Dish · georgian
Kharcho
Kharcho is a beef soup thickened with rice and ground walnuts, soured with tomato and sharpened with garlic and cilantro into a soup that's tangy rather than mild.
Where it comes from
It's built around walnuts, common across Georgian cooking, ground into the broth as both a thickener and a source of richness in a region where dairy fat mattered less than in Russian cooking.
What cooks argue about
Cooks argue over the souring agent: tomato paste is the common modern choice, but some insist on tklapi, dried sour plum leather, arguing tomato changes the soup's character rather than just standing in for it.
Versions
Nobody has published a kharcho here yet. When somebody cooks one from a video and publishes it, their version appears in this list, with a link back to the original.
What goes in it
Each one opens everything else made with it.
beef chuck
walnuts
garlic
cilantro