mixture;
4. Add very finely chopped cilantro and onion to the same mass;
5. Add vinegar, chopped garlic and all the spices, stir until smooth;
6. Make balls or cutlets from the resulting mixture. Place in the refrigerator for an hour. Serve to the table, garnish with herbs and pomegranate seeds.

Beetroot recipe

This is the most famous traditional snack in the vastness of sunny Georgia. The dish has an original pink color thanks to beets.

Ingredients:

• One onion;
• Half a small cabbage fork;
• Walnuts – 150 g;
• Garlic – 2-3 cloves;
• Two small beets;
• A bunch of cilantro.

Prepare Georgian pkhali from beets:

1. Wash and boil the beets and cabbage until tender;
2. Place the nuts in the oven for 10 minutes to dry them a little;
3. Grind the cabbage, beets and nuts thoroughly through a meat grinder. Make sure that the components are finely ground until smooth;
4. Peel the onion, rinse under running water and cut into small cubes;
5. Wash the cilantro, dry it and chop it with a knife;
6. Crush the garlic with the back of a knife and chop finely;
7. Take a deep container and mix all the ingredients in it until smooth;
8. Now let's form small balls and place them carefully on a dish, decorate with walnut kernels on top.

Georgian beet pkhali turns out to be colorful not only in its taste, but also in appearance.

Georgian beet tops

This wonderful dish includes a set of the simplest ingredients, but is not only original, but also healthy.

Compound:

• Parsley and cilantro - a bunch each;
• Beet tops with stems – kilogram;
• Garlic – two cloves;
• Peeled walnuts – 200 g;
• One onion;
• Red pepper, utskho-suneli, dried cilantro - a small spoon each;
• Salt - to taste;
• A large spoon of vinegar.

Cooking instructions yourself:

1. We wash the beet tops well, separate the branches and leaves;
2. Place the branches in boiling water and boil for three minutes, then add the leaves;
3. Boil everything together for three minutes, drain in a colander;
4. Excess liquid should drain. When the tops have cooled, squeeze them out with your hands and grind them using a meat grinder;
5. Peel the greens and onions, rinse and finely chop;
6. Grind the garlic in a mortar or put it through a garlic press;
7. Grind the nuts in a meat grinder;
8. Combine all the ingredients, add salt to taste, spices, pour in vinegar and stir thoroughly;

Pkhali from the tops is served as a salad or made into balls or flat cutlets immediately after cooking.

: Spinach pkhali recipe

Source: https://gotovite.ru/mirovaya-kuxnya/pxali-prostoe-ovoshhnoe-kushane-iz-gruzii.html