"Tbilisi" salad: the recipe of preparation with a photo

Georgian cuisine for many is limited to shish kebab, satsivi and khachapuri. This gives a weak acquaintance with the subject, since the proud people have in their storehouses a lot of interesting recipes. Including snacks! Those wishing to join the Georgian culinary art are offered to prepare a salad "Tbilisi". The dish is quite easy - both in terms of calorie content and complexity of cooking. In addition, it justifies all the expectations imposed on the Caucasian recipes - a spicy salad, a little islandy and original.

Approximate recipe

The main ingredients of the Tbilisi salad require quite a bit: a glass of beans, a quarter kilogram of meat, a bulb, a small chili pepper and a large Bulgarian red. Plus a handful of walnuts. At once we will make a reservation: the color of sweet pepper does not affect the taste, it is simply traditionally considered that such a "Bulgarian" is more meaty. In addition, the salad with it looks brighter. The ratio of components, of course, can be changed depending on your preferences. And its unique taste of salad, "Tbilisi" is acquired through refueling and spices. And the tastes can be different if several components are varied.

How to take meat

Most often in Georgia they prepare a salad "Tbilisi", the recipe of which includes boiled beef. A piece should be chosen not fat, but not too dry. During cooking, it is desirable to add a variety of spices to the water, designed to make the taste of meat richer. However, if you are going to put broth in another dish, you can limit yourself to ordinary pepper-peas and laurel. Those who consider beef tough, can replace it with pork or lamb. Processing remains the same.

Salad "Tbilisi" with chicken is not less popular. Recipe, used most often, implies again its boiling. Usually the breast is taken, but other parts of the body are also quite suitable - just the salad will turn out to be slightly greasy, and more time will be spent on the preparation of the bird.

If you do not like boiled meat, you can let the "Tbilisi" salad be salted if pork or beef is taken, or smoked - if chicken is chosen.

Correct bow

Whatever meat is used in the Tbilisi salad, the recipe recommends cutting into it a red, sweetish onion. Its taste is not popular with everyone; In this case, a white salad may be substituted. In the absence and it can be used and ordinary, bulky. To get rid of the excessive bitterness and sharp odor, two options are used:

1. The chopped onion is covered with steep boiling water and immediately - very cold water. To sustain the rings in boiling water is not even five minutes: they become sluggish.
2. The rings are marinated in diluted lemon juice or diluted citric acid. The process lasts no longer than seven minutes.

The most usual way (acetic) will simply ruin the Tbilisi salad, since all the spices will be lost, and the taste of the remaining ingredients will be "beaten" with acetic note. In extreme cases, you can apply wine vinegar, but it will be too noticeable against the general background.

Beans - the most important thing

It is also important what kind of beans are included in the Tbilisi salad. First of all, we must remember: only the red variety is taken - neither white nor spotted in it "does not sound". The second remark: it is desirable to cook it yourself. If you are not too lazy to wait, soak the beans from the evening with cold water, change it to fresh in the morning and cook for at least an hour. Ready beans should be soft, but dense - no boiled beans.

However, with general employment and a constant lack of time, many use canned beans. As it turned out, she does not spoil the salad "Tbilisi" - reviews about him are still enthusiastic.

Condiments to choose from

The most important thing in any Georgian dish is spices and herbs. In the salad "Tbilisi" necessarily comes pepper (preferably ground before adding to the dish), a couple of chopped garlic lobules and chopped cilantro. Hops-sunels are desirable, but not necessary: you can replace it with a spicy set in your selection.

A few words about nuts. Already peeled from the shell and partitions they are fried - without oil, dry. The roasting degree should be medium, so that they lose excessive looseness, but not overdry. They crumble already after cooling - so it is easier to control the moment of stopping roasting.

The "Tbilisi" salad is filled with a mixture of wine vinegar and olive oil. That's why, if you decided to pickle onion in vinegar, you will need to adjust the fill, taking into account the amount that will certainly remain on the rings.

Cooking process

In other respects, all the activities are of no complicity, as preparing the Tbilisi salad is not at all more difficult than any other. In step-by-step actions, the process looks like this:

• Beans are cooked: either it is brewed or strained from the liquid in a jar;
• The meat is cooked, if a boiled component is selected, and cut into cubes;
• The onion is cut - by rings, if the heads are small, semirings or quarters, if a large specimen is caught, if necessary, scalded / marinated;
• Processed and crushed nuts;
• The Bulgarian pepper and chopped chili are cut with straws;
• Coriander and garlic are crushed;
• Refueling is being prepared;
• All components are connected, the salad "Tbilisi" is mixed (sometimes this step is skipped, then the ingredients are artistically laid out in separate piles and only then sprinkled with the fill);
• The dish is insisted for about half an hour - cold is not necessary - and served on the table.

Despite all the simplicity of the ingredients and the very process of preparation, the salad "Tbilisi" turns out delicious, rather light, beautiful and deliciously fragrant.

Additional components

Some housewives vary the salad by adding additional ingredients. The most successful, shading the "native" taste of the dish and not contradicting the very idea of Georgian cuisine, we seemed to two. Firstly, it is pomegranate seeds. They can sprinkle a salad from above, you can mix in the total weight - it turns out equally well. Secondly, cheese. But with reservations. It is better to take a tender, crumbly like cheese. Feta will be a little worse. And the ideal highlight is natural goat.